Dessert in a jar just about sums up the award-winning East of Boston range of sauces developed by Barbara O'Mahony and produced in west Cork.
Boston-born O'Mahony started making the sauces two years ago, to satisfy her longing for the luscious chocolate dessert sauces her mother made. When she had successfully tweaked a recipe from an old cookbook, O'Mahony went into production and launched her Chocolate Bliss, Tantalising Toffee and Raspberry Rapture sauces from a stall at Douglas Farmers' Market. Cassis Noir, a blackcurrant sauce, was her next innovation.
The sauces gained recognition by winning four gongs at last year's Great Taste awards, and they are widely available from Superquinn, some branches of Dunnes Stores, and speciality food stores.
Although all four products are made with only natural ingredients, they split down the middle into the goodies - the fat-free, fruity ones - and the decadent chocolate, butter and cream confections. All can be gently heated in a microwave. "Don't drizzle - pour it on" are the serving instructions. You'd be hard pressed not to.
EAST OF BOSTON TANTALISING TOFFEE (€4.50): The dark-golden, buttery Tantalising Toffee sauce is not too sweet, and it is very versatile. You could eat it straight from the jar - just remember to stir it up a bit before you dip in, as the mix of brown sugar, golden syrup, Irish butter and full-cream evaporated milk tends to separate. It is good with ice-cream, or hot buttered apples or bananas, and can be used as a topping for sponge cake or in a banoffee pie.
O'Mahony suggests alternating layers of slightly warmed Tantalising Toffee and Chocolate Bliss as a filling for pastry cases. The sauces will thicken as they return to room temperature. For a "cake shop" finish have the caramel layer on top in half of your tarts, and the chocolate on the remainder. Sprinkle the caramel-topped tarts with a few grains of Maldon sea salt, and the chocolate ones with finely chopped almonds or hazelnuts. If you're going all out to impress, edible gold leaf, available from specialist baking shops, looks great on the chocolate ones.
Or you could swirl the two together, which is taken from Exceptional Cakes, by Dan Lepard and Richard Whittington, published by Quadrille (£5.99 in UK), which features recipes from the Baker and Spice shops in London. www.eastofbostonfoods.com.
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