These Greek muffins with Kalamata Olives and Greek Cheese are easy to make and wonderful as a snack to to accompany any meal instead of bread.
Keep a stash for snacking, pop them in lunch boxes or serve a basket of these with dinner!
The reason I made these muffins apart that they immediately draw my attention because of the Greek ingredients used, was to participate in an event called Tried and Tasted.
The aim of this event was to showcase one blog, every month, allowing fellow food bloggers to thoroughly explore the featured blog and choose one or more recipes to “try and taste” in their own kitchens.
Aparna, of My Diverse Kitchen is this month’s host of this event and the featured blog is Lisa’s Vegeterian Kitchen. How can I not participate in an event when both host and featured blog are both dear friends?
I have been following Lisa’s blog for a long time now and it was really difficult for me just to choose only one recipe.
I already had some bookmarked recipes but the one I have chosen to make was with ingredients I already had at home: Kalamata Olive and Feta Cheese Muffins.
You know me by now that I never stick to recipes but nonetheless, although I did some changes, I believe that the end result is not much different than Lisa’s recipe.
How I made these Greek Muffins
To start with I used self raising flour, so I left out the baking powder and the baking soda.
I did not add the sun dried tomatoes as I thought I had some at home but as I had them for quite a long time, I preferred not to use them.
My daughter doesn’t like olives, so I increased the dose to make some without the olives.
Apart from feta, I also used some xynomyzithra as well, which is another Greek cheese, so I skipped the cheddar and parmesan.
If you can’t find xinomyzithra, you can add some ricotta and substitute the milk with Greek yoghurt and lemon juice. In a 200 grams container of yoghurt, add 2 – 3 tablespoons of lemon juice and mix.
Of course if you don’t want to add the ricotta add only feta but don’t add the salt as feta and olives contain enough salt.
Apart from the milk, I had some leftover light cream which I used as well (you can use only milk if you prefer) and instead of using an onion, I had some spring onions which I used.
Finally I used more fresh herbs from my garden.
The muffins were perfect. I made them yesterday around noon. For lunch we had some schnitzel with baked potatoes and a salad, so we had a couple of these together with lunch and as I never eat a cooked meal for dinner, I had a couple of these in the evening, with a cup of milk.
They are perfect for breakfast or brunch or as a snack and although I made 24 there are not many left.
I certainly will make these again but next time I’ll make sure that I have some sun dried tomatoes to use.
Muffins with Greek Cheeses and Greek Yoghurt
Update, April 2021
These Greek Cheese Muffins will disappear in no time! You can make them in no time and are delicious as all the cheese disappear in the batter making them buttery and golden crispy on and fluffy and moist inside.
As I said above, if you can’t find xinomyzithra, you can add some ricotta and substitute the milk with Greek yoghurt and lemon juice.
Years later, I decided to make these muffins again. Due to the pandemic and after my husband died in November 2020, I now live in Athens,
I haven’t been vaccinated yet so I do all my shopping online. I don’t have a garden so I didn’t have any fresh herbs and as these were not planned ahead, I had no self raising flour, no xinomyithra or olives.
I made a few changes to the original recipe, using three kinds of Greek cheeses, Greek yoghurt, all purpose flour and dried herbs.
However, these turned out even better than the original ones. You just can’t stop by eating only one!
Muffins with Greek Cheeses and Greek Yoghurt
These Greek Cheese Muffins will disappear in no time! You can make them in no time and are delicious as all the cheese disappear in the batter making them buttery and golden crispy on and fluffy and moist inside.
Ingredients
- 60 grams feta, crumbled
- 250 grams anthotyro*
- 50 grams graviera cheese*
Wet ingredients:
- 4 medium eggs
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 cup milk
- 200 grams Greek Yoghurt 2%
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
Dry ingredients:
- 450 grams all-purpose flour
- 10 grams baking powder
- 5 grams baking soda
- ½ tsp sweet paprika
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried thyme
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180o C.
- Crumble feta and anthotyro and mix in the graviera.
- Whisk the eggs together with the Greek yoghurt, lemon juice, milk and olive oil.
- Mix in the cheese mixture as well as the spices.
- Finally add the flour and mix with a spatula until incorporated
- Line your muffin tins with muffin cases or brush them with olive oil.
- Add a heaped spoonful of batter to fill about ¾ of the muffin cases.
- Bake for about 20 - 25 minutes until golden brown on top.
Notes
- You can substitute with anthotyro with ricotta.
- You can substitute Graviera with Gruyere or halloumi.
Nutrition Information
Yield 17 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 177Total Fat 7gSaturated Fat 2gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 4gCholesterol 46mgSodium 226mgCarbohydrates 23gFiber 1gSugar 1gProtein 6g
"These values are automatically calculated and offered for guidance only. Their accuracy is not guaranteed."
Greek Muffins with Kalamata Olives and Greek Cheese
These Greek muffins with Kalamata Olives and Greek Cheese are easy to make and wonderful as a snack to to accompany any meal instead of bread.
Ingredients
- 460 grams self raising flour
- 4 medium eggs
- ½ tsp coarse sea salt
- ½ tsp sweet paprika
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 cup Kalamata olives, cut into small pieces
- ½ cup feta, crumbled
- ¼ cup xinomyzithra
- 2 spring onion, finely chopped (white part only)
- 2 tbsp fresh oregano, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp fresh thyme, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1½ cups milk
- ½ cup light cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180o C.
- Crumble both cheeses and add the spices, salt and herbs and mix.
- Whisk the eggs together with the milk, fresh cream and olive oil.
- Mix in the cheese mixture and the flour (At this stage I made
half of them without olives and to the remaining batter I mixed in the olives). - Brush the muffin tins with olive oil and add about a spoonful of batter to fill about ¾ of the muffin tins.
- Bake for about 20 - 25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Notes
If you can't find xinomyzithra, you can add some ricotta and substitute the milk with Greek yoghurt and lemon juice. In a 200 grams container of yoghurt, add 2 - 3 tablespoons of lemon juice and mix.
Nutrition Information
Yield 24 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 137Total Fat 6gSaturated Fat 2gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 4gCholesterol 34mgSodium 363mgCarbohydrates 16gFiber 1gSugar 0gProtein 4g
"These values are automatically calculated and offered for guidance only. Their accuracy is not guaranteed."
Kopiaste and Kali Orexi!
Aparna
Saturday 2nd of May 2009
These muffins must have been really soft. They look so good and I love that they're savoury. Thanks Ivy, for participating in T&T.
Aparna's last blog post..Say Cheeeeeeesecake, Please…. - Chocolate And Vanilla Zebra-Stripe Cheesecake and Cardamom Flavoured Rose Cheesecake Bars (both eggless): Cheesecake Daring Bakers Challenge - April 2009
Giff
Friday 1st of May 2009
sounds delicious Ivy. I love muffins, olives, and feta, so surely would love them together.
Angie's Recipes
Thursday 30th of April 2009
What a beautiful savory muffin! Love that nice muffin crown.
Lubna Karim
Thursday 30th of April 2009
Wow looks soft and yum....Nice choice...
Maria
Thursday 30th of April 2009
Perfect savory muffins -- I'm a big fan of such muffins especially when I can make them in a mini muffin pan and guests can easily pick one up and eat it with almost a single bite! The xynomyzithra and all the herbs sound divine in this!
Maria's last blog post..Pasxa/Easter 2009