Ballymaloe Desserts: Iconic Recipes and Stories from Ireland

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You know your butter is at the right temperature when you push the butter and it makes an indent, but your finger doesn’t easily squish right through. Melt the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of hot water. Stir from time to time to blend the melting chocolate and butter until smooth. Remove from the heat. Add the vanilla extract, then stir in the warm water and the superfine sugar. Continue to mix until the mixture is smooth. Whisk the egg yolks into the chocolate mixture, then fold in the flour making sure there are no lumps. Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Have a baking dish or ovenproof pie plate with a 5 cup (1,2L) capacity ready. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into the wet mixture. Pour into the pie dish and bake for about 40 minutes, or until set. The top of the pudding should be golden. Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve hot from the oven with softly whipped cream. This sunny recipe for pears poached in saffron and cardamom originally came from actress and chef Madhur Jaffrey, who has taught several classes at the Ballymaloe Cookery School over the years. Ever since she shared the golden-hued dish, it’s been part of the pastry kitchen’s repertoire.

I have always felt a connection to Ballymaloe. For as long as I can remember I knew about the place, its story and ethos. Growing up I was a huge fan of Darina Allen (Myrtle’s daughter-in-law and founder of the Ballymaloe Cookery School). Dissolve sugar in 1/3 cup of water over heat and continue cooking to a caramel. Remove from heat. Pour in 1 cup water and continue cooking until caramel is dissolved and smooth. Do not stir. Irish Coffee Sauce (that coffee sauce strongly laced with whiskey!) This debut cookbook from the Ballymaloe House head pastry chef JR Ryall is stunning, featuring 140 seasonal Irish recipes from his kitchen and the famous dessert trolley at Ballymaloe. More than just recipes, it’s also full of Ryall’s gorgeous insights, seasonal observations and a homage to Ballymaloe founder and culinary icon Myrtle Allen, who trained him. Photography by the wonderful Cliodhna Prendergast elevates this beautifully designed book so it will sit just as well on a kitchen counter as a coffee table. At the end of the tour, Darina Allen — creator of the cooking school and daughter-in-law of Ballymaloe’s founder, the late chef and farm-to-table pioneer Myrtle Allen — gave him a copy of her book, Simply Delicious (1992). Inside the cover, she wrote: “For John Robert, who will be a great chef when he grows up.” Pastry Chef JR Ryall and his team in the ‘Sweets Section’ at Ballymaloe House create the irresistible selection on the sweet trolley every night. From the age of four, JR wanted to be a chef, and he learned to cook in his Mum and aunts’ kitchens.

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Bring to the boil and simmer very gently with the lid on for 20 minutes. At that point and not before separate the egg, put the yolk into a bowl, add the sugar and vanilla essence and whisk together for a few seconds, then pour the milk and carrageen moss through a strainer onto the egg yolk mixture whisking all the time. The carrageen will now be swollen and exuding jelly.

This beautiful book is clearly a labour of passion and love, and an absolute credit to you and everyone involved: your publishers, talented photographer Cliodhna Prendergast, designers Apartamento Studios, commissioning editor Emily Takoudes, and project editor Claire Williams. This basic template is used throughout all four seasons to ensure the five dishes on the trolley each have a different quality, but if someone wants to try a little bit of everything, the desserts on their plate must balance and work together,” he writes. “In addition to these five daily changing dishes, there is always one extra dessert on the trolley that never changes: Mrs Allen’s Carrageen Moss Pudding, a silky soft-set seaweed dish that is a Ballymaloe speciality. For most guests, it is the most intriguing dessert we serve.” If you’d like a gluten-free pastry option, you can use Gluten-Free all-purpose blend flour in this recipe. When planning what desserts to serve on the sweet trolley at Ballymaloe, I use a simple template,” he writes. “There are always five desserts that change each day, each fitting a category; the combination of dishes should strike a balance of flavour, texture and aesthetics; and one dessert will always contain chocolate. This template has been used to plan almost every dessert trolley since the restaurant at Ballymaloe opened its doors.” Paying attention to small details and taking care when presenting each dish makes cooking and eating these desserts a very special experience,” he writes. And for that presentation to work best, JR would be mad to veer off his trolley.Eye-catching, elegant, and a bit magical, these inspiring yet accessible recipes range from the delightfully retro Ice Cream Bomb to the showstopping Irish Coffee Meringue Gateau to a Classic Strawberry Shortcake made modern with an edgy geometric presentation. Remove the pan from the heat and pour the bubbling mixture directly onto the lined baking sheet. Allow the caramel and nuts to cool completely. Myrtle founded Ballymaloe in 1964, seven years before Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse, Ryall underscores. Her appreciation of fresh, local and wild foods — and the techniques used to harvest and handle them — was revolutionary and predates the farm-to-table movement. It is often by necessity that a recipe gently evolves, though it is seldom ever for the sake of change,” writes JR. “When produce is at the centre of decision making, it is crucial to think with versatility – often a recipe gets altered to make the most of what’s available, or perhaps by discovering something isn’t available – and through trial and error we make new discoveries and learn more about our recipes and the dishes we cook from them.”

