With so much sunshine the tomatoes in the garden have ripened well and I love the sweet cherry varieties. To me  the scent of summer is the green stalks of tomatoes and basil.
When it is so hot my family are more interested in savoury rather than sweet and so these cheesy muffins hit the spot. I’m using Manchego cheese but you can use a good cheddar cheese, if you do  only add a pinch of salt as the cheese is already salted.The sweetness of the tomatoes make this a good choice for anyone who thinks muffins should only be sweet ones, I always add a little sugar to a recipe when I use tomatoes as it brings out even more of the sweetness in the fruit. ​

Makes 12 muffins 
With so much sunshine the tomatoes in the garden have ripened well and I love the sweet cherry varieties. To me  the scent of summer is the green stalks of tomatoes and basil.
When it is so hot my family are more interested in savoury rather than sweet and so these cheesy muffins hit the spot. I’m using Manchego cheese but you can use a good cheddar cheese, if you do  only add a pinch of salt as the cheese is already salted.The sweetness of the tomatoes make this a good choice for anyone who thinks muffins should only be sweet ones, I always add a little sugar to a recipe when I use tomatoes as it brings out even more of the sweetness in the fruit. 
In the ingredients I add 80ml passata but as I often have a lot of very ripe tomatoes I roast them, put them through a sieve and freeze them so I have my own stock of “ passata”. 
These muffins are really good for a quick lunch with salad, or as a picnic item and they are even a good breakfast if warmed.

What you will need 
A twelve hole muffin tin , 12 muffin baking cases
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Ingredients 
300g plain flour
3 rounded teaspoons baking powder 
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
Pinch of salt
10 twists (pepper mill) black pepper 
1/2 teaspoon soft brown sugar
2 large free range eggs
150ml whole milk 
50ml natural yoghurt * adding yoghurt reacts with  the baking agent to give a better rise
80 ml pasata
80g unsalted melted butter
150g Manchego cheese or other hard cheese made into small cubes
30g sun dried tomatoes 
12-24 small cherry tomatoes , mixed colours if you can get them, red and yellow
20g fresh finely chopped thyme 
20g finely chopped basil Plus extra for decoration 
Method
Set the oven for 190C fan assisted, 200C, gas mark 6-7 

1. Place the muffin cases into the muffin tin.
2. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda,sugar,salt and pepper into a bowl.
3. Beat the eggs milk, yoghurt and passata together, when fully combined add a little to the flour mixture at a time and fold in with a spatula to keep the mixture light.
4. Add the melted butter folding it into the muffin batter.
5. Gently fold  in the cheese, sun dried tomatoes, chopped basil and thyme.
6. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases, fill the cases to 2/3 so there will be room for the muffins to rise but not spill over the cases
7. Place couple of the fresh tomatoes on the top of each muffin and press in lightly.
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes but check after 15 minutes because they dry out quickly if over baked. They are baked when a skewer comes out clean.When baked the muffins can be eaten warm or left to cool. They are ideal for freezing so long as you freeze them on the day as they should really be eaten on the day of baking.
9. To eat from frozen, let the muffins defrost for an hour and them bake in the oven ( 180C fan) for 10 minutes.

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