Cranberry Walnut Irish Soda Bread Muffins

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Oh my goodness, these are so good! I was perusing the Guinness website because I had bought a six-pack, but only had firm plans for two bottles (one for my traditional corned beef, the other for Irish Guinness Brown Bread), and was wondering what to do with all of the rest. (I am not a beer drinker. No.) When I came across this recipe, I had to try it. This recipe also included another recipe for what they referred to as maple butter, although instead of using maple syrup, they used honey. Umm, that would be honey butter, not maple butter, but I digress. So, I adapted that to use real bourbon-aged maple syrup, and it is phenomenal on pretty much anything in the baked good category.

I am not a baker, as you all know, it irritates me. This recipe, however, didn’t irritate me as much as some. You don’t need any special equipment to make it, and I didn’t have to drag out the mixer. That pleased me. These are good at any time of the day. I can’t speak for how well they freeze, but my hope is that they will because they’re going into the freezer until I serve my St. Patrick’s Day dinner au deux on the 20th.

 Cranberry Walnut Irish Soda Bread Muffins

(with Whipped Maple Butter)

Slightly adapted from Guinness.com

 ½ c. dried cranberries*

1 c. Guinness® Extra Stout

2¼ c. flour

2 t. baking powder

¼ t. baking soda

½ t. salt

1/3 c. granulated sugar

1 egg

1 c. buttermilk

6 T. melted Irish butter

½ c. chopped walnuts

Flaky sea salt**

Demerara sugar

 Preheat oven to 400°F.

 Combine cranberries and Guinness® Extra Stout. Microwave on high for 45 seconds and let it steep and cool, to allow those cranberries to saturate with all that lovely beer flavor. Strain and set aside.

 Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. In a separate bowl, whisk together egg, buttermilk and melted butter. Combine the dry and wet ingredients until just mixed. Do not over mix, you just want all the dry ingredients hydrated.

 Gently fold in cranberries and walnuts.

 Fill muffin tin with tulip liners (or spray muffin tin with a liberal amount of non-stick cooking spray). Fill each section about ¾ of the way up. Top with a pinch flaky sea salt and Demerara. Bake for about 18-25 minutes or until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean.

 Cool for 5 minutes and quickly remove each muffin from the tin and finish cooling on a wire rack.

 Whipped Maple Cinnamon Butter

 2 Sticks Irish Butter, room temperature

¼ c. pure maple syrup

1 t. cinnamon

1 t. kosher salt

 Using a whisk, whip butter until everything is combined. Season to taste. Use on everything!

 *I used Melissa’s dried tart cherries. I think they are much more flavorful, and because of their larger size tend to hydrate better, holding more of that Guinness goodness.

**I used Fleur de Sel.