Fully Loaded Baked Potato Muffins

strictly speaking

Just a reminder.  This is not a food blog.  If that’s what you came for, move along.

So lunches have had me stymied for a while now and I think I served PB&J three days in a row.  I hate that.  So on Saturday I took some time to make muffins.  I made pumpkin muffins.  But then I also wanted something savory.  So I turned to my good friend google and pulled up some recipes.  What looked the best to me was the fully loaded baked potato muffins.

Ingredients

  • 4 slices bacon
  • 1 cup mashed potatoes*
  • 1¼ cups cheddar, grated
  • 2 Tbsp fresh chives, chopped
  • 1½ cups unbleached flour
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • ½ cup sour cream
  • ½ cup milk
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • * This is a great use for dry, leftover mashed potatoes but if you don’t have any leftovers simply peel, boil and mash 1 large potato. No need to add any additional butter or milk in this case, we’re after a drier mash.

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Cook bacon until crispy then coarsely chop it up.
  3. In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt and pepper together.
  4. Add coarsely chopped bacon, chives, 1 cup of cheddar and potatoes and mix to combine.
  5. Add sour cream, milk and eggs and stir until just combined- do not overmix.
  6. Lightly grease a muffin tray. Spoon ~1/4 cup of batter into each of the muffin tins. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with the last ¼ cup of cheddar.
  7. Bake for 20 minutes, until the muffins have risen and a toothpick inserted into the center of one comes out clean.

It was kind of time intensive because I had to cook up the bacon first.  And since I didn’t have any mashed potatoes, I peeled and boiled four small potatoes, too.  After I mashed up the potatoes, I couldn’t believe that I shouldnt salt them.  The recipe calls for so little salt!  So I salted those babies until they tasted good.

When I scooped the “batter” (It’s really too chunky to be called batter!) into the tins I was worried.  But after about ten minutes I opened the oven to check on them and oh my heavenly goodness.  The smell was intoxicating!  And they were puffing up into the best looking muffins I have ever made in my life!  They were gorgeous!

Unfortunately, though, they did not taste as good as they looked and smelled.  I found them really bland.  Like they could have used double the bacon and chives.  Maybe more cheese as well.  And there was only one bite where I could even taste the potato at all.  They definitely weren’t bad, but when you eat a loaded baked potato you are expecting a lot of flavor.  This did not deliver.

Still, I’d definitely like to try again.  With more bacon and chives.  And possibly some instant mashed potatoes or premade mashed potatoes  (real mashed potatoes with butter and milk and salt and everything).

I also want to try these other recipes, too.

Cheesy sausage chive muffins

Savory Ham Cheese and Spinach Muffins

 

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