So excited to share these with you! But... I have to open with this - in order to fully enjoy the Perrine family's beer muffins, you must not fear butter. Bonus points if you really like butter. The beer works to create the airy texture, the Parmesan lends them earthy saltines, but it is the butter that makes them ultra moist. A perfect illustration that cooking with beer is not just about the beer.
So if you are good with loads and loads of butter - let's go. We actually believe that butter is not only millions of times tastier than cooking oil but also better for you:) Let's not delve into what canola oil and vegetable oil are made from...Someone else can tackle GMO rapeseed and soy beans a lot more successfully than us.
Is the Batter the same as in Beer Bread?
Almost, but not quite. There is no sugar in this batter. Instead our recipe calls for grated Parmesan which brings a depth of flavor. There is a lot of butter (I warned you) - some of it folded into the batter, some of it absorbed by the muffins as they begin to bake and the rest of it brushed onto them after they are baked.
The results are closer to biscuits, the kind you get at Red Lobster that spoil your whole dinner and cause you to leave with 'to go' boxes. Due to the preparation method however (the butter is to blame) you need the convenience of a muffin tin. Hence, they look like muffins after they rise and we call them beer muffins.
How to Make Beer Muffins
You are in luck. Nothing complicated to note. For as long as you can stir your beer muffins will turn out great. Watch me prepare a batch in the video below.
Recipe
Beer Muffins Stuffed with Mozzarella & Basil
Ingredients
- 3 cups of all-purpose flour sifted
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 stick butter melted
- 12 oz beer use a sweeter lager like Helles or an amber ale for best results
- 12 small fresh mozzarella balls or small pieces of mozzarella cheese for stuffing the muffins
- 12 fresh basil leaves for stuffing the muffins
- 1 stick butter at room temperature and divided into 12 pieces
- ½ stick butter melted (to brush baked muffins)
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 F.
- Place sifted flour into a mixing bowl, add the baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix very well.
- Add the grated Parmesan cheese and stir to incorporate into the flour mixture.
- Add the stick of melted butter, stir.
- Add the beer and stir until it is absorbed and you have a thick, sticky mixture, remotely resembling batter and much more similar to dough.
- Grease a 12 cup muffin tin.
- Using two soup spoons fill each cup with mixture (you should use half of the quantity you mixed).
- Wrap the mozzarella balls/pieces in basil leaves and place in the center of each cup.
- Using the soup spoons add more batter in each cup, covering the mozzarella and using up the rest of the mixture.
- Gently press the batter around the rim of each muffin cup to seal the mozzarella and basil and prevent the cheese from oozing out as it melts.
- Add the 12 pieces of butter, one on top of each batter filled muffin cup.
- Place the entire muffin tin over a baking sheet and then place in the oven (this is necessary because the butter might leak a little bit on the sides of the tin as it melts)
- Bake for 20-22 min, depending on your oven. When golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean, remove from oven.
- While the muffins are cooling off, brush with the ½ stick melted butter.
- When they have cooled off enough to touch, serve and enjoy immediately.
Nutrition
Recommended Beer Styles for Beer Muffins
I used a Munich Helles lager - a sweeter version of German pilsner, home brewed by Chris. We finally have a sweet set up for fermenting lagers at correct auto-controlled temperatures and he made us a Helles. It is after all my favorite light lager and for him it may be tied with Dunkel at this point. That's what happens when you have an excellent small craft brewery specializing in German styles in your (almost) backyard. Zwei Brewing near us make an amazing Helles.
Anyways, you want a highly carbonated beer with a balanced character or leaning towards malt dominance over the hops flavors and bitterness. With bready, biscuity, toast notes. Clearly a citrus bomb pale ale or IPA will not be your first choice. Consider one of the following options:
- Czech pilsner or Munich Helles
- Dunkel lager
- Schwarzbier
- Amber ale (low IBU)
- Kolsh
- American brown ale
Variations
If you fall for these buttery beer muffins (and we are quite confident that you will) you can tweak our base recipe in a variety of ways to build up on your own taste preferences and get creative with them.
- instead of stuffing them with mozzarella and basil, play with various cheeses (feta would be especially good, but why not Swiss cheese and ham)
- stuff them with olives and roasted garlic like in the recipe for this beer bread
- use grated cheddar or another cheese you like instead of Parmesan
- go sweet instead of savory - use a chocolate stout, substitute sugar for the grated Parmesan, add some chocolate chips
- make them uniquely yours
Check out these other recipes for baking with beer
Marissa | Squirrels of a Feather
OMG, mozzarella, basil, and beer batter? Sign me up! I seem to keep clicking on your recipes (found this one on Saturday Sharefest; congrats on being featured!), so I just went ahead and followed you on Pinterest too! As they say in Germany, "Prost!".
CraftBeering
Prost, Marissa! Thank you so much for stopping by with a kind word:)
Ben|Havocinthekitchen
I'm not a huge fan of muffins except carrot and savory ones. Loaded with cheese and basil, these guys sound absolutely delicious to me. I'd add some pesto or pine nuts too.
CraftBeering
Sure thing, Ben, sounds like a great idea.
Miz Helen
These Muffins will be outstanding! Hope you are having a great day and thanks so much for sharing with us at Full Plate Thursday.
Miz Helen
Nicoletta @sugarlovespices
I have to confess I started eating butter here, in Canada, with Loreto. Before, not really. My mother has always blamed butter for being all kind of evil and we never had it in our house. And although e.v.o. oil is a good substitute, there are some things that are just better with butter. Like these beer muffins, for example, which if I had right in front of me now, I'd eat two without taking a breathing 🙂 . Your video is awesome and makes you want to start baking a batch! P.s. I do use butter quite a lot, now 😉 .
Christina
I've legit died and gone to beer muffin heaven (that's a place, right? Lie to me).
I didn't comment on your lamb post bc I don't care for lamb but Mozzarella Basil Stuffed BEER MUFFINS? PIN PIN PIN!!! I'm getting all pinny with it over hurr. Yeah, and bring on the butter, no fear here!
I'm making dinner with 2 groups of friends this weekend. I think I have time to make these bad boys tomorrow and surprise everybody!!!
CraftBeering
Fist pump!! If you do make them, serve them as soon as you can after brushing with butter and definitely eat two before you serve them. Just watching out for you:)
Dawn - Girl Heart Food
Ok, I'm just gonna come out and say it - you must really like me cause my middle name is butter, lol. And love how you just 'moist' here 😉 Plus, cheese. I love cheese. You probably know that. And cheese and basil is classic. I think I need one of these right now. I can only imagine how delicious these are fresh out of the oven smothered in butter. Now, I'm hungry. Pinned!
CraftBeering
We really love this about you, Dawn! A kindred, beer and butter loving spirit!
annie@ciaochowbambina
You had me at mozzarella & basil! Does that surprise you? I didn't think so! 😉 WOW! This is one exciting muffin!
CraftBeering
Not surprised at all, Annie:) You know a thing or two about Italian ingredients!
Kelsie | the itsy-bitsy kitchen
Butter and I are soul mates. I could no more fear copious amounts of butter slathered on a warm muffin than I could fear oxygen :). These muffins sound delicious! I love anything that's recommended to be eaten with plenty of butter!
CraftBeering
Knew we could count on you:) Butter, dreamy butter:) Thank you, Kelsie!
Jennifer @ Seasons and Suppers
You know I don't fear the butter 😉 Love these cheese stuffed, beer muffins!
CraftBeering
That's one reason why we love your cooking so much:) Thank you, Jennifer!