Fresh baked news
Jessie Sheehan’s magical pie dough
Cinnamon roll tortilla?
Dynamic duo alert: owls & cherubs
Anyone making chocolate Guinness cake for St. Paddy’s?
Can JR make us a breakfast éclair?
Featherlight Éclairs with JR Ryall
He has a vanilla dealer. You don’t?
Well, that would make sense if you aren’t head pastry chef at Ballymaloe House, the legendary hotel-cooking school-destination restaurant perched in the lush Irish countryside. Meet JR Ryall, the author of Ballymaloe Desserts, a beautiful cookbook that captures the “country house cooking style” with seasonally-inspired Irish recipes. Essential for any baker who stockpiles Kerrygold.
Jessie Sheehan chatted with JR this week on She’s My Cherry Pie, transporting us to the Ballymaloe dining room where the dessert trolley rolls by after dinner, and it was frankly, hard to leave. His story is also a reminder that if you have a kid in your life who has an interest in food, buy them cookbooks, take them to restaurants, and gift them the bread class. It may change the course of their life.
Oh, and JR’s vanilla dealer? A U.K. restaurant supplier. But he also mentioned the great beans at SOS Chefs in New York, which are thankfully available to the rest of us. Use them to infuse your crème légère—a pastry cream with whipped cream folded in—to fill JR’s Chocolate Éclairs until “you can feel the weight of it” in your hand. What a lovely thought.
LISTEN TO SHE’S MY CHERRY PIE ON APPLE, SPOTIFY, OR YOUTUBE.
Thank you to Ghirardelli Professional Products for supporting our show.
Shop the show
The cookbook that changed everything for JR: Darina Allen’s Simply Delicious
JR mentions using canvas pastry bags in place of plastic
Our inside sources reveal that the best deal on bulk Kerrygold is at Costco
Pastels are bowling us over
It’s Staub like robe
Words to live by
“Never overlook what’s around you.”
–JR Ryall, on baking with local ingredients
Rabbit hole to chase
Ballymaloe’s Cookery School is renowned, but the farm classes, like “A Week of Practical Homesteading” and “Rearing Heritage Pigs” are calling to us. Loudly.
Tip of the week
Scrape with a flat-tipped spoon, like this pretty one from Earlywood, to keep milk from scalding on the bottom of your pans. A nice alternative to plastic spatulas.
Question for the class
Superfine/caster sugar isn’t commonly used in the U.S. Have you baked with it before?
From the archives
Gemma Stafford chats Irish scones
IRL happenings
Don’t miss Jubilee NYC Saturday, 4/12! Official Bombesquad Members & paid Substack subscribers, use your special discount.
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