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Which is the tastiest Protestant traybake?

1000 replies

FiddleFaddleDingDong · 08/03/2019 17:35

NI Protestants are famed for their tray bakes but which is the best traybake of all?

I’m thinking something crunchy and chocolatey, a tiffin like thing. But are there unchocolatey traybakes that I just haven’t been exposed to? Are they keeping all the best recipes to themselves, strictly to be eaten behind closed doors?

And does it get a bit competitive? Does Annie cast aspersions on Doris’ traybaking abilities?

OP posts:
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61
Ferfeckssake · 11/03/2019 08:00

Ha ! Didn't know that about Teresa May.Sandwiches might be redeem negotiations, but then there is the whole Protestant/ Catholic style again.
Sorry to say the Brexit dilemma will continue.As will the Traybake competition.Just another factor of NornIreland life.GrinGrin

DuggeesWoggle · 11/03/2019 08:51

Loving all these photos!! I think someone in NI needs to take one for the team and go to the famed Donaghadee (sp?) garden centre and take a photo of the traybakes, with say a finger (or human head) for scale... Any takers??

Is it weird to be contemplating a holiday in NI just to take a tour of the best traybake providers... perhaps crashing the odd protestant wake while I'm there? Grin

BlackAmericanoNoSugar · 11/03/2019 08:58

Thanks Smurfy2015, I'm looking forward to it.

TheLongRider · 11/03/2019 08:59

I'm Irish, not NI, but I can contribute a link to a recipe for Yellowman aka cinder toffee. Certain to enliven any traybake of rocky road.

eatlikeagirl.com/?s=Yellowman

FlaviaAlbia · 11/03/2019 09:06

DuggeesWoggle

I think someone in NI needs to take one for the team and go to the famed Donaghadee (sp?) garden centre and take a photo of the traybakes, with say a finger (or human head) for scale...

No need to go to those extremes Wink
You know what will completely sway you to come here for a food tour? The dessert counter at the Ramore in Portrush. It would make you weep with joy.. www.tripadvisor.ie/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g209952-d801639-i121696474-Ramore-Portrush_County_Antrim_Northern_Ireland.html

downcasteyes · 11/03/2019 09:09

Best. Thread. Ever.

I have never even made a traybake before - now I have a ton of great ideas!

DuggeesWoggle · 11/03/2019 09:29

Ha ha I just read my comment back Flavia, wasn't insinuating that the human head had to be removed first GrinGrinGrin

That place sounds amazing. Sadly DH is one of those weird people who are generally unmoved by food and certainly would never plan a holiday around it, so will have to find an outdoorsy angle to work on him with!

ClinkyMonkey · 11/03/2019 09:33

Just spotted the cheesecakes photo Pierre posted upthread. My mum used to make those. I completely forgot they existed. Weirdly there was NO CHEESE in them😀. I think there was almond essence in there and some jam.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 11/03/2019 09:34

I read out the recipe for Fifteens to dh last night, and we agreed that I have got to make it when the boys are next home (probably Easter). Last Easter I used creme eggs and a mixture of cake and biscuit crumbs, cocoa, melted chocolate and a bit of syrup to make sweet scotch eggs, coated with digestive crumbs. They were a great hit but very sweet - even I could only just manage a whole one!

banivani · 11/03/2019 09:49

I'm nominating this for classics as well - I've seen far worse threads make it in no bother.

I'm part Irish but part not and have grown up abroad, also I'm Catholic - to me all Irish baking is fruitcake, scones/fruit scones, apple tarts and soda bread (mammy never made soda bread though, sadly). I am ludicrously nostalgic about all those things of course. This tray baking culture intrigues me greatly. In Swedish cook books of the baking variety there used to always be a section about "baking without an oven" that seems to be a lot like the tray baking so my Swedish side is intrigued, but also a bit horrified at the sugar levels because Swedish baking can be a little less sweet. ;) I'll be trying some of the scones though! I've never really succeeded with scones. They go a bit stodgy :/ but the kids like them.

Did you clarify if this no-baking baking thing was a result of keeping the Sabbath or not? I like this as a theory. My other theory is that it's to avoid dirtying the oven ;) which is coupled to other prejudices about tidyness possibly which are more or less offensive against mostly my own family I suppose...

A few years ago I was in NI a couple of days and feel I missed out now, I had a scone somewhere (a good scone, mind, but just a scone) but we never stopped at a gardening centre - maybe that was our mistake!

S1naidSucks · 11/03/2019 09:53

Some one was talking about scones earlier. I live near this gorgeous cafe. I bet any of the regulars will recognise it, just from the scone selection and fine China.

Which is the tastiest Protestant traybake?
Which is the tastiest Protestant traybake?
MargoLovebutter · 11/03/2019 09:58

LOL, wandered in here thinking there had been a typo somewhere in the thread title. Howyever (deliberate typo), having ploughed my way through, I'm now wondering how everyone in NI, of whatever denomination, isn't dead from diabetes or morbidly obese.

Cocolepew · 11/03/2019 10:01

SDTG a bakery near me does cream egg scotch eggs too

Which is the tastiest Protestant traybake?
S1naidSucks · 11/03/2019 10:07

I'm now wondering how everyone in NI, of whatever denomination, isn't dead from diabetes or morbidly obese.

