Ireland has a rich culinary tradition, with many scrumptious and indulgent desserts to boast. Try these out whenever you visit the country.
The land of rolling green hills, Ireland has a rich culinary heritage even beyond the comfort food potato dishes and hearty stews. Their desserts are cultural and deep rooted in tradition, with a unique flavor, and sometimes infused with an extra whiskey kick.
Traditionally made during Christmas, it's customary to make the porter cake all the way in November and save it in for the holiday season, since it saves rather well. It gets its name from the porter ale since that's one of its ingredients, which makes it dense and moist. To make this cake, a cake mix is put in a bowl and dry fruits, spices and the ale is added to it. The cake is then boiled, which causes the liquid to evaporate, after deeply sinking into the cake. To keep it moist while it's being saved, a small amount of alcohol is added every week to it.
One of the most quintessentially Irish things is the Guinness stout, which is added to several desserts, and among them is this mousse. It tones down the sweetness of the dessert and its deep flavor permeates the dish. The bitterness of the Guinness and the sweetness of the whipped dark chocolate mousse makes for a delectable taste that melts away easily in the mouth. When it's being served, it's topped with some whipped cream and chocolate flakes.
This is bread baked with raisins, cherries and other berries. The bread is topped with butter and enjoyed toasted. It gets its name from the “bririn breac,” which means speckled loaf. While it's eaten throughout the year, it's especially famous during Halloween and Easter holidays. During the holidays, items like coins, rings or peas are baked into the bread, and people wait to find them in their slice. A coin is good luck, the ring represents marriage and a rag means bad luck. The bread is often enjoyed with tea.
This is a traditional Irish pudding made with seaweed, called “chondrus crispus,” which also lends the dessert its name. The seaweed is cleaned, dried, then soaked in warm water and boiled in milk. Regular baking ingredients like eggs and sugar are then added to the mix. The pudding is served cold with whipped cream and fresh berries on top.
Brownies are a global classic but add some Irish cream liquor to it and you have a quintessentially Irish dessert. While making the batter, add Bailey’s Irish cream, to the mix and then put it in the oven to bake. Then add an Irish cream frosting on top of the brownies. These brownies are usually served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and berries on top
The bread pudding is an Irish mainstay. It's a comfort food and makes for a scrumptious meal. It was first made as a way of using up stale bread, which was soaked in a sweet custard and then baked. In modern iterations, it's often topped with whiskey caramel sauce drizzled on top, and a dollop of fresh cream.
The Irish take on this classic dessert includes adding, you guessed it, Bailey’s Irish cream. The soft and airy dessert’s sweetness is balanced by the addition of the Irish cream and a decadent chocolate ganache is added on top. It's often served with fresh cream and makes for a simple and homely dessert.
Another traditional Irish dessert is the apple cake. Ireland has an abundance of apples and the dish was originally baked over an open fire. In modern times, it's baked on a cast iron skillet. This gives it a crispy texture. The important element is the Irish butter that makes for a flaky pastry. It's filling and has a slight hint of spice from the nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves, and is an ideal dessert for cozy evenings.
Fifteens are fudgy desserts that get their name because they call for 15 of every ingredient—marshmallows, biscuits, cherries, condensed milk and coconut—which are then baked. The biscuits are crushed and mixed with the marshmallows and cherries, then condensed milk is added. It's then bonded together into a sausage shape, rolled in desiccated coconut and popped in the fridge to set. It's a popular delicacy across north Ireland and eaten with pride in many households.