Olive Muffins

I’m a big fan of olives – green olives, black olives, olives stuffed with pimento, etc. They are great when added to fresh salads or used as toppings for pizzas. Olives can be pureed into a delicious olive tapenade or spread, or simply enjoyed as is. Plus, olives are high in healthy monounsaturated fats and have a number of nutritional benefits.

A while back, I came across olive bread at a restaurant when they brought out a basket of olive bread as appetizers. I really liked it. The salty olives added a nice flavor to the rustic bread. Later that week, I decided to bake some muffins and add chopped pieces of olives to them to make a savory and delicate muffin. I picked up a small container of kalamata olives from Titan Foods (awesome Greek specialty food market in Astoria) and proceeded home to do some baking.

Ingredients: (Makes 8-12 muffins)

• 2 cups flour (I used 1 cup all purpose flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp flaxseed meal (optional)
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup honey
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 oz chopped olives (I used kalamata olives)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add flaxseed meal and nutritional yeast, if desired.
3. In another bowl, bean the eggs and add honey, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and water.
4. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well.
5. Add chopped olives and stir.
6. Pour mixture into greased muffin trays/cups.
7. Bake for about 20-25 minutes, until ready. Insert and remove toothpick and it should come out clean.
8. Let the muffin cool in the oven for an additional 5 minutes.
9. Serve warm.

I used a really basic muffin recipe and added nutritional yeast and flaxseed meal into the muffin batter to enhance the nutrition a bit. The muffins were soft and by itself didn’t have much taste to it, but the kalamata olives added a nice bold flavor to the finished product. I liked how it came out. I’m thinking about redoing something similar next time – pickle bread, perhaps.