This easy recipe makes savoury olive muffins with pimento olives and capicollo, but you can easily customize it with your favourite cold cuts and add-ins!
Have you ever had a savoury muffin? They are SUPER EASY to throw together and you can get really creative with savoury muffins. For example, check out these pizza muffins, which are an excellent example of savoury baking!
These olilve muffins make the perfect "transportable" accompaniment to a picnic or a summer BBQ, and like most muffins, they are best served and eaten the day they are baked.
If you like savoury baking, check out these chilli cheddar cheese cornbread muffins, this bacon and egg pie, these pork and apple hand pies, or these date chorizo mini loaf cakes for more inspiration because trust me: once you start dabbling in savoury baked goods, you won't be able to stop!
Savoury muffins are delicious!
The most common question I get asked is what goes into a savoury muffin? Well, that's easy. You start with a muffin base that is much like a sweet muffin, but minus most (if not all) the sugar. A savoury muffin will have more salt and lots of freshly cracked black pepper. Then, you throw in some savoury ingredients and toppings you actually like to eat.
I love to put some form of bacon, ham, capicollo, or chorizo in my savoury muffins. Not only do they provide some meatiness (duh!), but they also bring a good amount of salt and spice! Then I like to add chopped pickles (spicy or tangy) or olives (briny or not). Sometimes I add shredded cheese, crumbled feta or goat cheese. You can add some chopped spinach, herbs, or even bell pepper or corn! Really, you can come up with endless possibilities for your savoury muffins. This is why I love them so much.
What you need to make these
Savoury muffins are so much fun because there's a lot of room for creativity. To make these olive muffins, you will need:
- bleached all-purpose flour to give these muffins structure
- salt, preferably Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper because these are savoury muffins
- chemical leavening agents, specifically both baking powder and baking soda
- granulated sugar to bring a little moisture-binding to these muffins and also to balance the flavours
- cold cuts, like capicollo or pepperoni
- pimento olives or black olives work well in this recipe. Whatever olive you choose, make sure they are pitted!
- eggs—Iarge eggs preferably because smaller eggs may lead to drier muffins
- whole milk (3.25 % fat) and sour cream (14% fat)—baking with full-fat dairy ensures these muffins will stay moist
- melted butter, either salted or unsalted, though olive oil would work well too!
See recipe card for quantities.
Variations
- Cheese—feel free to fold in some shredded cheddar cheese or crumbled feta or goat's cheese before baking
- Spicy—you can incorporate fresh jalapeños, sliced or diced, or even some dried red chilli pepper flakes to make these muffins spicy.
- Vegetarian—skip the capicollo in these olive muffins and add more olives if you prefer or another vegetarian addition that you like. Diced smoked tofu, for example, could work well here!
Now tell me, what will you be adding to your next batch of savoury muffins?
📖 Recipe
Savoury olive muffins
Ingredients
- 375 g (3 cups) bleached all-purpose flour
- 5 mL (1 teaspoon) Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
- 5 mL (1 teaspoon) freshly ground black pepper
- 15 mL (1 tablespoon) baking powder
- 1.25 mL (¼ teaspoon) baking soda
- 15 mL (1 tablespoon) granulated sugar
- 125 grams (¼ lb) Maple Leaf Canadian Craft Montreal Steak Spice Capicollo, 1 package, chopped into small pieces
- 100 g (¼ lb) pimento olives, feel free to use shredded cheese instead, if you prefer, sliced
- 4 large egg(s)
- 188 ml (¾ cup) whole milk (3.25 % fat)
- 188 ml (¾ cup) sour cream (14% fat)
- 115 g (½ cup) unsalted butter, melted
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Line two muffin pans with 12 parchment liners (like these on Amazon). You can use regular muffin papers too, but you would need to spray them lightly with oil baking spray otherwise the muffins will stick to the paper. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, pepper, baking powder, baking soda, and granulated sugar. When the dry ingredients are well mixed, stir in the Maple Leaf Canadian Craft Montreal Steak Spice Capicollo and the olives (or cheese).
- Meanwhile in a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and sour cream until smooth. Pour this mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients, along with the melted butter. Stir with a wooden spoon to combine (about 20–25 stirs—don't overmix!).
- Divide the muffin batter between the prepared pans. Bake in the preheated oven on the middle rack for 20–25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean.
Nutrition
This post is sponsored by Maple Leaf Foods to promote their latest line of products: Maple Leaf Canadian Craft. I was compensated monetarily. Thanks for supporting the companies that allow me to create content for Kitchen Heals Soul. As always, please know that I wouldn’t work with a sponsor nor recommend a product if it wasn’t worth it.
Christina says
I remember trying a Welsh Rarebit Muffin from Nigella Lawson's Nigella Bites cookbook years ago. I think I need to try something similar to that again - but maybe add some nice bacon.
Savoury muffins would be great for a beach picnic - thanks for the inspiration and recipe!
Joanne Ochej says
OMG love this idea! I'd start with mortadella & some tomato... (either fresh diced or perhaps sun-dried). Then I'd serve them with a glass of wine!
Dana says
Janice, I can't even begin to tell you how badly I want these! I've been wanting to make olive bread for quite some time now and haven't gotten around to it. But wow. The idea of savory muffins is something I'm all about. I don't have much of a sweet tooth so... this helps 🙂
Vicky Chin says
Great idea ! I think my son would love these, as he doesn't like sweet stuff very much (weird....lol) He would love some bacon and cilantro for sure ! Thanks for sharing !
Sean says
What would I put in savoury muffins? Cheese! If I can sneak cheese into something, I'm generally happy. Especially if that cheese bakes and leaves those nice crunchy brown bits in the pan. Yum yum yum.
Great article as always.
Marie says
You just reminded me it's been AGES since I made savory muffins. I really like that you've used capicollo, as it is one of my favorite coldcuts. Your recipe seems absolutely perfect as it, I might just drop a bit of shredded cheese on top--I'm a sucker for cheesy savory muffins! Do you think using yogurt instead of sour cream would work? I have two huge tubs of plain Greek yogurt in the fridge and I was wondering how to use them up.