Lastly, you don’t need an electric mixer to make this, but you’re welcome to use one. If making it by hand and you only have one whisk, clean it (and dry it) extremely well between uses as any trace of fat in the egg whites will prevent them from whipping properly. Like many young chefs, Ryall has staged (an unpaid internship) in some of the world’s top restaurants, taking a two-month break each year to travel, while Anne Healy and the team of pastry chefs in the kitchen take over in his absence. Spending time in Bangkok, South America, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and Mexico, it seems almost surprising that none of these influences have crept into the dishes on the dessert trolley. Instead, discovering dishes that have a true sense of place in other countries has reinforced the importance in his mind of preserving the integrity of the classic dishes he cooks in the restaurant.For a more intense flavour, the saffron and cardamom syrup can be reduced and cooled again before pouring it over the arranged pears. At 15, Ryall started working at Ballymaloe, taking a taxi from boarding school every weekend for his Saturday shift in the pastry kitchen. Meeting Myrtle (whom he refers to as Mrs. Allen), cemented that cooking would become his career. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and gradually add the sugar. Continue to beat until pale in colour and light in texture. If you are using an electric stand mixer, use the paddle attachment. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition. Sift the flour with the baking powder and fold into the butter and egg mixture. Finally add the coffee essence and thoroughly mix.

Make a caramel as above. Add coffee (made to drinking strength) instead of cold water. Cook and add whiskey. Myrtle's advice for making Carrageen for a Dinner Party: It was like a different world,” he recalls. “I loved it.” That evening he was taught to make meringues, among other dishes, and he enjoyed the pastry kitchen so much that he returned to volunteer in the kitchen over the following weeks. At the end of that summer, head chef Rory O’Connell offered JR his first paid job: a Saturday shift in the pastry kitchen. For the following two years, I took a taxi from his boarding school to Ballymaloe House every weekend so I could cook professionally. Place the butter in a mixing bowl, cream it with a wooden spoon and gradually add the sugar. It will seem odd trying to cream so much sugar into so little butter and the mixture will have a similar texture to damp sand. large or extra-large eggs, separated (put the egg whites in a medium-size metal or glass mixing bowl) Mix the egg yolks into the butter and sugar mixture followed by the flour. Stir in the lemon zest and juice followed by the milk.

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As the restaurant thrived so the kitchen’s repertoire expanded. “Things were reworked and the dishes evolved until they were to Myrtle’s taste: the Ballymaloe taste as it has come to be,” writes the chef. Myrtle Allen taught Ryall to assemble the dishes on the trolley, and understand how this four-wheel dining room display device tied into his work in the kitchen. If you want a tender, slightly sweet crust, a creamed butter pie crust is a good choice for sweet pies. Decorate the bombe with a generous sprinkle of praline powder and pipe rosettes of cream around the bottom and on top of the bombe. Decorate with slices of strawberries, if using, sprigs of mint and edible flowers. Serve each slice with fresh strawberry sauce. A cold-butter pie crust relies on water content in cold butter evaporating to make the crust rise. The key is to keep the butter as cold as possible to create distinct buttery layers in the crust when baked.