The ingredients I voted for actually won this month’s Crazy Ingredient Challenge! It did come down to a one vote swing though for the chives over graham crackers. I have to say, graham crackers and apples wouldn’t be that “crazy” so I’m glad chives took the lead.

I didn’t think this combination would be too difficult though. I ended up being surprised. I kept thinking of some sort of tart or pie type dessert, but honestly, I didn’t have the time (or energy) for that. I then decided to try making an apple jelly with chives. I found a two-ingredient jelly using just apple juice and honey and thought, “Now that I have time for!” I think I cooked the mixture too long because what I ended up with something closer to a candy. Had I realized it was candy I wouldn’t have put it in an ice cream dish to cool and instead have spread it on a baking sheet. The aforementioned ice cream dish was sacrificed to the garbage can (good thing it was a 59 cent thrift store find!). It was now back to the drawing board.

I settled on an Apple and Cheddar muffin recipe. I simply swapped cinnamon for chives. The batter really reminded me of a corn bread (although with flour instead of cornmeal) so I decided to bake these in my Mini Loaf Pan instead of a muffin tin. But then I ran into a dilemma of what to call these guys! They weren’t flakey enough to be biscuits, but lighter than a savory scone would be, and it wasn’t a muffin at this point. So… mini loaves it is!

We loved these mini loaves. They were a great accompaniment to some buttermilk brined chicken and green beans. The loaves were also begging to be dunked in a warm bowl of soup or chili or paired with eggs in the morning. I found them best eaten the same day however the do warm up nicely in the microwave.

Apple Cheddar Chive Mini Loaves

Ingredients:

• 2 C flour
• 1/3 C sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 C shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/3 C shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh chives
• 1 egg
• 1 C buttermilk
• 1/4 C vegetable oil
• 1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9-well mini loaf pan or a 12-well muffin pan.
2. In a large bowl whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir in the cheese.
3. In a small bowl whisk the egg with buttermilk and oil. Stir into the dry ingredients.
4. Shred the apple over the bowl and fold into the batter.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out cleanly. Allow loaves to cool in the pan 5-10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

*This recipe is adapted from http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/apple-cheddar-muffins*

To see the other bloggers who participated in this month’s Crazy Ingredient Challenge click on the link below.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.