Comments on: Irish bread, American-style

By: Beth @ 990 Square

Beth @ 990 Square — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:57:34 +0000

I know this recipe is almost a year old, so I’m not sure if I’ll get an answer to this question but it’s worth a try. I’m going to be a houseguest this weekend and I wanted to bring some of these as a gift. I would be baking on Thursday night and these would likely be eaten on Saturday morning. Will the muffins be too dry by then? Usually, I wouldn’t be concerned, but because of the warning about thse being crusty, I thought I would check. Thanks!
Hi Beth,
Yes, the muffins will not be their best by Saturday if left on their own. What you could do is bake on Thurs, freeze on Friday am, then take out Friday pm to thaw overnight to serve on Saturday. Hope this helps. ~ MaryJane

By: Michelle S.

Michelle S. — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:54:57 +0000

I made these yesterday and they are almost all gone. My husband and I ate almost half of them last night. We couldn’t stop at eating just one each. They are everything I wanted them to be and more. I found it very easy to make and I am thinking about making another batch this afternoon to take with me for a get together. The only thing I did differently was not use the caraway seeds because I forgot to buy them.

By: Patti O'Brien

Patti O'Brien — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:11:14 +0000

I made these last weekend and they were wonderfully tasty. This recipe is a keeper, so easy and so flavorful. I’m not a fan caraway seeds but it did give the muffins a hint of tast that went very well with Irish Breakfast tea. (I love this company and it’s recipes!)

Thanks Patti - glad you liked them! PJH

By: Roseann Barrese

Roseann Barrese — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:39:34 +0000

I made these yesterday and they were wonderful. I used plain yogurt, the whole 2 teaspoons of caraway seeds and the currants. They were perfect - just the amounts of everything that we like. In addition to the white sprinkling sugar, I did add a small amount of green sprinkles to add a little color as I did not use cupcake papers! It’s definitely a keeper!

By: Diane Duane

Diane Duane — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 11:22:47 +0000

BTW, a note from an Irish-American resident now for more than twenty years in Ireland: Over here we absolutely *do* have soda-based breads full of caraway and/or fruit and milk and eggs and whatnot. *But nobody calls them soda bread*. That’s all. The sweet breads with additives are referred to by the general class names of “tea breads”, “luncheon loaves”, sweet breads”, etc.

Over here the term “soda bread” is reserved specifically for the traditional “plain soda” treatments — white or brown cake bread (oven-baked in a round with a cross cut on it so the loaf will flower correctly) or white farl (cut in quarters and baked on the griddle). To these everyday breads, nobody ever adds fruit or caraway or whatever: these are reserved for the tea breads.

Our European food website has a soda bread page with video tutorials that gets a lot of attention this time of year, if anyone’s interested. It’s here:

http://www.europeancuisines.com/Peters-Mums-Soda-Bread-Recipe

The recipe from my husband’s Mum goes back to the turn of the last century and is about as authentic as it gets, for those seeking authenticity. We also have her readings of traditional variants on the basic theme (treacle bread, fruit sodas, etc.)

Anyway, your recipe looks lovely. Super to see that King Arthur is doing an Irish-style wholemeal. Also, great thought re: the ice cream scoop: must try that for muffins some time soon.

Best — Diane

Diane, thanks so much for the information, and for the link. I’m definitely going to check it out. Like so many Americans my forebears were from Ireland (grandfather from Donegal), so I do have that little tug working on me… Thanks for sharing. PJH

By: benita

benita — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:15:19 +0000

I tried this recipe last weekend and the muffins were de-lish. I just threw in a handful of whole wheat bran and the recipe worked out fine. Next time I will experiment with increasing the liquid a little - but not by much.

I do have another question. Why grease the muffin papers? I have been seeing this advise in lots of recipes lately and wonder why. I have been baking with muffin papers for 35 years and it is only in the last couple of years that I have seen this step added into the recipes. I did not grease the muffin papers I used for this recipe and things turned out just fine.

Benita, with some of the lower fat muffin recipes out there, and some of the cheaper papers, muffins may stick without greasing. It’s kind of a “failsafe” all-purpose warning, but you surely don’t need to do it if muffins slip out of the papers without greasing… PJH

By: Donna

Donna — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 03:05:11 +0000

I like to copy and paste recipes, too–I copy, go to my e-mail, and paste into a message, which I e-mail to myself. Then I save it in a folder and only print it out if and when I get around to making it. Quick and easy!

These muffins look really attractive in their colorful papers, with the sugar crystals on top.

By: Johnnie Bunton

Johnnie Bunton — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 18:28:30 +0000

Why do you not print the nutritional amounts in you recipes?
I am on Weight Watchers and it would make it a lot easier to choose the lower fat recipes. Thanks.

Sorry, Johnnie - truthfully, we don’t have the manpower to do a nutritional rundown on all of our recipes; it’s an incredibly long and involved process, believe it or not. Take a look at Susan Reid’s posts; she’ll often have the Weight Watcher points listed. And The Baking Sheet, our print newsletter, also lists Weight Watchers points. Hope this helps somewhat. PJH

By: Carol

Carol — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 15:33:37 +0000

To Nancy and Trisha, who want to save paper and ink. Here is what I do: I copy what I want to save (Control + A if that means the entire page; otherwise highlight what I want and hold down Control + C) and paste (Control + V) into Word. If it takes up too much space, I change the font and/or size to something that is still easy to read. If I want to keep a too-large picture, I “shrink” it to fit. As is true of many tasks, this takes longer to read than to do. Hope this helps! I would love to know where I could buy colored cupcake papers!

Thanks for your help, Carol. You can buy colored cupcake papers right here at kingarthurflour.com - we sell them in a nice range of swirl colors, plus an array of others (seasonal, etc.) Take a look- PJH

By: Trisha

Trisha — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 12:01:24 +0000

I have to say, I agree with Nancy about the fancy headers on the printed recipe. We’re trying to be ecological here and not use so much paper AND ink! Great looking recipe–can’t wait to try it.