Pimento Cheese Muffins
A quick muffin batter stuffed full of a traditional pimento cheese mixture. The results are some amazing savory muffins!
Pimento Cheese Muffins
Jump to RecipeSince I did a post earlier this week that kind of dissed pimentos by replacing them in olives, I thought I’d give pimentos a chance for a rebuttal.
And rebut they did! This recipe was actually inspired by the most recent Bon Appétit which incorporated pimento cheese into a baked macaroni dish. I made that and loved it, but decided to take it one step further by adding the same flavors to a savory muffin.
The results were everything you could hope for in a savory muffin!
Pimento Cheese Muffins
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 Cups all-purpose flour
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 3 Teaspoons baking powder
- 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- 1 large egg
- 1 Cup milk
- 4 ounces extra sharp cheddar shredded
- ½ Cup Peppadew Peppers diced (about 10 peppers)
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Mix together shredded cheese and diced peppadew peppers until well combined.
- Mix dry ingredients for muffins together in a medium bowl.
- Mix wet ingredients (egg, butter, milk) in a smaller bowl.
- Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients until combined.
- Stir in Pimento cheese mixture.
- Spoon batter into 12 buttered baking tins.
- Bake at 350 °F for roughly 25 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.
- Let muffins cool for a few minutes before serving.
Nutrition
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Pimento Cheese
Pimento cheese is a traditional southern spread that’s basically just cheddar cheese and Peppadew peppers blended together. Depending on the consistency you’re going for, you could mix in some mayo or sour cream as well.
But these are the essentials for a good pimento cheese. Extra sharp cheddar is really important actually. Don’t use a mild variety.
If you wanted to make this into a spreadable thing (which it is traditionally) then you’d want to process the cheese and peppers together until they are smooth. The moisture from the peppers will soften up the cheese and make it nice and spreadable.
For our purposes though, a bit more rustic mix works better. So I just grated up my cheese and diced my peppers and mixed them together like that.
Making the batter
This muffin batter is my standard muffin mix. Basically, just combine your milk, melted butter, and eggs in a small bowl. In a separate, larger bowl, mix together your dry ingredients.
Then just stir your wet ingredients into your dry mix.
Once that’s all stirred together, gently stir in your pimento cheese mixture.
Easy enough right?!
Baking the muffins
The only key to remember for the baking is to make sure you butter your individual muffin cups. If you don’t butter them well, the pimento cheese might stick to the tin a bit. So just get a paper towel and some soft butter and rub a light coating in each cup.
As far as filling goes, you can fill these pretty high. They don’t rise a lot due to the weight of the pimento cheese.
Bake these at 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes. When they’re done, remove them from the tin and let them cool on a wire rack for a few minutes.
If you don’t have a wire rack you can just cool them on a plate.
These are best when they’re still a little warm, but I had one the next day and it was still pretty solid.
The pimentos are a tiny bit spicy, but also surprisingly sweet. The extra sharp cheddar just gives a nice savory flavor to the muffin.
These were pretty killer muffins in my book and definitely something that you don’t see everyday!
If you’re sick of your standard blueberry or bran muffin, give these guys a shot for a new twist.
These rock, Nick! But I've always been a pimento lover, not a disser ;)
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yummy
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I can't wait to try this! They look amazing! This may be the first thing I cook once I get back into the kitchen since having my baby. I hope she loves pimento cheese as much as my husband and I do. We make our own pimento cheese occasionally and it's out of this world! We were in Asheville, NC back in November and had an appetizer at a restaurant that had pimento cheese melted over a couple of what tasted like cornbread stuffing muffins. Oh I was in heaven! Pimento cheese over scrambled eggs: also a win!
I saw this a few weeks ago and it makes me proud to call Raleigh my home: http://obsbite.blogspot.com/2011/02/cheese-quiz-w…
I love your blog. I get a lot of blogs via email, but I like yours, Framed, Nibble Me This, and one other one the most. BUT I hava a ?. Why is it that when one blogger posts something like (recently) Cast Iron Pizza, every freaking post for the next week about cast iron pizza?! EVERY dam thing last fall was butternut something. Now you can't escape Nutella; for cripessakes. Nutella has been around FOREVER|!!!!!!!!!! I have unsubscribed to many blogs I used to like because they all post the same damn stuff. Thanks for listeninig. LOL
Haha. Yea… the blog community gets on kicks sometimes. It can't be helped ;)
These look really good! It's interesting to have the heat from the peppers in there against the smooth sharp cheese. Sounds delicious!
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What a fantastic idea! I definitely could see enjoying these with some chili or spicy pulled pork.
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Just yum! Pimento cheese isn't too popular this far north, does it need to be peppadew peppers to be pimento cheese, or are other types of pepper okay?
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Either would work just fine I think!
Pimentos are made from the super-sweet cherry pepper, the same pepper that's harvested for paprika. I suspect a 4-oz. jar of pimentos, drained, would work perfectly. I'm certainly going to give it a try, because the recipe sounds great, and I have jar of Mario pimentos in the cupboard. : ) (Don't discard the juice, use it in a Bloody Mary.)
I've got these in the oven now. I found a hunk of aged cheddar with peppadews in it! Cut down on the extra chopping I guess! :D Mine rose a TON though….. hopefully they're still delicious!
I have a bed and breakfast in Cajun Country Louisiana. I've made this and served them with my shrimp eggs and boudan. Great reviews! Pimentos-I made them myself-easy. E-mail me for receipe…until…sauce on!
Awesome! I love that there's a bed and breakfast out there rocking Macheesmo recipes. ;)
Great work! That is the type of information that are meant to be shared across the internet. Shame on the search engines for now not positioning this submit higher! Come on over and talk over with my website . Thanks =)
Oh my! Once again you’re making my Southern inner child VERY happy. Pimento Cheese (or as we say “pamenna cheese”) has been a long-loved family favorite. It’s even been a source of battle between my grandmother and mother (who makes the best). I think this receipt will allow me to one-up the both of them:)