Irish Country Cooking: Recipes from the Irish Countrywoman’s Association

I’m loving this cookbook.  It’s a collection of recipes from members of the Irish Countrywomen’s Association. The photos are beautiful and the recipes are both interesting and approachable. Each recipe includes a little blurb about the recipe and how it came to be.  My favorite part is the one sentence description of each contributor.  Stuff like “Golf-mad grandmother of 12” or “Volunteer and busy mum of three”.  My personal favorite is “Hill-walking granny and expert patchworker”.  The recipe I used today was from Margaret O’Reilly of County Cork, “Prize-winning maker of Carrickmacross lace”.

Now that it’s October and the weather seems to have turned, it really feels like Fall. Maybe that’s why I bought a huge bag of apples the other day. Apples. Just what you need when you want to make a simple, comforting, fall dessert.  I needed to make something easy, preferably something you could throw together while holding a baby. Rolling out pie dough was out.  An apple crumble was in order.

I chose the one in this book because it was different from any apple crumble recipe I’ve made before. The apple crumble recipes I’ve tried in the past all call for a streusel topping made with flour, sugar, warm spices and cold butter that you sprinkle on top of apples that have been tossed with sugar and lemon juice, sort of like a crustless streusel-topped pie. This was totally different. Toasted breadcrumbs, ground almonds, lemon zest, brown sugar and golden syrup with no warm spices, or any spices, to be found. Plus, the topping was cooked on the stovetop prior to baking and everything was layered in the pan - apples, topping, apples, topping - lasagna style. The recipe also called for blackberries, which I didn’t have. Still, the result was delicious. Simple. Clean. Extra “appley” without those spices for vying with the fruit for attention. The lemon zest complemented the sweetness of the apples without taking over. It also felt sweet and indulgent without being heavy.  No guilt in eating this on top of yogurt or oats for breakfast.

A few years ago I bought this apple corer, peeler, slicer, which is one of the few uni-taskers allowed in my kitchen. I’m so glad I have it.  This was Emmett’s first time using it and he thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Isla was able to use it too (little miss “anything you can do I can do better” - she’s a competitive little bugger).  They made quick work of 4 apples.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t measure, again. So the amounts below are just estimates. I’m just not big on measuring unless I absolutely have to. But I’ve outlined the ingredients and basic process below.

This golden syrup is available at the boutique and has so many uses. 

Apple Crumble

Recipe adapted from Irish Country Cooking

2-3 tablespoons Butter

1 cup Breadcrumbs

2 tablespoons Brown sugar

2 oz Golden Syrup

Zest and juice of one lemon

pinch of salt

2oz Ground almonds

2 oz Sliced almonds

4 apples, cored, peeled and sliced

Preheat oven to 350F.  

Spray a pie pan or other baking dish with cooking spray or coat with butter.  

Melt butter in a large skillet and toast breadcrumbs for about 5 minutes, until they are light brown and smell toasted.

Place golden syrup, lemon juice and zest, salt and sugar in a small saucepan and heat over low heat.

Once breadcrumbs are toasted, add them to sugar mixture, then add ground almonds and sliced almonds and stir.

Layer 2 apples in the pan and top with one half of the topping mixture.

Layer the remaining apples on top and top with the remaining sugar-breadcrumb mixture.

Place in oven. After 20 minutes, check the crumble and place foil loosely over the top if it is browning too fast (this is important, I almost didn’t check mine in time and it was very brown by the time I covered it).  

Cook for another 20-25 minutes or until apples are soft and bubbling. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly. Serve with ice cream, whipped cream or custard.  

Melt butter for toasting breadcrumbs, Irish butter if you have it. 

Breadcrumbs and nuts are combined with warm sugar, syrup, lemon juice mixture.

Layer apples and topping in the pan. 

Ready to bake.

I ate this as an afternoon snack - plain with some coffee.  The next evening we had it after dinner with custard and tea. 

