I’ve been having a bad cooking streak. I forgot sugar in my past 2 recipes! I was feeling down, and I didn’t really want to cook again. I knew that if I didn’t make something I loved that I’d be feeling rejected all week. So when I was thinking of something new to make, I went for an old favorite. This recipe is delicious and so comforting. Cheese and bread always make everything better and this is the ultimate combination of the two. I should always double the recipe because I can eat a whole batch in a day.
This recipe is simple and will make bread that everyone loves. You can probably even get people to help you make it. It’s quite simple and would be a great recipe to make with kids. The original recipe is from my favorite bread recipe book. I’m not sure where to find this book now, but I got it on clearance at Border’s for $5. Best find ever. The technical name for these is “Georgian Khachapuri,” but around here we just call them “Cheese Muffins.” These little muffins originated in the country of Georgia as street food and are found in muffin forms like this or flatter forms that are almost like a quesadilla. I’ve only had this kind before, but you can’t go wrong with cheese breads.
Recipe:
Ingredients:
Dough:
2/3 cup milk, lukewarm
2 tbsp butter, softened
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp active dry yeast
Filling:
1 egg, lightly beaten
8 oz (or 2 cups) grated cheddar cheese
8 oz Munster cheese, cubed
1 tbsp butter, softened
Glaze:
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp water
Active time: 25 minutes
Inactive time: 2 hours
Servings: Makes 6 muffins
Cooking Instructions:
Mix all the dough ingredients together. Knead for 10 minutes or until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. Place in an oiled bowl and cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap. Allow to rise for 1 hour. If using a bread machine, combine all the ingredients in the bread pan in the order listed and set to dough.
Just before the dough is done rising, mix together all the ingredients for the filling. Season with salt and pepper if desired (I never found it necessary).
After the dough rises, knock back and knead for about 1 minute. Divide the dough into 6 equal parts. Roll each part into a ball and then roll it into an 6 inch circle. Spray a muffin tin with oil. Place a dough circle into an oiled hole of the muffin tin. There will a lot of overhang, that’s good. Fill with the cheese filling mixture. Gather the overhang and pinch closed. Twist to form a top knot. Cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap and allow to rise for 20-30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Mix the egg yolk and water together for the glaze. Brush over the tops of the muffins. Place in the oven and back for 25-30 minutes until the tops are golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 2-3 minutes in the muffin tin. Remove and allow to cool on a wire rack. Enjoy immediately or refrigerate and reheat in a toaster oven. Don’t forget to go for second helpings!
Pin It
Related Posts:
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow – these look so good! Know what I am making this afternoon, thanks so much!!!
I forget if I told you, but my brother is teaching in Georgia and he says this is all they eat over there. If it wasn’t a second-world former Soviet state with limited plumbing, it would be your country.
Yummmmm…. I would love to eat these all the time. If only Georgia had better plumbing! Also, I’ve been wondering, how do you pronounce “Khachapuri?”
I also taught there, never saw it in a muffin form… usually on the street you find the round, quesadilla like ones (khachapuri imeruli) as they’re easy to eat while walking. There are tons of other forms. If you like cheese and bread, you’d probably like khachapuri acharuli. It’s amazing.
It’s pronounced ‘ha-cha-pur-ee’. Just drop the k at the beginning, as kh is a specific Georgian letter that sounds most like an h.
Thanks Elyse! I’m going to have to find a recipe to make the round ones. Even if these aren’t really traditional, they’re still quite tasty. Also, thanks for the pronunciation. I never would have guessed that.
Ha, wow. Enough said.
I pinned these ridiculously amazing-looking muffins, can’t wait to try these out!
I think I’m ready for my first ever cheese-bread challenge, thanks for your tips!
No problem! Feel free to comment again if you have any problems or suggestions that I didn’t mention.
I am sure your muffins are very tasty and good, but visually they are quite different from Georgian khachapuri and you use other types of cheese. In Georgia they use soft white cheese like Feta or Manouri, not hard and yellow ones, like Cheddar or Munster. Mozzarella could be used with Feta, for example, as a sustitution. I am Russian, I lived in Georgia and ate lots of khachapuris.
I think that mozzarella and feta sound like they would taste great in these muffins. Also, I google image searched “khachapuri,” and mine do look rather different. I was following a recipe, so that is how I shaped them, but I’m going to try using different cheeses and shaping them differently next time I make them. Thanks!
This definitely looks like something I need to give a go. You made them so well and they are quite attractive. My love for cheese only encourages me to try! Nicely done!
I was quite excited to make these. I seemed to have way too much cheese, I could’ve done with half as much as I had. I just couldn’t fit any more cheese into them. Then, while cooking, the cheese escaped from almost every muffin and oozed over the side of the muffin pan. They were still delicious in the end, lots of compliments from my guests. However, I noticed that when I bit into them, they weren’t full of a big cheese pocket like your first picture – it was more like the top part of the muffin had pushed down and squeezed the cheese to the bottom of the muffin (thus causing much of the cheese to escape out the top/sides.) Any ideas what I did wrong?
The key with these if you don’t want the pocket of air is to serve them immediately. Once the cheese cools, while it will coat the inside of the muffins, it will not be bubbly and fill the insides for very long. After a short while, mine get that pocket as well. When the munster cheese cubes melt, they will lose their volume and reshape. Perhaps to keep the volume, you could shred both the cheddar cheese and the munster cheese so that the volume is approximately the same before and after the cheese melts. I’m glad to hear they were still a hit though.
{ 3 trackbacks }