First of all am very sorry there is no sugar in today’s post.
I am truly sorry sweet tooth.
A while ago I posted some picture on my Instagram of my mom’s flat bread with cheese and za’atar (homemade Lebanese mana’esh).. I was craving these badly, but unfortunately I live far away from my mom, so I cant just call her and ask her to make me some. Am also far too lazy, (especially on a Monday) to make flat bread and then turn it to mana’esh. Don’t blame me. It was Monday.
So anyway, as I was sitting in my living room day dreaming about flat bread, za’atar and cheese, suddenly an idea popped to my head. Muffins. Yes muffins. What can be easier than muffins? Nothing, I think.
I grabbed my iphone and hastily googled za’atar muffins. Nothing. What? Well, that wasn’t gonna stop me. It was either more Google search, or I start to make flat bread. I chose to search. I alternated different ways to write za’atar, still nothing. (zaatar, zaa’tar, zatar, za3tar etc….)
So I decided I need to think outside the box.
Cheeseye. Cheeeese.
I had Gruyere cheese so I googled these, and I found something. The recipe called for courgette (which I’ve never heard of before, (it seems its some sort of zucchini), it also called for milk, (I didn’t have any), rosemary, black pepper etc….
Needless to say, I had to improvise.
I walked into my kitchen armed with my iphone and creativity. I wanted to kiss myself because I already had grated Gruyere in my freezer. Sometimes, am just too good to myself you know. I certainly wasn’t going to grate anything now.
I put my kitchen apron on, set my scales ready. My oven, my muffin pan, the flour, the baking powder etc.. etc.. etc… and here is what I got.
I just couldn’t wait till I finish munching on them so I could share them with the world.
I am usually this excited its chocolate cake, or cake with some sort of chocolate.
These muffins were just too good to pass on. Even if they are sugarless.
Now I have to go make some chocolate cake.
Or I’ll just eat some spoonfuls of sugar.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
Yield: 12 large muffins
Store leftovers in an airtight container, or double wrap them in Clingfilm if freezing. (Reheat in the oven before eating). The cheese might stick to the pan, so make sure to grease the pan well, and remove the muffins before the cheese cools. Inspired from BBC UK
Ingredients
- 3 cups (345g) self rising flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (30g) za’atar
- 3 eggs
- 1 1/4 cup (300g) plain non fat yogurt
- 1/2 cup (110g) extra virgin olive oil
- 1 1/2 cup (150g) Gruyere cheese, grated
- 2 tbsp sesames
- Jam or butter or olive oil for serving (optional)
Steps
- Preheat oven to 180C / 350 F / Gas mark 4.
- Grease a standard size muffin pan. Line with paper liners (if using, I prefer muffins with no paper liners)
- Reserve 3 tbsp gruyere cheese (for the topping). In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, za’atar and cheese. In an another bowl, whisk the eggs, yogurt, and olive oil together. Add the dry ingredients to the wet. Mix until all are just combined (don’t over mix or the muffins will be dry).
- Distribute evenly into the muffin pan. Sprinkle the reserved Gruyere cheese, then the sesames. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes.
- Cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Best eaten while warm with a spread of jam, butter or olive oil (the latter is my favorite).
Zaa’tar is the Arabic word for Thyme. Each country in the middle east has their own version of za’atar. Some prepare it with oregano, thymus, majorana etc… Growing up my favorite za’atar was za’atar halabi (I know you all will be surprised, but this is a form of Syrian za’atar that is sweeter than Lebanese zaa’tar which has a more punget, bitter taste. Whatever type of za’atar you use (or buy probably), all zaa’tars must be eaten with toasted sesames, and EVOO. My mom always handpicks picks her own za’atar during summer, it’s a daunting task, but I guess she enjoy it. She then let the wild thyme to dry, crush them using a mortar (I keep asking her every year to use a food processer and spare herself the agony, but she claims that it won’t taste the same), oh well.. Once crushed, she’ll add sumac and salt. And keep it in a cloth like bag, and place the bag in an airtight container. (I think the cloth like bag is an old small pillow case, she sewed a zipper into it, don’t ask.) According to mom, this is the best way to preserve the taste of za’atar.
I just use a canning jar.
It’s easier (although she did give me some cloth bags to store the za’atar). Am now wondering why I don’t use them. Hm. Wait. It’s to prove that I can do things my way, in my house.
Mom, thank you for the bags of za’atar you send me yearly. They are highly appreciated and enjoyed. I promise to store them in the cloth bags. Next time.
This recipe for Za’atar on 101 cookbooks is the closest I could find online to my mom’s za’atar. It doesn’t use cumin or cinnamon or pepper, which is common in Syrian and Palestinian za’atar, although we’d usually dry the za’atar au natural.
For more information about za’atar, check this link.
P.S. Za’atar of all kinds is almost always accompanied by a cup of tea. These muffins are no exception.
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