Irish Soda Bread Muffins

Real Irish soda bread is made from nothing more than flour, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk. Fancier versions include a little butter and sugar for flavor and tenderness, or maybe a few raisins and/or caraway seeds, but real soda bread has nothing to do with the cakelike commercial versions. I’m using my friend and colleague Cara Tannenbaum’s technique for mixing a muffin batter starting with melted butter—you just add all the ingredients one at a time and they’re in the oven in no time.<