Alp Blossom Muffins
It's nice to give your Mom a bouquet of flowers on Mother’s Day, but why not change it up with a bouquet of dried flowers and herbs from the Alpine meadows…..on a cheese!!! Or better yet, in these muffins?! This week, we mixed up a batch of muffins made with the spectacular Austrian cheese, Alp Blossom. This beautiful cheese is covered with colorful spring-like edible flowers and herbs from the Hay Belt, an area that spans Eastern Switzerland, Southern Germany and Western Austria. Alp Blossom gives these a muffins a floral, savory flavor that is perfect for your Mother’s Day brunch. Enjoy!
Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup Labneh*
1/2 pound Alp Blossom cheese*
*Items with an asterisk can be found at The Cheese Shop of Salem.
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with 12 baking cups.
Grate the Alp Blossom cheese, including the rind and flowers. It should amount to about 2 cups.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a small bowl, whisk together the Labneh and buttermilk
In a large bowl, beat the sugar into the melted butter with a hand mixer. Add in one egg at a time, beating between each addition, until batter is pale yellow and fluffy. Add the buttermilk mixture in two additions, and mix until fully incorporate.
Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in two stages. Reserve about 1/4 cup of the shredded cheese for sprinkling on top of the muffins. Fold in the remaining cheese into the batter.
Fill each muffin cup to the top, sprinkle a little cheese on each one. Bake for 25 minutes, remove from the pan and cool on baking rack.
Yields 1 dozen muffins