Irish Soda Bread Muffins (2024)

Today’s Irish Soda Bread Muffins boast the same subtle sweetness, buttery crumb, and bewitching texture of Irish soda bread but in the form of easy-to-bake, extra-easy-to-eat, and conveniently portable muffins.

If you’ve never tried Irish soda bread, you are in for a treat.

Don’t expect life-altering flavor complexity or a tastebud explosion—soda bread’s beauty is its simplicity.

Classic Irish soda bread recipes combine wheat flour (I used whole wheat for the recipe, though all-purpose is more traditional) and buttermilk and are made to rise with baking soda instead of yeast.

It also often contains caraway seed, whose flavor is more savory and reminds me of rye bread, and some recipes also call for dried currants, which taste like an enchanting cross between a raisin and a cranberry.

The resulting soda bread is lightly sweet, and its texture is beguiling. It’s unquestionably soft and tender (no hockey pucks here) yet dense enough to feel wholesome and satisfying.

Because Irish soda bread isn’t overly sweet, it’s ultra versatile too. I love it paired with a piece of cheddar or steamy bowl of soup as much as I do slathered with butter and jam.

About These Soda Bread Muffins

I bake some adaptation of Beer Bread and soda bread every St. Patrick’s Day (usually my favorite whole wheat Irish soda bread recipe), but this year, I thought it would be fun to try baking Irish Soda Bread Muffins instead.

As much as I adore a good loaf of soda bread, I think I might love the Irish Soda Bread Muffins even more!

They have a similar flavor and texture to Irish soda bread but are even quicker and easier to prepare.

Also, since the recipe yields 12 tidy Irish Soda Bread Muffins instead of an entire loaf, they’re easier to manage and transport.

You can grab one for a quick breakfast and snack on the go, individual muffins provide built-in portion control, and they are simpler to serve, because you don’t need to fuss with slicing.

In playing around with how I could make these Irish Soda Bread Muffins healthy without compromising their flavor, I found that what worked best was to use Greek yogurt instead of the buttermilk.

• Like buttermilk, yogurt is acidic, so it reacts with the baking soda and ensures that the Irish Soda Bread Muffins rise.
• Because it’s thick and creamy, it does also a fantastic job of keeping the muffins moist and tender without a need for an of excess butter or oil.

See Also

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Plus, while I almost always have a big container of Greek yogurt in my refrigerator, I rarely have buttermilk, so using yogurt means I can bake a batch of these Irish Soda Bread Muffins without a special trip to the store.

Although I originally conceptualized these Irish Soda Bread Muffins for St. Patrick’s Day, they are wonderful year-round.

If you don’t care for currants or caraway seed, feel free to replace them with another dried fruit you do enjoy.

Orange zest and dried cranberries would be wonderful folded into the batter, and I suspect that blueberries (or chocolate chips) would be utterly delicious also.

For a little extra burst of sweetness and crunch, I topped the Irish soda bread muffins with a sprinkle of coarse sparkling sugar, but if you want to keep the muffins on the even less-sweet side, feel free to omit it.

More Whole Wheat Muffins

• Healthy Chocolate Muffins
• Healthy Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
• Healthy Banana Muffins

• Favorite muffin tin
• 9-inch whisk