Irish Desserts

What is an Irish Desert? - Alice Gomez
Irish Desserts
             Grandmother's Fierling - Astrid Bear
             Citybilly
             Irish Potato Candy - Susan Collicot
             Jan Garvin
             Catalina Hannan
             Cathy McMann
             Adam Quinan
             The Ultimate Irish Dessert Recipe Collection : Fantasy-Ireland - Rowen (opens in a new page)

What is an Irish Desert? - Alice Gomez
A friend will be cooking the traditional corned beef-and-you-know-what this Saturday for a half-dozen people or so. She asked if I could bring an Irish dessert. No chocolate, she said, everyone's given it up for Lent.
What's an Irish dessert? Do the Irish even have dessert?

Irish Desserts
Grandmother's Fierling - Astrid Bear
The culinary kiosk at my grocery had samples of the following today, saying it was an Irish dessert:
Grandmother's Fierling
4 lg. eggs
5 T. flour
5 T. milk
5 T. sugar
2-4 T. butter
Separate the eggs, and put the yolks on a bowl add the flour and milk and mix until it's the consistency of thick cream. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff with the sugar and fold into the yolk mixture.
Gently heat a 10" non-stick frying pan and melt half the butter in it. Pour in half the batter and cook until the bottom is golden brown. Slide out of the pan onto a warmed serving platter and keep warm in a low oven. Cook the second half in the same way, then place on top of the first lay, with the browned side up. Top with pan juices, and serve it forth.
They garnished it with sliced strawberries, and it was very tasty, sort of a pan-fried soufflé.

Citybilly
For all love they do! Why, its called Guinness.

Irish Potato Candy - Susan Collicot
My pal from Ireland loves to make Potato Candies for St Patrick's Day, but I have no idea if they're "Irish" or "authentic".

Irish Potato Candy from Irish Potato Candy - Allrecipes
Ingredients
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners' sugar
2 1/2 cups flaked coconut
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Directions
In a medium bowl, beat the butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Add the vanilla and confectioners' sugar; beat until smooth. Using your hands if necessary, mix in the coconut. Roll into balls or potato shapes, and roll in the cinnamon. Place onto a cookie sheet and chill to set. If desired, roll potatoes in cinnamon again for darker color.

Irish Potato Candy Recipe from About.com
Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter, softened
4 ounces regular cream cheese, softened (don't use low fat or whipped)
1 pound powdered sugar, plus extra for coating hands
7 ounces sweetened coconut flakes
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
Preparation:
With mixer, cream together cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl. Mix in sugar and vanilla, being careful to add sugar slowly to avoid creating a large sugar cloud(!). Stir in coconut flakes. Put cinnamon into small bowl.
Coat dry hands with a little powdered sugar and using your hands take small pieces of mixture (about 2 teaspoons apiece) and form into potato shape. Drop potatoes into cinnamon and roll to coat. Place on baking sheet. When all the potatoes have been formed and dipped in cinnamon, refrigerate for several hours until firm.

Dandy Irish Potato Candy from Irish Potato Candy Recipes
Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
Directions:
In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar, butter, evaporated milk, cream of tartar and salt. Mix well and bring to a boil. Cook to the soft ball stage at 234-degrees (115 degrees C). A few drops will form a soft ball when dropped into cold water. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Add vanilla and beat until creamy and stiff. Roll into balls and shape like little potatoes. Roll each ball in cinnamon to coat, then press in pieces of chopped nuts to look like eyes. You can also dust with cocoa to simulate dirt. Recipe makes two dozen candies.

Jan Garvin
According to the cookbook a former mother-in-law brought back from Ireland some time or other, the sweet course would be more like what most of us in North America would consider a candy--or would be fruit based. Since corned beef and cabbage is kind of rich and heavy, I think it is best balanced by something fairly light, rather tart and lightly seasoned. I'd probably lean toward a simple baked fruit, perhaps pears or apples, partially peeled in a spiral pattern, then glazed with a honey/lemon syrup, or tiny iced cakes with strawberries or another fresh fruit on the plate, or a small, rich, fruit tart, or something like those Turkish sweets made of dried fruit rolled into logs, then in nuts or coconut and sliced, to be passed at the table after the main course, then to be followed by a small savory, such as a sharp cheese, prior to the coffee, whiskey and cigars.

Catalina Hannan
I don't really remember much desert being served from my childhood days in Ireland. Meals seemed to end with cheese and biscuits and we usually ate our main meal in the middle of the day, something I still do pretty regularly. The sweets were to come later on in the afternoon at tea time when iced loaf cakes and biscuits/cookies would appear on a daily basis. There was the occasional trifle or Pavlova for special occasions and evening dinner parties which also called for a bit more effort involving more meringue or chiffon-ish concoctions or those fruit tarts.

Cathy McMann
Could you pass off trifle as Irish? Very easy to make.

Adam Quinan
I am serving a sherry trifle for my Irish supper, but Irish stew, not the non-Irish corned beef and cabbage.