These Cheese Muffins will disappear in seconds! Quick and easy, sinfully more-ish, these savoury muffins are buttery and garlicky with golden crusty tops and fluffy moist insides.
Keep a stash for snacking, pop them in lunch boxes or serve a basket of these with dinner!
Cheese Muffins – a great savoury muffin recipe!
So basically, these muffins are every cheese-lovin’-Carb-Monsters’ dream come true.
Inhale deeply, and you’ll get a waft of buttery garlicky goodness mingling with that unmistakable smell of melting cheese.
Look closely, and you’ll feel the warmth radiating from these muffins, fresh out of the oven.
That top one’s got your name written all over it. Go on. I saved it for you!
OK, technology hasn’t advanced quite far enough yet that I can deliver you fresh-out-of-the-oven Cheese Muffins through a screen.
But luckily, just 10 minutes of effort is all that stands between you and and a fresh batch of these!
Add-in options for these savoury muffins
These Cheese Muffins are absolutely terrific as is, and it’s how I make them most of the time.
Having said that though, it’s a sensational base for all sorts of add ins. Imagine the possibilities! I’ve used sun dried tomatoes, olives and feta in the photo below. Try mushrooms, spinach, zucchini (grated and excess liquid squeezed out), BACON, ham, chorizo, even cooked chicken. You could really turn these savoury muffins into a mini meal!
I’ve added some more suggestions in the recipe notes – basically, just add 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups of whatever add ins you want.
Give me any combination of cheese, garlic, butter and bread, and it’s all over. It’s almost worrying that I have not one, but FIVE versions of garlic bread in various forms on this blog:
Garlic Bread. (Skip the artisan bread. Gotta use cheap French stick!)
Cheese and Garlic Crack bread (there are no words…)
Cheese, Herb and Garlic Quick Bread (loaf form, no yeast)
These Cheese Muffins.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to grab one of these Cheese Muffins while they’re still warm. One of the most torturous photo shoots I’ve done in a while! – Nagi x
MORE SAVOURY MUFFIN RECIPES
Bacon and Egg Breakfast Muffins – with a whole egg inside!
Cornbread Muffins – personal favourite!
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
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Savoury Cheese Muffins
Ingredients
Butter and Cheese:
- 3 tbsp / 50g salted butter (unsalted + salt)
- 2 garlic cloves , crushed
- 2 cups / 200g grated cheddar cheese (Note 1)
Dry Ingredients
- 2 cups / 300g plain flour (all purpose flour)
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda / bi-carb soda (Note 2)
- 1/2 tsp salt
Wet Ingredients
- 1 egg (large, about 60g / 2 oz) , lightly whisked
- 1 cup milk (full or low fat)
- 1/4 cup / 60 g sour cream (or plain yoghurt)
- 1/3 cup / 85 ml vegetable oil (or any plain oils, not olive oil)
- 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley (Note 3)
- 1 garlic clove , crushed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F (standard) or 160C/320F (fan).
- Place butter and garlic in a microwave proof bowl and melt in 30 second bursts. Mix.
- Brush a 12 hole standard muffin tin generously with butter, being sure to slather with some garlic. Reserve some butter to brush tops.
- Whisk Dry ingredients in a bowl.
- Whisk Wet ingredients in a separate bowl.
- Pour Wet into the Dry ingredients bowl. Mix 8 times. Add cheese, mix as few times as possible just to incorporate remaining bits of flour – no more than 7 big stirs (secret to soft muffs).
- Divide between 11 holes in muffin in (I use an ice cream scooper). Batter should be thick and fill muffin tin to top (if in ball shape due to scooper, leave as is). See video.
- Bake for 22 – 25 minutes or until the muffins are golden and crusty and spring back when touched in the centre.
- Remove onto cooling rack, brush with remaining butter (microwave again if needed) and cool slightly before getting stuck into them!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
LIFE OF DOZER
He’s home! The first thing I thought when I saw his shaved leg was “Yessss!!!! 25% less fur droppage all over the house!” 😂
In all seriousness though, he is doing just fine. Zonked out for most of the day.
I am loving that harness he got sent home with. And so is Dozer – just that little bit of help to get him on his feet and hobble outside to the toilet. That’s the most action he’s going to get for a while!!
Absolutely superb! I have been baking for six decades-best cheese muffins ever! I added Canadian bacon and red pepper, used cheddar and Manchego cheese! Three generations scoffed them down.
Woah they sound amazing Judy!!
I can’t wait to make these tmw! If I don’t have sour cream handy, can I subsitute it with something else?
Thanks,
Elaine
Hi Elaine, natural/Greek yogurt will work as a substitute ☺️
These were delicious! I made them in the morning and was worried that they wouldn’t be as nice by the afternoon but they reheated beautifully!
I’m so glad you love them Nicole!
