Irish Soda Bread Muffins - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white whole wheat 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)
1/2 - 2 teaspoon caraway seed, to taste
1 large egg
1 cup buttermilk (or yogurt or sour cream)
6 tablespoons butter, melted (or 1/3 cup vegetable oil)
sparkling white sugar, for topping

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 400\u00b0F Lightly grease a standard muffin pan; or line with papers, and grease the papers.
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, currants or raisins, and caraway seeds.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk (or equivalent) and melted butter (or equivalent).
Quickly and gently combine the dry and wet ingredients; honestly, this won't take more than a few stirs with a bowl scraper or large spoon. As soon as everything is evenly moistened, quit; further stirring will cause the muffins to be tough.
Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, filling the cups about 3/4 full; the stiff batter will look mounded in the cups. Sprinkle on the sparkling sugar.
Bake the muffins for 20 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center of a muffin 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.