During St. Patrick's Day, Irish communities and organizations around the world indulge in classic Irish dishes, including beef and Guinness pie, Irish stew, Irish cream chocolate mousse cake, cottage pie, black pudding, Irish potato soup, Irish coffee, and Irish soda bread, which is a stable in many Irish households.
Irish soda bread muffins are also popular, especially among people looking for a more flavorful alternative to the traditional Irish soda bread or a less dense source of carbohydrates. The good news is the process of making Irish soda bread muffins is nearly identical to the process of making the classic Irish soda bread. In fact, with the exception of the flavoring ingredients such as spices and raisins, the ingredients are virtually the same.
A traditional Irish soda bread batter consists of a combination of buttermilk, flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda (instead of yeast). With that in mind, here's how you can make fluffy Irish soda bread muffins at home.
Ingredients
For this recipe, you need:
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 large egg
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
3/4 cup dried raisins or currants
Take note that similar to the traditional Irish soda bread recipe, this recipe uses baking soda instead of yeast, hence the name "sweet."
Directions
- First, cream the sugars and butter together until they turn light and fluffy. You can do this in a regular mixing bowl with a hand mixer, manually with a whisk, or in the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Second, add the egg and egg yolk to the batter, whipping them in again until the batter is fluffy and smooth. Scrape any dough down from the sides of the mixing bowl, and make sure the mixture is smooth.
- Third, in another mixing bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together until uniform and evenly mixed.
- Fourth, slowly add some of the dry ingredients into the first mixing bowl, followed by some of the buttermilk, and mix slowly until completely incorporated and smooth. Continue doing this until you incorporate all the dry ingredients into the first mixing bowl.
- Fifth, line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners. Alternatively, spray the pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- Sixth, add roughly three tablespoons of batter to each muffin well, or until three-fourths full. Then, sprinkle the muffin wells with the remaining sugar and bake the muffins at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.
- Finally, cool for about five minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.
You can enjoy these muffins for St. Patrick's Day breakfast, dessert, or even with dinner to accompany an Irish beef stew, for example.
Converting a Loaf of Irish Soda Bread to Irish Soda Muffins
Because the Irish soda bread and Irish soda bread muffin recipes are nearly identical, you can easily convert an Irish soda bread recipe to make Irish soda bread muffins. To do this, you simply have to adjust the baking temperature and the baking duration. While these two parameters vary from one recipe to another, muffins generally require higher baking temperatures and a shorter baking time than bread. As a rough guide, to convert a loaf of Irish soda bread to Irish soda muffins, raise the oven temperature by 25-50°F and reduce the baking time by about three to five minutes.
We hope you can use this recipe to make flavorful Irish soda bread muffins for your St. Patrick's Day celebrations. To find the right insurance,
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