Bush Tomato Muffins

Recently I've been experimenting with Australian herbs and spices. I bought a collection of six during a recent vineyard visit and used some in today's muffins.

Ground bush tomatoes have a warm pungent tomato flavour and went well in these cheese based muffins. The lemon myrtle gave the mix a slight citrus background and the mountain pepper gave a little big of heat - a change from the usual cayenne. I also added some garlic chives to complete the savoury theme.

2 cups plain white flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 teaspoons ground bush tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon lemon myrtle
1/4 teaspoon mountain pepper
1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic chives
1 1/2 cups grated tasty cheese
2 tablespoons vegetable oil or light olive oil
2 large eggs
200ml milk

Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and then add the salt, spices, chives and cheese.

Whisk together the milk, eggs and oil. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid. Quickly turn the mix over to incorporate the liquid. Do not overmix. The batter doesn't have to be smooth - lumpy is OK.

Spoon into a greased 12-muffin pan. You can poke a chunk of fresh tomato into each muffin if you like. Bake in a pre-heated 200C oven for 20-25 minutes until golden and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.