Tasty Tuesday

To help you celebrate St. Patrick's Day next week, I'm sharing a tried and true recipe for Irish soda bread muffins. I used to bake the famous Irish soda bread to go along with our green meal for that day, but I wanted muffins so I did what all savvy cooks do, search google for a recipe and I found the one below from Recipe Girl. As you know, I"m a big fan of muffins and cupcakes so this was fun to do and even better to eat, still warm with some green butter spread on top! I look forward to St. Patrick's day for the food. When my kids were little, I would dye the mashed potatoes green, fix green eggs and always a green dessert. So, even if your not Irish, you can still celebrate the day and have some fun in the kitchen.

Irish Soda Bread Muffins


2 cups all-purpose flour
3 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter
1 cup buttermilk
1 large egg, beaten
3/4 cup currants
1/2 tsp caraway seeds (optional)
1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease small muffin tins or large muffin tins.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With pastry cutter or two knives used scissors fashion, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. (You can also do this part in a food processor and let the blades mix the flour & butter together). In a small bowl, stir together buttermilk and egg until blended. Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir to combine. Stir in currants and caraway seeds (if using).
3. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. Bake 20 to 25 minutes (longer for the larger muffins), or until cake tester inserted in center of one muffin comes out clean.
4. Remove muffin tin or tins to wire rack. Cool 5 minutes before removing muffins from cups; finish cooling on rack. Serve warm or cool completely and store muffins in an airtight container at room temperature.
Yield: 12 regular- sized muffins or 5 large