A Real Irish Dessert

Sometimes I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle.  Every year, when friends - both local and online - start talking about all their green food for St. Patrick's Day, I start jumping up and down and shouting, "That's Not Irish!!!!!"  My Irish Grandmother never made a green pie, green cake or green mousse for dessert.  My half German mother may have slipped green jello onto the table, but that's another story.

Bailey's Irish Cream, often used in "authentic" Irish desserts, wasn't even invented until the 1970's.  Creme de Menthe is a French liqueur.  And limes and other citrus grow much better in tropical climes than they do on the Isle of Erin. 

What are traditional are more basic, earthy, homey treats.  Bread Pudding, Seed Cake, Apple Cake. Oh yes,  Apple Cake!  But of course, I wanted to gussie it up and modernize it a bit.  I found a fabulous recipe in The Irish Spirit by Margaret M. Johnson.  The cake was perfect, but the sauce was more caramel than toffee, and I was really looking for a deep toffee flavor.

Many of the old timers from the food message boards have seen the standard by which all other toffee recipes are measured.  Marilyn's Toffee is is the ultimate candy, but I wanted a sauce.  So I referred to Cookaholics for Marilyn's candy recipe, then added cream to turn it into a sauce.  This is the dessert you have to make on St. Patraig's Day.  This is really Eire on a plate.

 Recipe after the jump...