Soda Bread Biscuits


Soda Bread Biscuits

Biscuits? Muffins? What should I call these mini-soda breads? Biscuits (American not English) typically aren’t sweet, muffins typically are. These are as sweet as you want them to be, they look like biscuits, you can eat them like biscuits, but you make them in a muffin tin.

I’ve been struggling with this question for days. It’s been a good excuse to continue taste testing my way through the FIVE DOZEN I’ve made in order to perfect the recipe.

What I can tell you is that they are very good, and that the recipe is wonderfully flexible.

If you want them to be more like traditional soda bread (more biscuit tasting) you can leave out the sugar all together. If you want them to taste more sweet like muffins, you can increase the sugar.

If you are going to eat them immediately, or trying to cut down on fat, you can reduce the butter.

I made a version with raisins, a version with raisins and caraway seeds together, and even a version with just a teaspoon of orange zest as an add-in. They were all great.

I was especially surprised at how good the caraway seeds and the raisins were together, in this slightly sweet biscuit/muffin. Obviously I preferred the full sugar, full butter version, but the lower sugar/lower butter version was good too (I just added more butter and jam to those).


Soda Bread Biscuits Recipe

Ingredients

  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of sugar (depending on how sweet you want them)
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons caraway seeds*
  • 1/2 to 1 cup of raisins*
  • 1 1/4 cups buttermilk**

*These add-ins are entirely optional. You could just do plain biscuits, or add in a teaspoon of orange zest, lemon zest, or a couple tablespoons of chopped candied ginger, or a teaspoon of minced rosemary. Have fun with it!

**You can substitute the 1 1/4 cups buttermilk with 1 cup 3 Tbsp of regular whole milk mixed with 1 Tbsp of white vinegar.



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