Cheddar Chile Beer Muffins

I made these muffins for the first time a few months ago for my good friend Christa’s birthday.  She decided to base the festivities on the food network show Chopped, and she challenged me to make an hors d’oeuvres that featured jicama, crab and beer.  I knew I could easily use jicama and crab in a Latin inspired crab cake, but wasn’t sure how the include the beer.  A quick google search for “beer bread” turned up an array of bread loaf recipes.  I picked this one from Recipe Zaar and made it in a muffin tin instead of a loaf pan.  Split in half and paired with the jicama crab cakes and a cilantro-lime aioli, they were fab: very moist with a slight yeasty taste from the beer and they could hardly have been easier to make.