Mindy Carlson

The holidays are here and with it comes holiday parties! Whether it is a holiday open house or a fancy party you need to have food. Lots of it.

When I entertain I like to have hors d’oeuvres and little bits and bites for people to munch on. One of my go-to entertaining dishes is the classic cheese platter. But one can only have so many cheese platters laying around for guests to eat. I searched the internet and found a great idea – goat cheese and green onion muffins.

They are a savory treat with all the light and fluffiness of a muffin and with a sharp bite of onion and a surprising hint of sweetness from the goat cheese. They are a perfect accompaniment to any entertaining menu. I even put them in the kids’ lunch boxes when I need to get out of the sandwich and cut veg rut!

Goat Cheese and Green Onion Muffins

• 1 cup whole milk (I have used 2%, but the fat content of the whole milk is preferred)
• 4 ounces soft goat cheese
• 1 & 1/2 cups flour
• 1 T baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 & 1/2 T unsalted butter
• 1 egg
• 1 bunch of green onions, diced.

Preheat the oven to 400F. Grease a mini-muffin pan with cooking spray or butter. (This recipe makes 24 generously sized mini-muffins.)

In a small bowl, whip together 2 T of the milk with the goat cheese until it is fluffy. Set aside.  In a medium sized bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a small bowl or measuring cup melt the butter in the microwave. Use 20-second intervals until the butter is melted. Then, in a 2 cup measuring cup measure out the milk and add the egg. Beat them together until the egg is pretty well mixed. Add the butter and pour the butter mixture into the bowl with the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Fold in the green onions.

This will be a thicker batter than a typical muffin mix. I used two soup spoons to spoon them into the muffin cups. If you double the recipe you might want to use a piping bag to make this process go a little more quickly.

Once you have the batter in the muffin tins, spoon small dollops (about 1/2 -3/4 tsp sized) of the goat cheese mixture on top of the muffin batter. With your impeccably clean finger, press the goat cheese into the muffin batter a little bit. If you don’t, it will melt and slide off the muffin as it cooks and you will be left with goat-less muffins, burned cheese, and shattered dreams.

Bake them for 10 – 15 minutes or until the edges look golden brown. The goat cheese may brown as well. Let sit on the counter for 2 minutes or so before carefully taking them out of the pan and setting on a cooling rack. This time will let the cheese cool enough so you don’t get burnt.

They are best at room temperature. Put them on your favorite holiday platter and enjoy with your favorite wine, cocktail, or holiday drink. They are ideal on a platter with my French Gougeres. Store leftovers (if there are any) in the refrigerator in a tightly sealed container.