These coffee-break-sized muffins from King Arthur Flour transform the traditions of Irish soda bread into a delicious and gluten-free offering to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day or enjoy any time of the year with butter or your favorite spread. Yields 12 muffins.
Ingredients
2 1/4 cups King Arthur Gluten-Free All-Purpose 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 1/2 to 2 teaspoons caraway seeds, to taste
2 large eggs
1 cup yogurt or sour cream*
6 tablespoons (85g) melted butter or 1/3 cup (67g) vegetable oil
coarse sparkling sugar, for topping; optional but good
*For best results, use full-fat yogurt or sour cream. Nonfat will yield an unpleasantly tough muffin; lower-fat will make an acceptable but less-tender muffin.
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a standard muffin pan; or line with papers, and grease the papers. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, currants or raisins, and caraway seeds. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, yogurt or sour cream, and melted butter or oil. Stir together the dry and wet ingredients. As soon as everything is evenly moistened, stop stirring; this batter doesn’t need beating. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan; a muffin scoop works well here. The stiff batter will be mounded in the cups. Top with sparkling white sugar, if desired. Bake the muffins for 18 to 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.
