How about Irish Oatmeal Cookies?

Here is a link that might be useful: cookies

Well, if they weren't 6th graders, there would be Irish coffee and Irish Whiskey Cake, but since they're kids, I'd go with chocolate.

I understand that the Irish eat a lot of chocolate per capita, in fact they have one of the highest consumption rates of chocolate in the world, so chocolate is a favorite dessert. This recipe is good and has the ever present potato too, I got it from a website which attributed it to Maura Laverty's cookbook, "Full and Plenty".

CHOCOLATE POTATO CAKE

1/2 lb butter
Â2 1/3 cups caster or granulated sugar (superfine works best if you have it handy)
Â4 eggs
Â9 rounded tablespoons grated chocolate (approximately 3 standard squares of baking chocolate)
Â5 rounded tablespoons ground almonds
Â1 cup cold, sieved or riced cooked potato (see below for specific directions about the potato)
Â2 1/2 cups flour (AP flour is fine, but cake flour is better if you have it)
Â1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Â2 rounded teaspoons baking powder
Â1/2 teaspoon salt
Â2/3 cup milk

For preparing the pan you'll bake in:

Â1 1/2 tablespoons flour
Â1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa
First prepare your cake pan. A tube pan like a Bundt pan works best for this recipe: but a springform cake pan works fine too.

If using a tube pan or Bundt pan, butter it well inside, paying particular attention to any flutings or crevices in the pan. Then mix the flour and cocoa together and use this mixture to flour the inside of the pan.

If using a springform pan, butter it too: then line it with a circle of buttered baking parchment for the bottom and a strip of buttered baking parchment for the sides.

Now prepare your cooked potato by one of these two methods:

ÂBoil in unsalted water 2 medium-sized potatoes or 3 small potatoes in their jackets, then drain, cool completely, peel, and rice or sieve.
ÂOr if you prefer, peel and chunk 2 medium-sized potatoes or 3 small potatoes, boil for 15 minutes or until cooked through. Drain them, dry them briefly over low heat until most of the steam has stopped rising, then remove from heat and mash well, ricing or sieving when fully cooled.
An important note about the potatoes: Do not add them to the batter if they are even slightly warm. If you do, the result will be a heavy cake that may fail to rise, or only rise partway. Also: We have never tried this cake with instant mashed potatoes. Better to play it safe and use the real thing.

Preheat the oven to 350°, then prepare the cake batter:

Grate the chocolate on a fine grater, or pulse in a food processor, or crush with a mortar and pestle, until reduced to small granules. (The food processor is by far the easiest and fastest way: the grater and mortar-and-pestle are more labor intensive, but produce a slightly finer result.)

When this is done, sift the flour once by itself. Then sift it a second time with the cinnamon, baking powder and salt.

Cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy.

Separate the eggs. Add the yolks, one at a time, to the creamed mixture, beating well after each one.

Stir in the grated chocolate and ground almonds. Add the sieved potato and stir again.

Add the flour alternately with the milk, beating gently until smooth after each addition.

When this process is complete, whip the egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold the whipped egg whites carefully into the cake mixture.

Spoon into the prepared springform pan or Bundt pan / tube pan: tap gently once on the counter to settle. Bake for 1 3/4 hours. Test for doneness with a toothpick or skewer at the end of this time: bake for another 15 minutes if needed.

Remove from the oven and allow to rest in the pan for at least twenty minutes before removing from the pan: then cool on a rack.

To finish, frost the chocolate cake with a chocolate-based icing, or (if you prefer the simple approach) dust with confectioners' sugar / icing sugar.

Annie

I found the link below with some ideas, but you have to laugh as there's nothing Irish about those! Pavlova? Irish?!
This link seems more authentic.
http://www.irishabroad.com/culture/kitchen/Recipe.asp?RcpID=2

How about Irish potatoes (the candy) I have a very good recipe if you are interested. I make them every St. Patty's Day, they are a tradition in my family!

I have a recipe for an Irish Coffee Pie, but it has quite a bit of Irish Whiskey in it, and so I wouldn't recommend it for 6th graders. Don't most Irish desserts have whiskey in them?

Lars

I saved a recipe for a Bailey's Chocolate cheesecake from "Gimme some Oven" that is beautiful and sounds heavenly. That probably wouldn't be very suitable for 6th graders either.LOL I do intend to try it in the near future.

Since I'm not much of a baker it may take me a while to get up the courage.

jude

Quick Google for "typical Irish dessert" yeilds this site.

You could make an apple crisp with oatmeal in the topping.

Trifle.

The trifle I had in Britain was always make in a rectangular baking pan, not stacked high in a clear glass trifle dish. Other than that, it was much the same: layers of cake cubes, pudding (custard), whipped cream, and fresh fruit.

The British seem to like trifle made with canned mandarin oranges.

Shortbread, made with real butter, rolled into large rounds and scored into wedges. They are called petticoats. Just like the Walkers shortbread petticoats that you can buy in the store.