A Tasty Finger Food - Goat Cheese and Olive Muffins

I am always looking for good "finger-friendly" appetizers for parties and gatherings.  I found this recipe on another food blog (which you can find here.)  This blogger served them full sized and over mixed greens.  The idea of a savory muffin intrigued me and I thought it would be a fantastic idea in a miniature size.  So out came my mini muffin tins and away I went.  I did make a couple changes to the recipe and did not originally serve over greens.  I do think they needed a lil' something....a lil' something in the form of drizzled olive oil/truffle oil perhaps or possibly the original bloggers idea and over a small amount of dressed mixed/micro greens.

The recipe found here is by weight.  I used an online conversion chart to make the changes but really they are estimates so feel free to adjust how you see fit.  I was considering using a little more milk next time.

Goat Cheese and Olive Muffins
Recipe adapted from Angie's Recipes


1 cup AP Flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 cup milk (i used whole because that is what i had on hand)
1/3 cup EVOO
2 eggs, yolks and whites seperated
2 oz. Green Olives (I used the small ones and left these whole)
2 oz. Black Olives (I used canned and sliced)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
2 T fresh parsley, chopped
2 T fresh rosemary, chopped (I used less because I'm not a huge fan)
Small log of goat cheese

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk together (to eliminate chunks) flour and baking powder.  Add milk, EVOO and egg yolks and beat until smooth. I used my stand mixer for all of this but it isn't overly thick so it could easily be done by hand.

Add in Parmesan, olives, chopped herbs and some salt/pepper. Go easy on the salt...Olives are VERY salty by themselves.  This mixture is going to seem overly thick and not at all muffin like, but we aren't finished!! :)

In a seperate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff.  Keep in mind this needs to be fluffy so don't beat them to death, just until they don't fall off whisk when you turn upside down.

Fold the egg whites into the olive batter.  Again, we want these to remain fluffy so be sure to fold and not stir.  We need the air to stay in the batter.

Fill the mini tins 3/4 or just until the top, simply being sure to not over fill.  Top each one with a small piece of goat cheese and drizzle with olive oil.  I drizzled mine with truffle oil and it was fantastic so if you have it or love it, use it!!

Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.  My where cooked through but not as golden on the top as I wanted so I flipped oven to broil and moved up the rack.  I left the oven door half open to release some heat so they wouldn't be cooking at full temp and browned the top slightly.

They were yummy, but as I said before, I served just like this and next time I will drizzle with oil again right before serving and/or serve on a platter of greens being sure to let guests know it is meant to eat with a small amt of greenery.