Pesto Donuts

I know. It sounds amazing.

I got this recipe out of my bread book and thought it sounded nice with some meatballs the other night. Our basil plant is on it's last leg. We've needed to harvest the leaves and make a big batch of pesto for about a month now.... hopefully the bunnies won't get to it first.

While the picture in the cook book made the muffins look thick and crumbly, mine turned out hollow and more donut-like in texture. I think our homemade pesto sauce has a bit more oil than cheese and caused the semi-frying of the muffins.

You can see the olive oil getting hot and bubbling out the tops of the muffins. It continued to pour over slowly and turned the muffins into little fried pop-overs with a pesto center. The dough was thick and soft, with buttery hints of basil. A big hit for the night!

Pesto Donut-Muffins

2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp baking powder

1 egg

2 tbsp milk

1/4 cup pesto sauce

Combine dry ingredients together. In a large bowl mix egg and milk. Add in flour mixture and stir together until just combined.

In a non-stick or sprayed muffin tin, fill 1/3 way using half the batter. Spoon in peso sauce in the middle of the battered muffin tin. Cover with remaining batter mixture.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until tops are golden. Remove, let cool slightly.

Pesto Sauce

20 fresh basil leaves

10-15 pine nuts

1/4 parmesean cheese

1/4 olive oil

pepper and salt to taste

Mix basil, nuts, and cheese in a blender. Slowly add oil. Adjust seasoning to taste.