Ballymaloe Desserts: Iconic Recipes and Stories from Ireland

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Cold butter pie crusts have a more pronounced butter flavor and a flakier, flakier, and rustic texture. Be sure to thoroughly chill the dough before rolling it out and putting it in the oven, or it will be too soft and difficult to handle. Ryall was the last chef to be trained by Mrs Allen, who died in 2018 at 94 years of age. He sees the cookbook as a commemoration of her legacy, of the sheer foresight and valiant wisdom of a woman who opened the doors of her Shanagarry country house in 1964, cooking intuitively and serving dinner to guests using the produce from her husband’s farm. She was the first Irish woman to win a Michelin star in 1975, and she held it for five years. Because we grow a lot of our own pears and we have a mixture of varieties, we’re self-sufficient in pears basically from August through to February,” says Ryall. That’s one of the wonderful things about the world of desserts. I’m not an advocate for people eating more sugar — I’d be all about make it better and eat less of it. But if you’ve got a big gathering and you’ve got a bombe you can share with people, it’s just so much fun.”

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 Gâteau to a Classic Strawberry Shortcake made modern with an edgy geometric presentation. Classic recipes are at the core of Ballymaloe Desserts. Some — such as Almond Meringue Gâteau with Chocolate and Rum Cream, Summer Pudding and Orange Mousse with Chocolate Wafers — have been used at Ballymaloe House since the 1960s, when Myrtle converted her home into what would become a Michelin-starred restaurant.

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This is the structure Ryall follows in his cookbook, interspersed with helpful tips. With stunning photographs by Cliodhna Prendergast and delicious recipes such as pistachio meringue roulade, gooseberry fool, an ice cream bomb, and gateau Pithiviers, it is not a book to read when you’re hungry. At the ripe old age of 13, he took his first cooking course at the Ballymaloe Cookery School — a present from his Mum. Year after year, during his school holidays he worked in Ballymaloe, in the desserts section, and eventually — having completed a Natural Science degree in Trinity College in Dublin — he accepted Myrtle Allen’s invitation to be head pastry chef at Ballymaloe House. The rest is history. The sugar contributes to the texture by aerating the pastry by incorporating air and retaining air. When sugar is creamed with the butter, it dissolves in the film on the surface of the air bubbles. This sugary syrup film prevents the bubbles from drying out and tightening up too fast. Perfect for: anyone with a sweet tooth or a love for beautiful books. Mezze by Nicola Crowley & Dvir Nusery It was an unlikely relationship, he adds. Myrtle was in her late 70s when they met, Ryall a teenager. She became his mentor and, despite the age difference, one of his best friends.

The dessert trolley at Ballymaloe House. Photo by Cliodhna Prendergast The dessert trolley that helped define Ballymaloe Desserts Myrtle Allen was a chef who went with her glut. Her protege, the brilliant Irish pastry chef JR Ryall writes in his new book Ballymaloe Desserts: Iconic Recipes and Stories from Ireland, that Allen gained her experience “working with the abundant produce of the four hundred acre Ballymaloe farm that her husband, Ivan, ran.”He recalls an event they hosted at Ballymaloe where he made 20 ice cream bombes decorated with Amarena cherries and gold leaf — one for each table of 10. The guests carved up the bombes at the end of the meal, warm toffee sauce melting into the ice cream as they poured it over. Everything can go in a sandwich” is one of the opening notes in this book — a very good sign that this is a book for people who love to cook and love to eat. It is written by Nicola Crowley and Dvir Nusery who run Mezze, a wonderful Middle Eastern-focused food business in Tramore, Co. Waterford. Their book is a collection of recipes and menus from Dvir’s native Israel and favourites from their deli, pop-up dinners and Middle Eastern feasts. Expect mouthwatering dips, herby salads, slow-cooked meats, colourful vegetable dishes and syrup-drenched desserts.

When the self-taught Irish chef Myrtle Allen opened the dining room at Ballymaloe House in 1964 she employed not only fellow chefs and waiting staff from the regions surrounding her country estate in County Cork, Ireland, but also a local carpenter. That tradesman, called Danny Power, was commissioned to make a dessert trolley for the restaurant. Ryall cooked and styled all the dishes in the book as they do in the pastry kitchen today. His friend, writer and photographer Cliodhna Prendergast, shot the book at Ballymaloe. They were a team of two, without a studio or assistants.Attainable, reliable, and inspirational recipes for the home baker from the acclaimed pastry chef at the iconic Ballymaloe House in Ireland. There are also aesthetic considerations; a blood orange dish adds a ray of sunshine to the trolley; a redcurrant barquette pretties it up too. There are also surefire hits; a fruit fool always goes down well, as does a seasonal sherry trifle. A more mature visitor might not have thought twice about such a pratfall, but for the young JR, it felt formative. “As I placed the damaged leaves in the compost bin, I decided there and then that the professional kitchen was not for me!” he writes. 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. Soak the carrageen in tepid water for 10 minutes. Strain off the water and put the carrageen into a saucepan with milk and vanilla pod if using.

large or extra-large eggs, separated (put the egg whites in a medium-size metal or glass mixing bowl) JR Ryall may be one of the world’s most exciting pastry chefs, but he always grounds his cookery in his restaurant’s historic surroundings The trolley was a practical and elegant way to serve her guests, and it allowed Myrtle to easily change the desserts on offer as often as she wished,” JR explains in his new book. “Myrtle carefully planned the dessert menu each day so the various dishes would complement each other. If a guest was to try a little bit of each dessert on the trolley, all of the flavours and textures would need to work together.” Myrtle died in June 2018 at the age of 94, yet JR continues to load up Ballymaloe’s trolley in a manner that would make Myrtle proud.I veered slightly from the original recipe, which says to use U.S. extra-large eggs, but I used what are considered large eggs in France—60g/2 ounces (weighed in their shell)—and it came out just fine. More on egg weights and their differences here . I also dialed down the sweetness because I like very tart lemon desserts. Ryall quotes a passage from The Ballymaloe Cookbook (first published in 1977), which he feels encapsulates her focus on culinary heritage: If you prefer a flaky, buttery, and versatile crust that works well with both sweet and savory fillings, a cold butter pie crust is the way to go.