Pear, Thyme and Cheese Muffins

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C if you’re using a fan oven)/gas mark 6. Line a deep muffin tin with six paper muffin cases.
   
   
2. Put the chopped pear and thyme sprigs into a small roasting tin, season well and scatter the smoked paprika over the top if you’re using, too. Drizzle with 1 tsp oil. Toss everything together and roast for 10 minutes until the pear is just tender. Cool for 5 minutes.
   
   
3. Tip the flour into a large bowl and add 100g of the cheese and a large pinch of salt and pepper. Stir in the cooled pear pieces, lifting out and discarding any sprigs of thyme. The leaves will just fall off and stick to the pieces of pear. Quickly toss everything together to mix it all up, then make a well in the centre.
   
   
4. Whisk the milk, OGGS® Aquafaba, 75ml olive oil and sugar for a couple of minutes until the liquid looks frothy on top. Pour into the flour mixture and fold it all together roughly with a large metal spoon until everything’s just mixed together. Don’t be too heavy-handed and over mix or the finished muffins will be tough and dry. The mixture should still look a bit floury in parts and a bit lumpy, too.
   
   
5. Spoon the mixture evenly among the paper cases and scatter over the remaining cheese. Bake for 25 minutes then take the tray out of the oven and brush each muffin with a little more olive oil – this helps them colour to a lovely golden hue. Continue to bake for a further 10 minutes until evenly coloured and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
   
   
6. Cool in the tin until just warm and serve.

Top Tips

• If you’re not going to munch through all these muffins in one go, store in an airtight container, in a cool place. They’ll be fine for up to two days. You can re-hear these in the oven for 5 minutes so they can be served warm.
• This is a great savoury muffin recipe, to mix things up even more why not swap the pear for some meat-free bacon lardons!