Cheese & herb muffins with whipped Bovril butter

These cheese and herb muffins with whipped Bovril butter are perfect to serve with a bowl of soup. They are quick and easy to make by hand in around 45 minutes. I made 4 jumbo muffins because that seemed like the right size for now, but you could easily make them into regular-sized muffins too.Two types of cheese and a flurry of fresh and dried herbs give these muffins a lovely flavour. You can use whatever you have available, and rosemary would be nice here too.

The Bovril butter adds umami flavour to these savoury muffins which are best served straight out of the oven so it melts right into the crumb. Use Marmite if you prefer and to keep this vegetarian.

Ingredients:

Cheese & herb muffins:

• 50 grams Gideon Milling Whole wheat flour
• 160 grams Gideon Milling Cake Flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp fine salt
• Small pinch of Cayenne pepper (optimal)
• 1.5 tsp chopped fresh thyme or 1 Tbps chopped parsley or chives
• 1 tsp dried mixed herbs (or any dried herb)
• 80 grams grated mature Cheddar (and a little extra for the top) – I used the large grate
• 30 grams grated parmesan or Pecorino
• 1 large free-range egg
• 210 ml milk (use 30 ml less if not using whole wheat flour)
• 60ml oil or melted butter

Whipped Bovril butter:

• 100 grams salted butter (room temperature or slightly softened)
• 1 tsp Bovril (or a dash more if you like it stronger)