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Prep Time: 10 Minutes Cook Time: 20 Minutes |
Ready In: 30 Minutes Servings: 8 |
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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. Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour |
3/4 cup 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) |
1/2-2 teaspoon caraway seed, to taste |
1 large egg |
1 cup buttermilk (or yogurt or sour cream) |
6 tablespoons butter, melted (or 1/3 cup vegetable oil) |
sparkling white sugar, for topping |
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F Lightly grease a standard muffin pan; or line with papers, and grease the papers.
2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, currants or raisins, and caraway seeds.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk (or equivalent) and melted butter (or equivalent).
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.
5. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, filling the cups about 3/4 full; the stiff batter will look mounded in the cups. Sprinkle on the sparkling sugar.
6. Bake the muffins for 20 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Tip the muffins in the pan, so their bottoms don't get soggy. Remove them from the oven, wait 5 minutes, then transfer the muffins to a rack to cool. Serve them plain, or with butter and/or jam.
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