Smoked Ham and Leek Muffins

When you love baking like I do, you sometimes get a craving to bake. You don't know what, but you know you want to bake, and you don't feel completely satisfied before you do. You start looking through your recipe books to find the recipe that screams out to you "MAKE ME!". When you find that one recipe, everything just looks great. The picture in the book looks really tempting and delicious, the recipe seems easy enough, and when you make whatever your heart set on, a feeling of fulfillment fills you. That is how much of an experience a baking session can be. It almost feels religious.

This time, for me, that recipe was found in my Cupcakes & Muffins book that I got for the anniversary with my other half. It was so many tempting recipes in it, and when I got to the savoury section, I knew that was what I wanted to make: Savoury muffins. These looked delicious on the picture, so it was straight to the shop to get the missing bits!

Ingredients:
50 g butter
1tbsp oil
1 leek, thinly sliced
150 g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 egg
150 ml natural yogurt
75 g smoked ham, chopped
A few drops Tabasco sauce

1. Preheat the oven to 200 °C, and prepare a deep 6-hole muffin tray.
2. Melt the butter and leave to cool.
3. In a pan, heat the oil and add the sliced leek. Fry till the leek is softened, and then put aside to cool.
4. Sift flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl.
5. In another bowl, whisk the egg and the yogurt and pour into the dry ingredients along with the melted butter.
6. Whisk the batter together until it's combined. Then stir in leek, ham and a dash of Tabasco.
7. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin tray. The mixture makes 6 big muffins.
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the muffins are risen and golden.

Serve cold or warm, with a soup or salad or on its own.
Makes a delicious breakfast or small lunch.