Cheesy Bacon & Spinach Muffins

Today, my almost-3-year-old boy made lunch, and a big mess as well. He's no stranger to making muffins or helping out in the kitchen, but it is my first time asking the toddler to help cook without hubby to give me a hand. We used my Cheesy Muffin recipe, and added chopped red onion, bacon, ham and spinach to make the muffin more substantial for a lunch meal. We put the muffin mixture together in the living room on the coffee table, which is just the right height for Zak. He was keen to put all the ingredients together, and especially enthusiastic when it came to mixing the wet and dry ingredients together, as evident by the splotches of batter scattered across the coffee table and the living room floor. We both had fun, and quite enjoyed the delicious finished product fresh and hot out of the oven.

(My kid also made some amusing expressions.)

Cheesy Bacon & Spinach Muffins

(This recipe makes more than the usual 12 due to the additional ingredients - we made 16 muffins in all (it does help to have extra muffin cups in addition to the 12-muffin tray), but I think the remainder batter would have made a tasty free-form scone/bun on a small oven tray or loaf tin.)

Ingredients

1 tablespoon oil (I used grapeseed)
3 bacon rashers (~50g), finely chopped
1/2 red onion (~75g), chopped
4 thin slices of ham (~50g), chopped
150g frozen chopped spinach, prepped according to packet instructions
2 cups (250g) plain flour
2.5 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup (~75g) coarsely grated cheese
1 1/3 cups (275mL) milk
1/4 cup (50mL) grapeseed oil
2 eggs

Before cooking, we had to get the ingredients first from the supermarket:

Method

1. Heat oil in a pan over medium heat, and cook the onion, bacon and ham for a few minutes, stirring often, until the bacon is lightly crisp and the onion is slightly caramelised. Add the chopped spinach to the pan and cook briefly (less than a minute). Remove from heat and allow to cool while you assemble the rest of the ingredients.

2. Preheat oven to 180°C (for fan-forced ovens. Use 200°C for conventional ovens).
2. Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl, then stir in cheese.

Checking out what mummy had previously prepared and pre-measured:

4. Combine the wet ingredients (milk, oil and eggs) in a bowl and whisk lightly.

A look of concentration as he makes sure the oil lands inside the bowl:

5. Add the wet mixture and the bacon mixture to the bowl of dry ingredients and combine well.

Shortly after this shot, the boy started mixing a little too enthusiastically, and that was where the photo-taking stopped, at least until the muffins were ready:

6. Spoon mixture into a 12-muffin tray (and additional muffin cups, if needed) to only 2/3 full.
7. Bake for 15 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean. Stand for 5 minutes in pan before turning onto a wire rack to cool.
8. Best enjoyed fresh and warm out of the oven, and freezes well.

Chomp: