Irish Soda Bread Muffins
So who says Irish soda bread HAS to be made in a round or loaf pan? These coffee-break-sized muffins, bursting with tiny sweet currants and a hint (or a hit, your choice) of caraway, are the perfect offering for St. Patrick's Day -- particularly if you're looking to celebrate with something other than corned beef and cabbage!
This is not at all a traditional Irish soda bread, which would be simply made with whole-wheat flour, baking soda, salt and buttermilk. Thoroughly Americanized, these muffins have traveled a long, long way from their Irish origin -- as have most of us Irish-Americans.
Read our blog about these muffins, with additional photos, at Bakers' Banter.
- 1 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
- 3/4 cup King Arthur 100% White Whole Wheat Flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 cups currants (first choice) or raisins
- 1/2 to 2 teaspoons caraway seeds, to taste
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup buttermilk, yogurt, or sour cream
- 6 tablespoons butter, melted; or 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- sparkling white sugar, for topping
Directions
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1) Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a standard muffin pan; or line with papers, and grease the papers. |
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2) In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, currants or raisins, and caraway seeds. |
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3) In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk (or equivalent) and melted butter (or equivalent). |
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4) Quickly and gently combine the dry and wet ingredients; honestly, this won't take more than a few stirs with a bowl scraper or large spoon. As soon as everything is evenly moistened, quit; further stirring will cause the muffins to be tough. |
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5) Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, filling the cups about 3/4 full; the stiff batter will look mounded in the cups. Top with sparkling white sugar, if desired. |
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6) Bake the muffins for 20 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove them from the oven. Tip the muffins in the pan, so their bottoms don't get soggy. Wait 5 minutes, then transfer the muffins to a rack to cool. Serve them plain, or with butter and/or jam. |
Recipe summary
- Hands-on time:
- 10 mins. to 15 mins.
- Baking time:
- 20 mins. to 20 mins.
- Total time:
- 30 mins. to 35 mins.
- Yield:
- 12 muffins
- Recipe comments (23) »
Reviews
04/15/2009
Where I live the stores don't have currents, so I chopped up regular raisins. It worked great!
03/31/2009
Sooooooooooo good! Like scones as well, I just love the simple taste of butter, flour, & sugar baked together.......add a few embellishments & you have this wonderful, comforting taste. I did find currants, & I can definitely see how different they make this recipe. I did however, make Texas sized muffins, as I always do when making muffins/cupcakes, getting 6 & baking exactly 30 minutes. A real keeper!
03/17/2009
I forgot to mention something: I used the Irish Wholemeal Flour in place of the white whole wheat flour, and they turned out great. Please see the rest of my review (probably above this).
03/17/2009
These are great muffins. There is something about caraway and currants together that makes a magical combination. I think raisins would probably be too big for this recipe; definitely go with the currants if you can get them. It's a fast easy recipe, and although it looks like you are putting too much batter in each little baking cup, it's not. It makes a dozen nice-sized muffins. The white sugar sprinkled on the top really jazzes them up. It's a perfect muffin recipe.
03/17/2009
I baked this in a 9 inch cheesecake pan instead of making muffins.. ( One tsp. or caraway was perfect) It took about 15 minutes longer to bake but tasted awesome! Its a keeper!
Great adaptation of this recipe! Thanks for sharing your success! Irene at KAF
03/17/2009
Excellent muffins! Very fast and easy and everyone loved them! I used yogurt and that really made them very moist compared to some of the Irish soda breads that can be very dry and crumble.
03/17/2009
Made a double recipe with currants and caraway seeds to bring to work for St. Patrick's Day. I like that they are only slightly sweet and with a little unsalted butter they are a treat. I thought about using KAF's Whole Meal Flour to replace the White-Wheat, but decided to try that another time so I could compare with the original recipe.
03/16/2009
Very easy recipe to follow. I used golden raisins and substituted 1 teaspoon anise seed for the caraway seed and added zest from one orange. The result was excellent. I also sprinkled them with green & white sugar just for fun! I know my irish ancestors would freak but next time I'm going to use dried orange flavored cranberries and cardamon seed just to mix things up a bit! Some pistacios might work also. Irish or not, this muffin recipe is excellent and easy. Thanks.
03/16/2009
I have made four batches of these muffins in the last two weeks and people can't get enough of them. They are tastey and moist.
03/12/2009
so easy to make, my 2-year-old and my 4-year-old helped. We used a bit of green sugar on the top and they look fabulous. Taste great, we used the full 2 teaspoons of Caraway seeds. Love this recipe!!!!
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