Sheer willpower. I refuse to die until I’ve tasted everything. 😁

Champagnebrain · 11/03/2019 10:07

I think Traybakes should have its own section on the Feed The World board. Easy to find the recipes

fivedogstofeed · 11/03/2019 10:23

I'm now wondering how everyone in NI, of whatever denomination, isn't dead from diabetes or morbidly obese.

Many of them are... the coronary capital of Europe, though interesting study would be if Catholics do any better on slightly less sugar.

S1naidSucks · 11/03/2019 10:44

According to The British Heart foundation Northern Ireland, November 18 statistics show that

Premature death rates from heart and circulatory diseases (before the age of 75) in Northern Ireland are broadly similar to those for England.

Must be the fish shops that are getting the English. 😉

fivedogstofeed · 11/03/2019 10:46

Hah I stand corrected!

TimeIhadaNameChange · 11/03/2019 10:47

Thanks to this thread I made Fifteens yesterday (well, 'Twenties', really, as there were 20 marshmallows in the pack). Glaswegian DP had never come across them before, but ate a slice after dinner. I made him take the rest into work.

Am tempted by the Mint squares. Might make them next Sunday and get DP to get rid of them for me again. Else I'll eat them!

We English certainly do have coffee mornings! Tend to be more baked goods than fridge cakes. I did have to get a tiffin recipe off a friend a few years ago, she'd inherited it from another friend. Far richer than any other tiffen I've tried - small piece more than enough!

Hope we get the lemon fudge recipe - sounds great!

sheepsheep · 11/03/2019 11:08

I made the fudge squares yesterday....a double batch to use up the big tin. I skipped on the chocolate though, I think they are plenty sweet without it.

I don't know if it is just ageing, or if it is specifically related to me living the last decade distancing myself from religion, but my tolerance for the sweetness and richness has reduced substantially.

Also, I lost my nerve a bit with the simmering....out of practice....and they turned out slightly grainy.

This morning I had a hot cross bun with my tea, and I have a pot of soup on for lunch.

What a cliche. Though the soup is spicy bean soup so possibly too high faluting to qualify. :o

Piglet89 · 11/03/2019 12:19

@sheepsheep spicy bean DEFINIELY too high-falutin’. My granny used to make a broth with veggies and some barley and chicken or some such. She used to serve it to my vegetarian auntie, using the logic that it MUST be vegetarian as the majority of the ingredients are vegetables, never mind the meat broth.

@MNHQ how long does it take to decide a thread is worthy of going into “Classics”? If this doesn’t make the cut, I’ll be launching a judicial review.

beanaseireann · 11/03/2019 13:16

S1naifSucks
That's Pip Studio China /porcelain.
It's lovely.

S1naidSucks · 11/03/2019 13:24

That's Pip Studio China /porcelain.
It's lovely.

Isn’t it just gorgeous, though unfortunately not dishwasher safe. Strangely enough they seem to drop it a lot, according to the waitress. I’m sure it’s nothing to do with having to wash it by hand. 😉

flowergrrl77 · 11/03/2019 14:32

Just looked back from this morning, where so much more has been said!

First clicked assuming craziness... actual drooling going on now!

Was raised a Catholic. I always wondered why none of my family except my mother did ‘traybakes’. I thought it was something she’d made up! (She is indeed a Protestant)

I’ve only gone and ordered myself a tray with which to do traybakes now! My grandmother would be so cross!

F1y1ng · 11/03/2019 15:26

Fudge Squares are without a doubt the best Presbyterian traybake there is. From a Presbyterian Women’s Association fundraising recipe book circa 1980 (my mum made these for me as a child). I now make them for my family as a treat. Loving this thread by the way. We are now atheist- but can still make traybakes 😂

These are my favourite tray bake – makes about 4 dozen if you cut them small (no point dirtying a tin for anything less)

Fudge Squares

340g Sugar
230g Butter
3 table spoons of Golden Syrup (or Maple Syrup)
Large Tin Condensed Milk
Large packet of Digestive Biscuits
400g Chocolate to top – I use Galaxy but you could use something else depending on taste

Prepare a large swiss roll tin by greasing lightly with a bit of butter and then covering with grease proof paper, allowing it to hang over the edge slightly.

Melt butter, sugar, condensed milk and syrup in a large heavy bottomed saucepan over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture darkens in colour and thickens slightly (this can take up to half an hour) stir often to make sure the mixture doesn’t stick and burn.

Use a blender to crumb ¾ of digestive biscuits, break the remaining ¼ into small pieces allowing a bit of texture (or take out your aggression on the packet with a rolling pin).

Once the fudge mix is ready add the biscuit crumbs and stir well to combine, pour out onto the prepared tin. Press well into the corners. Place in fridge for about an hour to set.

Melt the chocolate by breaking up into a bowl and placing over a pan of boiling water. Stir until liquid. Spread over the fudge. Return to fridge for about another 3 hours to ensure set well.

Bring out of fridge for an hour before trying to cut into squares as you get a better edge. Lift up by the corners of grease proof. Place on a chopping board and peel away the grease proof. Trim off the edges and cut. I usually cut into 48 pieces and put into bun cases. Store in an air tight box.

I hope you try these as they are delicious!

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