These two recipes are a bit different than traditional recipes. I made the Irish Soda Bread Muffins a year ago and broadcast them near and far on St. Patrick's Day, and they were a big hit. Someone (and I'm sorry I don't know who to credit the recipe to) posted it last year on the Cooking Forum - but many thanks for a great quick bread recipe. The last recipe I've made for many years and it is always a go-to recipe for our St. Patrick's Day HOOLEY (party). -Grainlady IRISH SODA BREAD MUFFINS (source: King Arthur Flour) 1-1/2 c. King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour 3/4 c. King Arthur 100% White Whole Wheat Flour 2 t. baking powder 1/4 t. baking soda 1/2 t. salt 1/3 c. granulated sugar 1-1/2 c. currants or raisins 1/2 to 2 t. caraway seeds, (to taste, or omit) 1 lg. egg 1-cup buttermilk, yogurt, or sour cream 6 T. butter, melted (or 1/3 c. vegetable oil) sugar to sprinkle for topping 1. Preheat 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 and caraway seeds. 3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk (or equivalent) and melted butter. 4. Quickly and gently combine the dry and wet ingredients. 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 with sugar. 6. Bake the muffins for 20 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center 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. (Hubby's favorite.) MILO O'SULLIVAN'S CURRANT\-NUTMEG SODA BREAD 3 c. all\-purpose flour 1/4 c. granulated sugar 1 t. baking soda 1/4 t. each salt and nutmeg 1/4 c. unsalted butter 1\-1/4 to 1\-1/2 c. buttermilk 1/2 c. currants Additional sugar for sprinkling. 1\. Place on rack in bottom third of oven. Heat oven to 425°F. Have an ungreased cookie sheet ready. 2\. Put flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and nutmeg into a large bowl. Add butter and cut in with pastry blender or mix with fingers until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in currants. Stir in buttermilk until a stiff dough forms. 3\. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead just enough to shape into a ball. Put smooth side up on cookie sheet. Pat into 7\-inch round. 4\. Sprinkle with 2 t. sugar. With sharp knife, cut a deep cross in dough, slightly more than halfway through. 5\. Bake 35\-40 minutes until loaf is deep golden brown. Line a cooling rack with a linen or cotton dish towel. Place bread on towel. Cool 5\-10 minutes, then fold towel loosely over the loaf and cool completely.

OK, left out amount of shortening so reposting the entire recipe with the correction. This is the recipe for the Irish Soda Bread made famous at the Lowell Folk Festival. Every year it is sold at the Irish food booth along with other Irish dishes. It's a little different from most and makes more of a cake like bread and uses sour cream as the acid, but it still goes perfectly with corned beef and cabbage on St Patricks Day. it also makes a wonderful bread to serve with tea, especially if it's warm. My family prefers to eat the bread warm with dinner or with tea, coffee or hot cocoa. It warms up well in a microwave. The recipe was printed in the Lowell Sun newspaper 10 years ago, coutesy of the creator of the recipe, Mary Noon. MARY NOON'S IRISH SODA BREAD 2 1/2 cups sifted flour 2 teaspoons baking powder (not level) 1 teaspoon salt (not level) 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (not level) 1/4 cup margarine or shortening 1/2 cup sugar 1 egg beaten 1 pint sour cream 1/2 cup raisins caraway seeds if you like. original recipe does not call for them because her family doesn't like them, nor does mine. Preheat oven to 375. butter an 8 inch round cake pan or use cooking spray to coat. Sift flour, baking poweder, salt and baking soda together and set aside. Cream shortening or margarine and sugar. Add egg and sour cream and mix well. Stir in flour mixture until well blended. Fold in raisins. dough will be very sticky. Put dough into 8 inch pan, make a cross in the dough and bake for 50 minutes. Cover pan with aluminum foil and bake another 10 minutes. Let cool some in pan before removing. Serve warm or cold. My changes. I use mazola unsalted stick margarine instead of shortening and leave out the salt. I find it tastes better without any added salt. I always serve the bread warm, fresh out of the oven and cooled a bit before serving. wrap leftovers if any in aluminum foil and then slip into a ziploc bag to store. Reheat sliced in microwave on a plate with a cover vented just a little until it is as warm as you want it. Enjoy everyone. I'm off to make mine now.

Had Irish soda bread served at Irish pub today. My choice is Irish Brown Bread, which I love. Here's a recipe I shared. Never made it, but KT'er used this recipe and thought it was great. Irish Brown Bread If you can't get to Ireland to savor their wonderful Brown Bread, this is the best recipe using American whole wheat flour: 1 ¾ cups all purpose flour 1 ¾ cups whole wheat flour 3 tablespoons toasted wheat bran 3 tablespoons toasted wheat germ 2 tablespoons old-fashioned oats 2 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar 1 teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons (¼ stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces 2 cups buttermilk Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Butter a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan. Combine first 8 ingredients in large bowl; mix well. Add butter; rub in with fingertips until mixture resembles fine meal. Stir in enough buttermilk to form soft dough. Transfer dough to prepared loaf pan. Bake until bread is dark brown and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Turn bread out of pan and cool right side up on rack.

I love Irish soda bread and my recipe comes from a long ago KC restaurant (it was the bread that they put on the table when you sat down) and is the only recipe I use -- no currants or raisins. This year, however, I tried the Irish /Guinness Brown bread and am in love with it. I made my THIRD loaf yesterday for a chamber coffee this morning (Using an orange marmalade butter for a spread). Now I'm torn between traditional Irish soda and this newer recipe for brown bread!