Sour Cherry Slab Pie

My kids associate cherries with their Grandpa Paddy because he always has some in his kitchen or brings some when he comes over for dinner.  He's willing to pay the premium when, at the very beginning of cherry season, none of the stores have them on sale.  And he buys them right up until we stop seeing them at the market here in Chicago. Maybe it's just my father-in-law, but I have the distinct impression that the Irish love cherries. For one thing, cherries grow in Ireland, which, like the area where we live, is plagued with a short or non-existent growing season for many types of fruit. Sour cherries appear in our farmer’s market one week and seem to be gone the next.  Just like garlic scapes, they are one of summer’s special and fleeting gifts that I like to stock up on and squirrel away for the rest of the year.

This year I bought a whole bunch of sour cherries and froze them all. Since they are great for baking I didn’t even feel bad about not being prepared to do something with them as soon as I brought them home. I hate that feeling - too much pressure. You do not need to be pressured by your produce.

A week or so later, my brother and his girlfriend were visiting so I thought a pie was in order. I think I can safely say that a few years ago I hadn’t even heard of slab pie. I definitely didn’t grow up with them. But lately, I’ve been seeing them everywhere. Pie is great because technically, it’s baking, but it’s also a lot more like cooking than other kinds of baking. You can play a little fast and loose with amounts and really, you should, since it all depends on how sweet and juicy your fruit is, how deep your pie pan is, what type of crust(s) you are using. Slab pie is just like any other pie except that the ratio of crust-to-fruit favors the crust-lover in you. You can feed a crowd with one and skip the plates, as a slab can easily be eaten out of hand.  Below is the recipe I used. I’m a believer.

My brother and Isla (looking as if she knows he's about to do or say something funny). 

Sour Cherry Slab Pie

Enough for one slab pie baked on a quarter sheet pan (about 9” by 13”).  

Serves 10-12.

One recipe of your favorite pie dough – enough for a double crust pie.  I use this one. Or store-bought pie crusts.

5 cups sour cherries, pitted (fresh or frozen; if frozen, defrost and drain first)

1 cup of sugar

1/6 - 1/4 cup cornstarch

Juice of half a lemon

Pinch or two of salt

One egg, beaten with a tablespoon of water

Coarse sugar for sprinkling

I used cherries from the farmer’s market that I had previously pitted and frozen (Whole Foods also carries frozen cherries so you can make this any time of year, just reduce the sugar if you can only find sweet cherries).  I let them defrost in the refrigerator overnight and took them out to drain in a colander while I worked with the dough.

I got my cherries from a grower in Michigan who gave me the best tip. Place cherries in a bowl of ice water for at least 40 minutes before pitting them.  When they are very, very cold, they are much easier to pit. I implore you to try this.  Staring down a huge pile of cherries that need pitting can be daunting.  An ice water bath makes prepping them so much quicker and easier. 

Roll out pie dough for the bottom crust on a lightly floured surface. Try to work quickly so that everything stays cold.  Don’t worry about it looking perfect.  Overworked dough will be tough instead of flaky so just do the best you can.  Rolling the dough between two pieces of wax paper or plastic wrap makes things easier, less messy, and it prevents the incorporation of too much extra flour from your work surface that can also impact taste and texture of the dough.  Once the dough is rolled out in a rectangle that fits the sheet pan, transfer it either straight to the pan or line the pan with parchment paper (I didn’t bother lining mine) and then place the dough in, pushing it down into the corners and up the sides of the pan.  Leave the dough-lined pan in the freezer while you finishing preparing the filling.

Place your drained cherries in a large bowl and add the sugar, lemon juice, cornstarch and salt.  Mix to combine and set aside. 

Roll out the top crust to about 1/8 inch thickness and cut into strips.

Pull your sheet pan out, pour your filling in and working quickly add the strips in a lattice pattern to the top.  As you can see, mine came out looking “rustic” so I’m obviously not the expert in how to make a lattice crust.  If you want yours to look flawless, there are tons of tutorials with great photos on the web. For the record, I still thought mine was a beauty and my family was kind enough not to diss my latticework.

