The seventh recipe I chose from the Quick Breads Section of The Modern Baker by Nick Malgieri, was the one for Irish Soda Bread Muffins, on page 59 (photo on page 61). (We are not publishing recipes from the book, so if you like what you see, buy the book and bake along with or without us).
Yesterday
was my Irish grandmother's 100th Birthday. Frances Viola O'Brien was
born May 22, 1910, and although she has no longer been with us these past 11
years, memories of her and her Irish ways will be with me always. When
the list came out for us to select a recipe to bake and post, I knew I
wanted this one as it would be fun to make them on her birthday, using
her old mixing bowls. mixing spoons, and measuring things, etc., which I was lucky enough to inherit.
She was
the oldest of nine children of an immigrant family from Ireland, the county of
Armaugh, and was always proud of her heritage. She made soda bread
from time to time, but it did not have sugar in it, and was sort of a
crumbly texture, a rustic nature, made with ingredients that immigrants
had on hand no doubt, sugar in those years maybe being a luxury rather
than a staple. We added some raisins through the years, but they were
also not part of the original recipe.
How did these Irish Soda Bread
Muffins compare? If I was looking for a "nearly-like" recipe, this was
not it, and Nick Malgieri states as much in the sidebar of the recipe
page. That said, this was a fantastic recipe all on its own with the
essence of Irish Soda Bread in every bite.
We loved them plain, with a
little butter, with some jam, and as a turkey, cheese, and chutney
sandwich for lunch...I made the whole recipe this time, all 12
muffins because I wanted to have some left the next day to see how they
stood the test of a day. They were even maybe more flavorful
on the second day, definitely the raisins stood out more. My Granny
Franny would have approved. She was all about taking something Irish
and improving on it, moving forward, but not forgetting the past,
keeping it with her always.
The recipe is very simple, you can
assemble it all in no time. Ingredient list: Flour, baking powder,
baking soda, salt, butter, sugar, egg, buttermilk, and raisins.
(Caraway seeds were optional and I did not opt to use those.) You mix
it all up, bake it for 30 minutes, wait until cooled (okay I didn't
wait for one of them to cool because I wanted to taste if straight from
the oven, and so happy I did as it was very good). The muffins were
inexpensive, delicious, quick, and fun...definitely these will be
appearing here again.
Next week: Pecorino & Pepper Biscuits, page 51. If you would like to bake along or be a part of the Modern Baker group, you will find all that, plus a tab to link to the blogs posting the Quick Breads, with the blogroll here.