Tomato Basil Muffins

I was thinking an Italian tomato-ey basil muffin would be good for weekend breakfast so I scrounged around, pulled this element from this recipe and that element from that recipe and came up with my own. Like usual.

There being eight of us here, buying enough cereal can get expensive, and unless we have raw cows milk, its not worth it anyway. So for years we have been making our own breakfast foods. On Mondays I fix a few batches of granola bars (a recipe I will share soon) and on Thursdays I fix something that we can eat on Friday morning and the remainders on the rest of the weekend. On Saturday I prepare a breakfast just for but I haven't been too fond of it lately, soooo.... I'm going to try something different. But that's future news. Lets get to the here and now...

This recipe is for sourdough people. If you are not a sourdough person... you should be. Its better for you. Anyhow, the recipe can always be changed to a non-sourdough version if wanted. But since it is sourdough it needs to be considered seven hours before baking time. Of course some people don't care as much for the health benefits of sourdough as much as the flavor and will add some to the mixture and bake immediately. Its optional. You'll just have to play with it a little.

My Tomato Basil Muffins

Yields 36 muffins

Ingredients:

• 5 c sourdough starter
• 4 c spelt flour (or whatever it takes to acquire a really firm dough) 
   

• 2 lbs ground free range, grass fed Beef
• Green Onions, chopped
• unground Celtic sea salt
• Garlic powder
• Pepper
• Basil
    

• 6 Eggs
• 1 tsp Celtic sea salt
• Basil
• Pepper
• Garlic powder
• 2 sticks Butter
• two 12 oz cans Muir Glen Fire Roasted diced tomatoes
• 5 oz Parmesan, finely grated

Seven hours before baking, mix sourdough and flour in a bowl much larger than necessary and cover. Note: if you do not already know, sourdough, if done properly, will rise three or four times its size, so leave lots of room in the bowl.

When your ready to bake, cook ground beef and add onions, salt, pepper, garlic and basil. Let cool a little while preparing the rest.

In a medium size bowl beat eggs, and add salt, pepper, basil, garlic, butter, and tomatoes. Then add liquid ingredients to sourdough mixture. Mix till well combined. This may take some muscle but don't omit this task or you'll have people ask if you added nuts. Yes it happened to me. *sigh* Then add the ground beef, mix, and add the parmesan.

Scoop into oiled muffin pans (I used Pam, but if I had more time I think coconut oil would have been a better choice, that is the Ultra clean, tasteless kind) and bake at 375 degrees for 15 – 18 minutes, or until golden brown on top. 

 Give it a try and feel free to tell me what you think or what you did instead. I love hearing other peoples ideas on cooking.

~GoldenSails