The first time we ever went to Northern Ireland was just before my daughter’s first birthday, and our son was just over two and a half. We’d seen a holiday programme which showed the lovely country and as we lived near Manchester and it was easy to cross the Irish Sea from where we were we went on a two week holiday, staying a newly renovated cottage.
On the way we stopped for a meal at a nice café near the beautiful Gleanariff. My daughter was going through a screaming phase and I was about to abandon my dinner and take her outside to try and calm her when two lovely ladies on the next table swooped down and carried her away and soon had her wreathed in smiles and we were able to enjoy our meal.
The ladies returned with daughter and told us about some of the lovely things we would find on our holiday, including the wondrous high teas and the best place to get one, the beach Hotel in Portballintrae. They also told us about the delicious tray bakes… I hadn’t heard that term before but we soon got to understand it and enjoy many samples!
Over the years I have bought many recipe books with tray-bakes in them, especially little booklets produced by women’s groups, schools, churches of traditional recipes donated by the members. Here is a sample from the Killymurris Presbyterian Church Hall Building Fund ‘Make & Bake’ collection:
Hollywood biscuits
- 8 oz broken plain biscuits
- 1 beaten egg
- 4 oz margarine
- 1 tsp cocoa
- 4 oz sugar
- 6 drops vanilla
- 2 oz fruit
- heat margarine, sugar, cocoa and fruit
- cool slightly and add the beaten egg
- cook very gently until thick and creamy
- work in the broken biscuits and flavouring
- spread on a greased tin to about ½ inch thick
- spread with mock cream and cut into squares
Snowballs
- 8 oz crushed digestive biscuits
- 1 small tin of condensed milk
- desiccated coconut
- 1½ dsp drinking chocolate
- marsh mallows
- 2 oz margarine
- melt margarine, chocolate, condensed milk and crushed biscuits and mix well
- with wet hands, form spoonfuls into a round flattened shape, put a marshmallow in the centre and roll the biscuit mix round it (cut the mallows if they are too big)
- roll the balls in the coconut
Shah biscuits
- 4 oz sugar
- 4 oz margarine
- 7 oz flour
- 1 tsp each of ground ginger, mixed spice, baking soda (or omit baking soda and use self-raising flour) mixed together
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tbsp syrup
- cream sugar and margarine
- add syrup and egg yolk and beat very well
- add dry ingredients
- roll into small balls and bake 375ºF, 190ºC, gas mark 5 – the recipe doesn’t specify a time but it should be 10-15 mins according to the size of the biscuits
- the biscuits will cool to be crispy
We ae many, many tray bakes over the years, but we never got to have high tea in the Beach Hotel because when we first went we couldn’t aford it, and by the time we could it had been pulled down!
Lois Elsden 