Now, put the whole pie back in the freezer for 20 minutes and preheat your oven to 375F.  Once your oven is hot and your pie is nice and cold, take it out of the freezer, brush the crust with egg wash, sprinkle with coarse sugar and place on a larger sheet pan (to catch any bubbling juices that may overflow) and bake for about 45 minutes (start checking at 40 minutes).  Remove from the oven when the filling is bubbling and the crust is nice and golden brown.    

My egg-washed pie entering the oven. 

Afternoon with Eve: Marmalade Muffins

Babies are curious creatures. After having three of them in less than four years, I should know.  I remember when Emmett was a baby, I was always hovering over him, sure that he would wake up at any moment demanding sustenance. I tiptoed around, waiting. Unsure of whether or not to try to take a quick shower, have a snack, make a phone call.  Most of the time I think I just waited. Now that I’m a more seasoned mama, I know that babies are unpredictable. Sometimes they’ve eaten, been changed, are swaddled tight and less than two minutes into what you are hoping will be a nice long nap, they’re up.  Screaming to be burped, for more milk or maybe just the smell and body heat of mama. Each time this happens I tell myself that it’s ok, the laundry can wait, the to-do list can grow longer and longer.  My day-job for the next few weeks is to take care of Eve. Just that. Just Eve.  

What I don’t do anymore is just wait for her to wake up.  When she’s asleep, I get things done, even if I think she will probably wake at any moment. Today was one of those days where she took an extra long nap at just the right time.  I had friends over for lunch, we ate and talked, and talked some more, she slept.  I thought “Dare I try to get some cooking done?” I made lentil salad, did the dishes and took the garbage out, she slept.  “Do I just go for it and try to make the muffins that I promised Emmett two days ago?” I prepared the muffins, slipped them into the oven and cleaned up in the kitchen.  Just as I finished washing the mixing bowl she woke up, hungry.  My kitchen started to smell like butter and oranges.

Marmalade Muffins

Adapted from Melissa Clark’s recipe for Orange Marmalade Cake

Yield 12 large or 24 regular-sized muffins

⅓ cup Irish Marmalade (I used Mileeven Irish Whiskey Marmalade)

¾ cup granulated sugar

8 tablespoons (1 stick) Kerrygold unsalted butter, softened

⅛ cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon lime zest

½ teaspoon orange zest

3 large eggs, at room temperature

2 tablespoons fresh orange juice

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

¾ teaspoon salt

Coarse sugar to sprinkle on top

1. Preheat your oven to 350F and line either one or two muffin tins with liners.  

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together sugar, butter, oil, orange and lime zest for about 5 minutes, until mixture is light and fluffy.

3. Add eggs one at a time and mix until each one is thoroughly incorporated before adding the next.

4. Scrape down the bowl.

5. Add marmalade and orange juice and mix.  This will make the batter curdle.  Don’t worry! Once you add the dry ingredients no one will be the wiser.

6. In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt and baking powder.

7. Remove wet ingredients from mixer and gently fold in dry ingredients with a spatula until just combined.

8. Using a spoon or cookie scoop, place an equal amount of batter into muffin tins to make either 12 large or 24 regular-sized muffins.

9. Sprinkle coarse sugar on top and bake 18-24 minutes or until a cake tester or wooden skewer pressed into the center of the muffins comes out clean.  This will depend on the size of your muffins. I made 12 large ones and 24 minutes was just right.

Glaze, either Melissa Clark’s or a simple orange juice and confectioners’ sugar, would be a welcome addition in place of the sugar topping. I plan to freeze some of these and reheat them in the microwave so I left them unglazed for now.

I was not prepared for how much my kids would like these muffins. I only have one muffin tin (regular size) and there was no way I was going to try to bake them in multiple batches. I decided to completely overfill the tin and ended up with HUGE ones. Emmett took down two in seconds (yep, not my best parenting moment) and reached for a third (even I have my limits) and Isla ate a whole one even though it was almost as big as her head.

The sweet finish to a beautiful day.