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Irish Brown Bread Muffins

These Irish brown bread muffins have all the flavor of the traditional Irish brown bread in muffin form. Add the optional candied ginger for a nice subtle texture and bite.

For someone who doesn’t really care about St. Patrick’s Day I’m kinda pumping out a lot of “Irish” recipes this year (like this no-bake Irish Cream cheesecake) huh?

In reality though, I’ve wanted to make brown bread since visiting Ireland almost 4 years ago.

These Irish brown bread muffins have all the flavor of the traditional Irish brown bread in muffin form. Add the optional candied ginger for a nice subtle texture and bite.

I went into that trip expecting horrible food and disgusting weather.

The weather prediction held true (to the point of almost literally being blown off the Cliffs of Moher by 50 mile an hour winds) but the food was surprisingly good throughout the trip.

Way better than Prague, Budapest and Munich were last year (sausage, salt, sausage, salt, sausage, salt, potatoes, repeat) at least.

We ate brown bread at literally every restaurant we went to it seemed and it was always served with the best butter packets you could imagine.

I’m not normally one to rip open butter packets in a restaurant (in fact, if it’s a restaurant that serves bread with “butter packets” I’m probably skipping that bread altogether).

But, the ones in Ireland were creamy, just slightly salty and slathered on warm brown bread…yeah, I could eat that alone for my meal.

So good.

Brown Bread Muffins are a bite-sized take on traditional brown bread. Perfect portion control!

This brown bread recipe turned into muffins out of both laziness (my favorite loaf pan was being occupied by homemade ice cream in the freezer) and the desire to hopefully keep myself in check with portion control.

I have a slight problem when there’s an entire loaf of something in front of me.

It’s called the “I’ll just have a sliver more” syndrome and it usually results in eating a quarter of said loaf (in 5 1/8 inch thick slices) at a time.

For the most part, it worked.

Although, there was a morning when 2 of these made their way onto my breakfast plate.

Brown Bread Muffins with Candied Ginger are a new way to enjoy traditional Irish brown bread.

I added just a touch of candied ginger to this batch and while it’s not traditional, I really think you should too.

It gives the brown bread muffins an added bit of chew and texture while bringing just a hint of spice to each bite.

Spice and Irish aren’t really synonymous, but just go with it, trust me.

And with that, the Irish recipes are done for this year and maybe I can finally go back on Pinterest without having fake green dips, cupcakes and cookies thrown in my face making me want to gag.

If I do green food, it’s pretty much only my green oatmeal or green spinach pancakes – both food coloring free!

Love these Brown Bread Muffins? 

Try one of these other muffin recipes too: Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Banana MuffinsApple Fritter Muffins or, Carrot raisin everything muffins.

Or try pairing the brown bread muffins with one of these soups, stews or chili:

Kabocha Squash Chili
Creamy Coconut Delicata Squash Soup
Slow Cooker Lamb Stew
Creamy Garlic Brussels Sprout Soup
Spicy Porter Short Rib Chili

Irish Brown Bread Muffins

These Irish brown bread muffins have all the flavor of the traditional Irish bread in muffin form. Add the optional candied ginger for a nice subtle texture and bite.
No ratings yet
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 12 servings

Ingredients
  

  • 1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
  • 2 cups oat flour coarsely ground oats
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 tablespoons cold butter chopped
  • 1 3/4 cups buttermilk
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 2 tablespoons chopped candied ginger *optional

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease a muffin tin with baking spray.
  • Sift whole wheat pastry flour, salt and baking soda into a large bowl.
  • Add the oat flour to the bowl and mix together.
  • Add the butter to the bowl and combine with the flour using your fingers or the back of a fork until thoroughly incorporated.
  • Whisk together the buttermilk, egg and honey in a separate bowl.
  • Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined.
  • Fold in the candied ginger if using.
  • Spoon the batter into the muffin tins and bake for about 20 minutes.
  • Remove from oven, let cool a few minutes in the tin before transferring to a cooling rack.

Nutrition Facts

Serving: 1SERVING | Calories: 266kcal | Carbohydrates: 45g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 26mg | Sodium: 398mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 7g

This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition information can vary for a variety of reasons. For the most precise nutritional data use your preferred nutrition calculator based on the actual ingredients you used in the recipe.

Cuisine Irish
Course Baked Goods
Keyword brown bread muffins, Irish brown bread muffins
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Gina Matsoukas is the writer, founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients as much as possible. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.

Recipe Rating




ukuze

Friday 10th of March 2017

This looks incredible! Definitely, trying it this weekend!

Christin@SpicySouthernKitchen

Tuesday 17th of March 2015

The ginger sounds like a wonderful addition! Love that you made them in muffin form. I too have a hard time controlling myself with a warm loaf of bread.

Yum Girl

Monday 16th of March 2015

Thank you so much for submitting to Yum Goggle! We love all your posts and hope you will continue to submit!

nicole ~ Cooking for Keeps

Monday 16th of March 2015

I didn't make ANY St.Patrick's day recipes, except for the corned beef and cabbage that's in my dutch oven right now, but nothing creative or for the blog. I need to live vicariously through you and your posts...especially these muffins!

Catherine

Monday 16th of March 2015

The honey and candied ginger is a winning combination! These are delightful. xo, Catherine