Made these Muffins to go with Chilli, they were easy to make & came out light and fluffy, next time would add more cheese and herbs – really good but needed a little something extra
Hi Barbara, you can never have enough cheese! N x
Has anyone tried making this in a loaf pan?
Hi Nagi
I’ve just made your muffins and cooked them for at least 35 minutes. 160 fan. They’re not cooked yet. I did use muffin cases, would this be what went wrong. Flavour is delicious though
Hi Nagi. Tried them today as planned. They were amazing. So easy and so tasty. I am using them as an entree for a special meal I’m making tomorrow.
Hi Nagi,
Did you say that Australia was imperial measurements? I thought they were metric?
🙃 DUH 🙂 Thanks Erica! N x PS Fixed, yes we are metric along with most of the rest of the world, it is mainly the US and CAN who are the outliers! 😂
Thanks, Nagi. I’ve never really paid attention to what we were. To me a cup was a cup – I didn’t think it made a difference. But someone just recently told me that with baking you actually are meant to be quite precise. And I thought the person telling me said we were metric. But then I saw you’d written imperial and I just wanted to double check. I want to try these muffins tomorrow. They look SO good. 🙂
Hi Nagi,
Did you say that Australia is imperial measurements? I thought they were metric?
the method was really simple and easy to do with the things we had in the kitchen an Das soon as me an dry boys took our first bite it was. a bodacious flavour in our face.
Glad you enjoyed this one Bec!! N x
Man oh man these are incredible. I subbed out half the flour for almond meal (so had 1 cup flour, 1 cup almond meal) to try and lower the carb content a bit, and they were still a-mazing. I’m addicted. I might even push my luck next time to 1.5 cups almond meal with 0.5 cups flour and see how I get on!
Thanks for sharing so many delicious recipes!
Oh my goodness ,I made these with a gluten free flour blend and added a little extra baking powder and baking soda, delicious, thanks for the recipe definitely will make again
That’s SO GREAT to hear Gail! I’m so glad you enjoyed this, thank you for letting me know! N xx
Just wondering if you changed this recipe. I’ve made it before and I thought that you filled the muffin cup half full, drizzled some melted garlic butter over, had the option to put some mozzarella cheese in and then topped with more batter and drizzled more garlic butter over top. This recipe is still very good it’s just different than I remember it.
Hi Joan! I did, I thought it was an improvement!!!
Love love your recipes and my fav is the furry Dozer extra at the end!! I’ve had Golden’s all my life and would have 10 if my spouse would let me !
Hello there, would you know if we could sub the plain flour for say almond flour or oat fiber to make it low carb? Anything that I have to change along with it? Thanks a ton!
Waited about 5 minutes before removing from pan, as I do with all muffins, and they would not come out. Had to cut around the edges with a sharp knife and scoop out with a large spoon…not pretty looking, but good. Should they be turned out of the pan immediately after removing from oven?
Hi Carol! The muffin tin is so well buttered they should turn out easily, how strange! I’m sorry to hear that Carol!
Hi Nagi! Just wondering about your advice not to use olive oil. Would light olive oil be ok? I can’t use peanut oil if I want to send these in a lunchbox and I’m a bit sus about other veg oils. Thanks!
Light olive oil is fine! I only say that because extra virgin can be very strong in flavour and overwhelm this 🙂 N x
I cannot eat garlic, do you think I could use garlic-infused oil somehow??
Hi Nagi,
From Northern California, where mother nature can’d decide if it’s winter or spring, I wanted to make these muffins as part of a warming dinner. But I’ve been gleaning and purging my kitchenware for an upcoming relocation across the country back home to Florida. Gone was the 12 portion baking tin. Make-do is a big fave for me, so I just picked up an inexpensive pair of 6 portion trays at a local dollar store. NOT a good choice. I studied your recipe carefully, measured everything just right and added diced scallions, bacon bits, sweet basil, and rosemary. Had exactly the 11 portion dough so into the oven they went. 25 minutes later, gorgeous results: fluffy, puffy domes, golden brown and fragrant. Perfect! Not quite. As soon as I tried to remove them from the tins, they stuck, glued snugly to the bottoms and sides!! I’d inadvertently used corrugated-side aluminum tins and forgot to use baking paper liners. Annoyed doesn’t describe my mood just at that moment. But, using a spoon, fork and a few minutes to cool I still had my muffins. Your presentation is lovely, but I can live with less-than-perfect just once, so I served them anyway. Soooo good, I’m happy not to have wasted the ingredients and time. Next time, I’ll use the right equipment! But now I have a definite keeper for future efforts and adventures in baking. I hope Dozer is mending well. Very impressed with his post-op harness, but I hope he doesn’t have it for long. I’m grateful for the wonderful recipes. I’m retired from medicine, but an absolute novice cook! This was a learning curve for sure! 🙂
I made these with Mozzarella and dry thyme/basil because I didn’t have anything else at home, and they still came out AMAZING. Your recipes are really top notch!!