Regale Patisserie

April 2012

admin — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:14:37 +0000

After six months of struggling to satisfy demand for the crackers we developed last year with Sheridan’s Cheesemongers we’re finally close to sorting out our production bottleneck. The immediate success of the Sheridans’ crackers – especially the Irish Brown-bread ones – took us all a bit by surprise; we knew they were good, but we were still taken aback by the demand for them (not just in Ireland, either!), and had to find a way to increase production without compromising their hand-made, artisan character.

Now we’re close to a solution to that problem we can start to work on some new varieties of Cookies of Character. There are some great ideas being perfected by Paola, our Baker, and we should have some definite news in the not-too-distant future.

July update

admin — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 08:46:43 +0000

If you missed our appearance on Nationwide on 4th July, you can catch it on the RTE player until 25th. The programme centres around the very successful Food Fair at Manning’s Emporium in Ballylickey on the 18th and 19th June.

Sheridan’s Irish Food Festival

admin — Wed, 11 May 2011 16:05:30 +0000

We will be setting up our stall on Sunday 29th May 2011 at Sheridans Cheesemongers’ Irish Food Festival, at their Co. Meath headquarters. It’s the second Festival they’ve held – the first was last year, and was a huge success, with 40 Irish food producers showcasing their produce, and nearly 4,000 people attended to sample the best of our artisan food. This year there’ll be even more producers from all over Ireland showing a huge range of artisan products, from cheeses to chocolates, from pâtés to pickles. Cookies of Character will be giving tastings of most of our range of hand-made cookies, and we’ll have some specially-made limited-edition stuff too. Our Gingerbread Men will be making their first appearance outside Co. Cork, and we’ll be selling our whole range at special Festival prices. As well as the Food Producers’ stands, there’ll be cookery demonstrations, food workshops, a barbeque, a ‘fun area’ for kids and all sorts of sideshows and games. Sheridans’ HQ is in the restored Virginia Road railway station complex, midway between Carnaross and Virginia – part of the old Great Northern Railway branch line from Navan to Oldcastle, which was closed to passengers in 1958, and completely shut a few years later. The stone-built station buildings and goods shed, dating from the 1850s, stood abandoned for many years, gradually becoming more dilapidated and derelict, until they were rescued by Kevin Sheridan, restored and given a new lease of life as Sheridans Cheesemongers’ warehouse and specialist food shop – winning an award from An Taisce in the process. There’s more information about the 2011 Irish Food Festival on the Sheridans Cheesemongers website, as well as some pictures of last year’s event – there’s a ‘handy link’ to Sheridans on our “where to buy” page. We’ll meet you at the station!

New Cork food shops

admin — Thu, 05 May 2011 11:33:44 +0000

The opening of a new speciality food shop in Cork is an event worth marking, but just before Easter there were two of them – although the shops are very different from each other they both stock Cookies of Character.

The first to open was in the English Market: “Sweet Paradise”, next to the Princes Street entrance, sells an amazing array of French and Irish sweet things – nougats, caramels, dragées, cookies and biscuits (French sablées and wafers as well as Cookies of Character), fudge and chocolate-covered dried fruits, and is probably unique in Ireland. The wonderful pastel shades of the bags of nougat are in striking contrast with the neighbouring stalls! It is run by the same people who have the excellent Creperie in Schull, West Cork, and we hope it has the same success.

The second was “Nelly’s Pantry”, which opened just before Easter on Bishopstown Road, next to the Bishopstown Bar. Owner Lynn MacCarthy describes her shop as stocking “Gourmet, Specialty and Artisan Foods”, and she has a huge range for fairly small premises – and still found room for a coffee machine. Cork producers are well represented, including both sweet and savoury baked specialities (some of them gluten-free), meat and fish products and ready-to-eat goodies, as well as Kerry artisan ice-cream, lots of speciality groceries and of course Cookies of Character. Lynn opens at 7.30 in the morning for coffee-to-go, and doesn’t close until 7.00 p.m.

Welcome to our new website!

admin — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 10:12:03 +0000

Welcome to the new Regale website. We will be posting recipes and news here on a regular basis so watch this space! Feel free to have a look around at our delicious product range or get in touch with us if you have any questions.

Butter

admin — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 15:32:38 +0000

Did you know that for much of the 19th century Cork was the most important butter-handling port in the world? So important was the butter-trade to Ireland that there is a Butter Museum in Cork, and the Butter Exchange and Market was busy from the 1770s to 1925?

The butter produced in Ireland is usually what is termed “sweet cream”, and is made from fresh pasteurised cream. The butter made in the countries of mainland Europe is more often “lactic” or cultured butter, where the cream has been soured before churning. Either style works well in baking.

Why is butter best for baking?

Butter starts to melt at about 30°C, and the temperature of the human body is around 37°C – so butter literally “melts in the mouth”. Many of the vegetable fats used in mass-produced baking are designed to melt at higher temperatures to ease production, and thus leave a ‘waxy’ sensation in the mouth. Some have been designed to melt at body temperature, but they have no true taste of their own, and are often flavoured with milk solids, and need emulsifiers and colours added.

Langues de Chat

admin — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 15:32:13 +0000

Delicate little biscuits shaped like cats’ tongues (“langue” = tongue and “chat” = cat in French), which are delicious served with ice-creams or sorbets, or even eaten with tea or coffee. The mixture is usually piped on to a baking tray, but if the idea of using a piping bag is too daunting you can just spoon it on to the tray with a teaspoon, though the shapes will be a lot more uneven. They’ll taste just as good, but you might have to think up a new name for them!

You will need:

A baking sheet or two, lined with baking parchment
A piping bag with a 5mm (⅜”) plain nozzle (or a teaspoon!)
An electric mixer
A cooling rack

Ingredients (makes about 25-30 biscuits):

125g butter
125g caster sugar
3 egg whites
125g unbleached plain flour (or any soft flour without any raising agents)
A few drops natural vanilla essence

Temperature:

220°C/425°F/ Gas mark 7

Method:

1. Cream together the butter and sugar until pale in colour.

2. Add the egg whites, a third (i.e. one white) at a time, beating well after each addition.

3. Add the natural vanilla

4. Sift the flour into the mixer bowl, incorporate it gently, then beat the mixture well until it’s completely smooth.

5. Place the mixture in the piping bag and pipe it on to the lined tray(s) in approx. 6cms strips, about 4cms apart

6. Place in the pre-heated oven, and bake until the edges are brown but the centres are still pale (about 5 minutes or so).

7. Take the biscuits from the trays while still hot, and cool them flat.