Can you tell school has started back again? Muffins… I have a bit of an ongoing love affair with muffins. I must have made literally thousands of muffins over the years. This will not be the last muffin recipe you see here, I have so many variations that I want to share with you. Sweet or savoury they are so versatile.

Muffins are great to tuck in your bag for a snack for work, perfect for lunch boxes for children and great whipped up for a morning tea for your workmates. I’ve never had a child object to the vegetables in here either I might add. They are too busy eating these tasty little cheesy bites.

To pump up the cheese flavour you can add additional parmigiana cheese to the cheddar, or for a more grown up version use some interesting cheeses and a dash of chilli or Paprika to the mix. If you want to reduce the fat, use a low fat cheese or reduce the cheddar and add more parmigiana.

One of the wonderful thing about muffins is that they’re really very flexible, you can toss in your favourite ingredients and create your own flavour combinations easily. This muffin has the addition of cornmeal which gives it a slightly interesting texture and taste. I often add a little grated carrot, pumpkin or Kumara (sweet potato) or finely chopped red pepper to these.

There are no school cafeterias here at primary school level and only a small shop at high schools normally, so the majority of children will take a packed lunch to school.

There is a growing trend in New Zealand to remove all unhealthy foods from schools and that includes in packed lunches. No juice boxes, no potato chips, no sweets and no high sugar foods. Personally, I am all for this and think it’s a wonderful move to help our kids develop healthy eating habits right from the start. That’s not to say my children don’t have sweet treats - they do, but in moderation.

Cheddar & Zucchini Muffins

Makes 18 standard muffins

• 2 cups plain flour
• 2/3 cup of fine yellow cornmeal
• 1 tspn baking soda
• 4 tspns baking powder
• 3/4 tspn salt
• 3 tspns sugar
• 2 spring onions including green tops, chopped
• 4 oz of sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 1 Tblspn Parmigiana cheese, grated
• 1 1/2 cups of low fat yoghurt or buttermilk or sour cream.
• 2/3 cup of vegetable oil
• 1 large zucchini, grated
• 4 eggs

Add your dry ingredients to a bowl and whisk together to blend.

Add in your cheeses, onions, zucchini, eggs, yoghurt, and oil and mix together gently until just combined. Do not over mix or your muffins will be pointy and tough, and we don’t want that!

Place into greased muffin pans or use liners.

Cook for 12 minutes at 180C/350F. Muffins are done when they spring back lightly to touch and are golden on the top. Cool on a rack and store air tight.

These will freeze well.

Sometimes the best things are the simple ones. Something you can come home and make in a few minutes and have out of the oven just as quickly. Muffins were a typical afternoon snack for my older children when they came home from school, each child having their particular favourite. I think muffins were one of the first things they learned to bake, with the “do not over mix them” firmly implanted.

Muffins are baked in our house at least once a fortnight and they disappear just as quickly as they were made. Muffins are one of those things that are best fresh and warm and I am afraid to confess that the one you see above should actually have had a few more shots taken with my camera, but I ate it…..

Ginger Crunch was one of those things that my mother made a lot when I was little. I am pretty sure that this is a New Zealand recipe from way back. The ginger flavour in this slice was not appealing as a child, so Mum and Dad got to eat most of it. Now that I think about it, I am wondering if my mother had some ulterior motive making this.

As an adult I understand why my mother used to make this so often, and not just because my parents wanted to eat it all themselves. It’s warm and spicy, buttery and more-ish.This is not soft like a brownie, as the name suggests it is a very crisp slice (bar cookie) and once you start eating it it’s very hard to stop. It’s pretty intense!

The recipe below has crystallised ginger in it, but often I make this with preserved Chinese stem ginger finely chopped and some of the syrup added into the icing. This is from Julie Le Clerc’s “Cafe at home” recipe book.

Ginger Crunch

• 1 1/2 cups of flour
• 1 tspn baking powder
• 1 tspn ground ginger
• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 125 grams of butter cubed

Topping

• 150 grams of butter
• 1/4 cup of golden syrup
• 2 1/2 cups of icing (powdered) sugar
• 2 tspns ground ginger
• 1/4 cup of finely chopped crystallised ginger - or chinese stem ginger.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F Line a 17x27cm deep sided slice pan with baking paper

Place the flour, baking powder, ginger and sugar in the food processor, pulse to mix. Add in the cubed butter and pulse until it’s like fine breadcrumbs, it should start to stick together very slightly. The mixture is dry, not sticky.

Put into the baking pan, it will seem like there is a lot in there, but this is the right amount.

Press firmly into the pan making sure that you have even coverage. If you end up with some parts thinner, the base will cook unevenly.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until the base is golden brown in colour.

Remove from the oven and set aside while you make the topping.

A tip for measuring Golden syrup. If you run a metal spoon under warm water the golden syrup will just slide off easily. Of course then you don’t get to lick the spoon!

Place the measured Golden Syrup and butter in a medium saucepan and melt together. Add in the icing sugar and ground ginger and stir well to mix, cook for roughly 1 minute stirring the whole time.

Add in your chopped crystallised ginger and stir well.

Pour the topping over the still warm slice, and let cool a little before cutting. If you let it cool completely you will find it breaks when you cut it. Cut into squares when still warm but the icing has mostly set.

If you have someone in your family that loves ginger, they will just love this slice.

I’d love to hear what you think of this if you decide to make it.

Since it’s hailing outside (yes, yes - it is supposed to be Summer) I think I might go snuggle under a blanket, with a hot cup of tea, a piece of Ginger Crunch and my knitting.