I am Irish and our dessert might be sherry trifle or fruit salad with whipped cream or ice cream or a jam and cream sponge cake or apple pie. Or custard stewed apples or rhubarb. That was my Mother andGrandmother's repertory of desserts
My husband is Irish, though mostly raised here, want to know what we don't eat on St. Patrick's Day? Corned beef. It will be Leg of lamb here, served with mashed potatoes or colcannon, asparagus and soda bread. We will not be mostly drinking beer and whiskey and getting falling down drunk, then having our dessert coffee of Irish coffee. For the record Irish coffee, the drink was concocted here in America ,I believe in a bar in San Francisco, a purely American drink and tradition. As for all these desserts that are laden with alcohol, particularly the whiskey ones, I suspect that they too are more American than Irish. Judging by my husband's Irish family, and the families of other Irish immigrants that we know , the Irish very much like their sweet desserts. Caramel apple cakes seem to be very popular, as is a sort of lemon poppy seed pound cake, the chocolate cake made with mashed potatoes is legitimate recipe, it is sitting in my own card file. As for us we'll be having a family favorite, it is a short bread cookie with a lemon topping poured on top, we call them lemon bars here in a America.
Emmers, let us know how the pound cake turns out! (I'd be a little suspicious of the historic reference, though. Chocolate was a luxury in Ireland 100 years ago and I'm guessing anyone lucky enough to get it would savor it rather than mix it up with "everyday" potatoes in a bread.) In any case, would love to know how it turns out. Have a great dinner!
Thanks everyone for the suggestions! I am actually trying to stay away from the alcohol desserts and found a recipe for a chocolate potato pound cake that is supposedly a couple hundred years old from a family in Ireland. It looks delicious and if served with some good coffee, hopefully it will be a success! Thanks again for the help!
If i can get hold of a good muffin pan, I'm thinking of making Irish Coffee Cupcakes [http://food52.com/recipes/11229_irish_coffee_cupcakes]. That would somewhat fall in line with SKK's answer about having dessert drinks.
Actually, I've been looking for an excuse to try these and St Pat's seems valid enough ;).
We are talking about the Irish here - some of my best friends are Irish. They aren't into dessert so much on St. Pat's day because they like dessert drinks, especially Irish coffee with the best Irish whiskey.
Clafoutis is French. Although I do really like it. I have the same problem on the horizon myself as my team is doing an Irish theme for maybe 25 people. I'm responsible for the dessert course. I was thinking about cheesecake (New York Irish anyway) but probably I'll go with a rice pudding.
Good question about dessert... Irish cuisine is not big on it. But wouldn't you rather just have more potatoes?! Colcannon is a great dish to make for the main course: smashed potatoes with sauteed kale or cabbage, scallions or onions. Here's one recipe (from nytimes.com):
http://nyti.ms/zXqOa7
If you have leftover Colcannon, the next morning you can make a revisionist version of "boxty": shape the leftover potatoes into thin patties and use some butter or neutral vegetable oil to sautee lightly in a frying pan. Serve instead of home fries with bacon and eggs.
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http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/autumn/irish-whiskey-truffles.html
Although I don't know why she put in the 'autumn' ?
Actually, I've been looking for an excuse to try these and St Pat's seems valid enough ;).
Voted the Best Reply!
http://www.joyofbaking.com/BreadPudding.html
http://nyti.ms/zXqOa7
If you have leftover Colcannon, the next morning you can make a revisionist version of "boxty": shape the leftover potatoes into thin patties and use some butter or neutral vegetable oil to sautee lightly in a frying pan. Serve instead of home fries with bacon and eggs.