Nádivka - Easter Stuffing Cupcakes

Even though Easter is long gone, there's one thing I miss about it the most. It's the traditional Czech Nádivka, stuffing which you paradoxically don't stuff into anything (though you can) but you eat it on its own. Clearly, it used to be put inside a goose or a chicken, but nowadays we just eat it as a cake. A savoury cake.

This Easter my mum came up with a cupcake version of Nádivka that I fell in love with. It was SO good that the little cupcakes practically disappeared in a while. It is the combination of bacon and rohlíky with the spring herbs that makes you crave more as soon as you finish one. Omnomnomnom. 

I know that rohlíky are pretty much a Czech speciality and anywhere else in the world you have to do with all sorts of boring bread but if you'd like to make your own Nádivka cupcakes, I suggest using a fresh baguette, which would be rohlík's closest substitute, in my opinion.

Nádivka cupcakes

for 12 cupcakes you will need:

• 5 rohlíky (or 1 medium sized baguette) cut into small bits
• 3 eggs
• 100ml semi-skimmed milk
• a pinch of salt
• a pinch of black pepper
• a pinch of nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons of melted lard
• 150g English bacon cut into very small bits
• 2 tablespoons of finely chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon of chopped chive (or any other green spring herb)
• 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease 12 cups in a muffin pan.
2. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with the milk, add salt, pepper and nutmeg. In a larger bowl, put the cut rohlíky and pour the egg and milk mixture over them. Mix briefly and let the bread soak.
3. In a medium sized pan, melt the lard and add the bits of bacon and cook them. Set aside and let cool.
4. Add bacon and herbs to the bowl with rohlíky, season with more salt if you want to and mix in the baking powder.
5. Transfer the mixture into prepared muffin cups and bake for about 25-30 minutes until golden. Transfer on a wire rack to cool down.