Whole Wheat Irish Soda Bread Muffins

This healthy muffin recipe uses sugar substitute and lowfat buttermilk. Enjoy these for breakfast, lunch, or for a snack.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 Tablespoon whole wheat gluten
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup instant dried milk (just use as powder)
• 1/4 cup Splenda
• 3/4 cup raisins (soaked in hot water & drained)
• 2 teaspoons caraway seeds
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 1/4 cup (half stick) softened butter

Directions:

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, Instant milk, Splenda and caraway seeds. In a glass 2-cup measuring cup, place the raisins, and just barely cover with hot water. Cook in microwave on high, for 2 minutes, or until water boils. Let stand 5 minutes. Drain water completely. Add raisins to flour mixture. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk and butter. Combine the dry and wet ingredients until dry ingredients are completely moistened. Spoon the batter into 12 lightly greased cups in a standard muffin pan, filling the cups about 2/3 full. Bake the muffins in a preheated 400F oven for 15 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove them from the oven, wait 5 minutes, then remove the muffins from the pan and cool them on a wire rack. Serve them plain, or with butter.

Number of Servings: 12

Notes from the Cook: You can skip the step of plumping the raisins, but I like to add it, as it keeps the raisins from being hard.