Recommended: Pizza, brittle and chocolate
3 items that I've enjoyed recently
This week’s edition of Ocras is a short one as I’m on holidays, but even so, I still wanted to leave you with some quality tips for the weekend. Therefore, I’m sharing three impressive Irish products that I’ve enjoyed in recent months.
And just in case I don’t say it often enough, please get out there and support local Irish producers.
Dublin Pizza Company cook-at-home pizzas
Based on Dublin’s Aungier St, the Dublin Pizza Company is well known for their high quality and tasty Italian style pizzas made with quality Irish ingredients. They’ve even gone as far as setting up a polytunnel to grown their own organic produce.
In recent weeks, photos had appeared online showing their pre-made pizzas, packaged and ready to cook at home. When I saw the ‘Lucifero’ sitting in the fridge at my excellent little local shop Marlowe & Co, I immediately grabbed it to try out.
At the moment, the DPC cook at home range consists of just three varieties, though I understand there are plans to expand: classic margherita, spicy Lucifero and their own DPC combination. The pizza was perfectly intact when I opened up the packaging, and even though these are designed for home ovens, I simply had to fire up our Ooni pizza oven for maximum effect. When one has an Ooni, one Oonis.
The end result was superb, a perfectly crispy base with touches of leoparding on the edges. The Lucifero’s pungent combination of ‘nduja, serrano chilli and blue cheese is maybe not for everyone, but it was exactly my kind of thing.
The DPC pizzas are available to purchase at Fresh (Grand Canal and Smithfield), Fallon & Byrne, Marlowe & Co, Robbie’s Sandyford, Elm Epicurean, Lotts & Co and Avoca (Kilmacanogue, Rathcoole, Ballsbridge, Monkstown and Malahide).
Second Street Bakeshop toffee brittle
Disclosure: I received a sample box back in 2023 consisting of 4 packets of Second Street Bakeshop brittle as part of a press drop arranged by Food Story Ireland. All opinions are my own
I have a confession. I hate the sensation of sticky, chewy toffees and similar sweets that gum up my teeth and threaten to dislodge a tooth. But even despite this, I couldn’t get enough of the toffee brittle from Claire Keane’s Second Street Bakeshop range. Her take on this retro classic is damn addictive.
Claire creates thin long slabs of crunchy toffee using fresh Irish butter which, once hardened, are coated in milk or dark sustainably-farmed chocolate, and sprinkled with Achill Island Sea Salt.
Ever since I was a child and I ‘discovered’ the magic of mixing salty crisps with Dairy Milk chocolate when walking home after my Irish dancing classes, I have been a slave of combined sweet and salty flavours, so this brittle was right up my street. Packets of brittle start from €6.50, and you can thank me later.
Noo Chocolates
A friend recently sent me a small box of Noo salted caramel chocolate hearts to mark Valentine’s Day (or Galentine’s in this case) and I was immediately blown away by how tasty they were.
I thought that I was pretty familiar with the main chocolatiers here in Ireland, and yet this Mayo-based producer caught me by surprise. Mary and Damien Corrigan are the pair behind Noo, who formally turned their chocolate making hobby into a business in 2017. They make great use of Irish ingredients including Achill Island Sea Salt, whiskey and Cuinneog butter.
As I basically at times have more money than common sense, I immediately went to the Noo website, where I ordered some more deliciousness - peanut butter and honey chocolates (€9), plus a 250g box of mixed chocolates (€24). As my house is not great for taking well-lit photos, the picture below was taken in what I like to call my ‘real life style’ e.g. on top of my cooker.
I loved the peanut & honey chocolates, which reminded me of those famous American peanut butter cups, but in a nicer, less sweet way. There was a very generous 9 individual flavours in the mixed box featuring both milk and dark chocolates, and I thought €24 was excellent value for this level of creativity.
That pizza straight from the Ooni, perfection! I alway say that pizza is a major food group in itself because it comes with carbs, protein and fat!
That toffee brittle 🤤