Dinner Rolls with a Twist - Onion Poppy-seed Muffins

I admit it, I have never known exactly how to relate to savory muffins. When I was growing up, muffins were small cake-like creations, soft and sweet sometime plain, sometime with some kind of dried fruit. But decidedly cake-y. In recent years, a new creature has started to haunt the dinner table, in places normally occupied by soft rolls. These are muffins, that are savory and not sweet. Using herbs or other decidedly un-muffin-y ingredients, like onions and poppy-seed. Aside from the switch required in my head, I must admit, the idea is long overdue. And so, here is my contribution to this ever-growing dinner course - onion poppy-seed muffins. Get past the cake-y idea and I'm sure you'll agree they are truly fabulous.

Here's What You'll Need:

for the 'filling'
2 large onions chopped fairly finely
about 1/4 cup butter for sauteeing
salt and pepper

for the muffins:
2 cups AP flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. mustard powder
1 1/4 cups warm water (or milk)
3 large eggs
1 tsp. salt

Here's What You'll Need to Do:

1. First make the filling. Chop the onions and then, on medium-high heat, saute them with the butter until soft. DO NOT BROWN. They will get plenty brown in the oven when you bake the muffins. Place them aside in a bowl to cool.

2. Now make the muffins. Preheat the oven to 375 F (190 C).

3. Mix together all the other ingredients to make a batter the same consistency of pancake batter. Quite runny, but still with a little body.

4. Grease a muffin tin, then place it in the oven for 1 or 2 minutes to preheat the tin. Then fill each muffin about 3/4 full. Place about 1 Tbs. of onion and about 1/2 tsp. of poppy-seed on each muffin. Don't worry if it sinks in. That's actually good since now the topping will become the filling!

5. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown and your house smells wonderfully oniony.

6. Remove to a cooling rack, but wait about 5 minutes before removing it from the muffin tin. It needs to stabilize first. These are great still warm, or at room temperature. Enjoy!

Something Else for Autumn Comfort - Onion Rolls

Honestly, I don't know why these rolls seem so right for this time of year. Maybe because they just smell soooo good - before, during and after baking. Maybe because they compliment so well the spicy cold cuts that you can load up and cover with ketchup and/or mayo. Or maybe because anything with onions is just plain comforting. Whatever the reason, you won't need an excuse to love them. Soft and sturdy, they are definitely up to the 'sandwich' task. And like I already mentioned... the smell!

Here's What You'll Need:

4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 Tbs. instant dry yeast
1 Tbs. sugar
2 Tbs. vegetable oil
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup (250 ml) warm water
3-4 onions chopped very finely

Here's What You'll Need To Do:

1. Mix the yeast with the water and sugar to dissolve. Wait about 10 minutes until it becomes nice and bubbly (and smells 'yeasty'.

2. Add the salt, oil and one of the eggs, mixing to combine. Gradually add the flour until you have a soft only slightly sticky dough. If using a mixer it will 'clean the bowl'.

3. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turn to coat, then cover and let it rise for about 1 1/2 hours, or until about doubled in volume.

4.Deflate the dough and stretch it out into a rough rectangle. Add about 2/3 of the onions, spread evenly over the top. Then fold the dough to cover the onions. Finally, knead the dough to distribute the onion evenly throughout the dough. You will likely find, like I did, that the onions are quite wet, adding liquid to the dough, and therefore, be prepared to add flour to the dough as you knead it.

5. Break off pieces of dough about the size of a large egg, roll into a round shape and place them on to a prepared baking sheet. When they are all rolled out, cover and let them rise again, this time for about 45 minutes. About 15 minutes before the end of this rise, pre-heat the oven to 350 F (180 C).

6. If you wish, you can brush the rolls with the remaining egg and sprinkle some left-over onion on top. I didn't because the rolls were already so 'oniony'. Bake for about 17 minutes then cool on a rack. The house will smell heavenly.