Savory Pesto Muffins

Question: Do you have basil coming out of your ears right now? And also possibly large buckets of pesto staring judgmentally at you? “Why aren’t you using me, you unusing unuser?” No? Well, can you come over and help a sister out? Because I baked three (THREE!) dozen pesto muffins this weekend and I still have vats of pesto hanging around my house and also, like, branches of basil that I’ve plucked out of my ears.

Anyway, wanna learn how to make pesto muffins? I bet you do. Ready? You’re so ready.

STEP 1. DRY THINGS! In a large-ish bowl, stir together 2 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, 2 tablespoons grated parmesan, and a half-teaspoon each of garlic salt, onion powder and black pepper. If you don’t have those last three things you can leave them out or substitute other things or whatever, we’ll support your personal choices.

STEP 2. WET THINGS! In a smaller-ish bowl, whisk together (like with a fork? Or a whisk for the more literal-minded among us?) 1 cup of milk, 1 cup of plain yogurt (Greek yogurt is recommended here, but you go on and knock yourself out with that Dannon if that’s your thing), 1 egg and ¼ of a cup of pesto.

STEP 3. MARRIAGE EQUALITY! Form a union between wet and dry by mixing the wet ingredients into the dry. No, not the other way around. No. This is actually important, so just follow a direction for once in your life. Stir until things are incorporated but still kind of lumpy looking? Right, because we want tender muffins and stirring too much will yield a tough old bird of a muffin and who wants that? Pas moi.

Okay so that’s it really! Except oh right, we should bake these maybe?

STEP 4: THE OVEN! Get your oven to 400°. Get your hands on a muffin tin and either use paper liners or spray the thing down with PAM. [Ed Note. For the love of food, do not use Pam if you can help it, this is why the Lady God made butter, but yeah, sure, it’s your life.] Fill the cups up about ¾ of the way full, put the tin in the oven and bake ’em for, let’s say 18–20 minutes? Sure, let’s say that!

Once they’re done you could get really wild and serve them with compound butter — might I suggest sun-dried tomato as a nice flavor pairing? — or a lovely gazpacho or along side a fancy sort of salad or just eat the entire dozen while standing in front of your air conditioner in your underpants.

Now here comes the part where everyone on the Internet chimes in about how ze makes this great pesto with dandelion greens and pepitas and breast milk cheese and oh God RAMPS.

Jolie Kerr is just blown away by your novel pesto recipe!