Cheesy Scallion Muffins with Goat Cheese | A Savory-Quick Bread
Savory, cheesy, and ready in under 30 minutes. These muffins were inspired by a pão de queijo (Brazilian cheese bread) I had at a coffee shop while in Barcelona!
Cheesy scallion muffins with gooey goat cheese pressed into the tops. Golden-brown and fresh out the oven.
I just got back from Valencia, Spain and I’ve been thinking nonstop about a warm salad I had with my paella at a traditional arrocería restaurant called Flor de Valencia. It had goat cheese, walnuts, cherry tomatoes, croutons, honey vinaigrette, and red berries. Maybe I was just hungry but something about that warm, gooey goat cheese just stuck with me. I recreated the warm salad and had some goat cheese leftover.
I honestly wasn't planning to do a full baking routine but I warmed up some frozen pão de queijo from Trader Joe’s and I just wanted more cheesy goodness. So I opened the fridge, took stock of what I had and figured something out! The only liquid I had that wasn’t water was oat milk, which turned out to be a better swap than I expected! The goat cheese on top was a last-minute decision since I saw I still had some left over from the salad.
These are savory, a little tangy, and totally satisfying in the way that bread always is when you make it yourself.
Pro tip: Stir a teaspoon of white vinegar or lemon juice into your oat milk and let it sit for a minute before using to simulate a buttermilk effect. In my opinion, it added a little lift and a subtle tang making the muffin taste much more interesting.
Recipe
Directions
Preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C). Grease your muffin pan well or line with cupcake liners.
Stir the vinegar or lemon juice into the oat milk and let it sit for 1 minute. I read that doing this might curdle the milk, but I’m guessing it depends on which oat milk you use, since mine didn’t curdle.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and black pepper. Switching to a spoon, fold in ¾ of the shredded cheese and most of the green onions (reserve a little of each for the tops)
In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, oat ‘buttermilk’ mixture, and melted butter until combined.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and fold together until just combined. A few lumps are fine! If you overmix, it could make the bread more dense.
Fill each muffin cup about ¾ of the way full. Scatter the rest of your shredded cheese and green onions over each muffin top. Then press a small chunk of goat cheese into the center of each one.
Bake for 18-20 minutes, watching closely for golden-brown tops, until you can stick a toothpick (or in my case, a chopstick) in the center and it comes out clean. If you added goat cheese, it should be gooey and slightly caramelized at the edges.
Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Eat warm!
Note: I didn’t have white vinegar so I used Datu Puti vinegar (IYKYK 😏🇵🇭). I also only had salted butter on hand and since I was using pre-shredded cheese, I probably ended up using a smidge less than 1 tsp salt. Of course, you can always slather on some more butter on top if you’d like.
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
2 eggs
¾ cup oat milk
1 tsp white vinegar or lemon juice
¼ cup butter, melted
1 cup shredded cheese*
4 green onions, thinly sliced
2 oz goat cheese (optional, for topping)*
*Make it dairy-free: Swap the shredded cheese for a vegan cheddar shreds and use a dairy-free goat cheese or plain vegan cream cheese for the tops.