You might know it as dessert. In some parts of the country, they call it a ‘sweet’ or the ‘last course’. Others call them ‘confections’ or ‘treats’. In the north of England, it’s ‘afters’ but in a quiet little corner of the Boyne Valley at Kilmessan, County Meath, the dish you enjoy after your main course is definitely called ‘pudding’. And What’s For Pudding? is a company that helps you with that vexed question: what dish to enjoy when you feel like something sweet? This small, indigenous business has become a genuine success story and is constantly expanding and innovating into new lines of puddings, so that mother and son team, Rory and Catriona Flaherty, can now offer shoppers a little more choice in the pudding stakes. It all began as a passion project, with Catriona concocting tasty treats in a mixing bowl at a kitchen table dusted with flour, sugar, raisins and various other ingredients. From these humble backroom beginnings, products were developed in an atmosphere of love for food and the business of sitting down together over a fabulous meal. These small-batch, handmade origins are an important part of the lineage of the business, and an essential part of the What’s For Pudding? story. “We make them exactly as we’d make them at home,” says Catriona. “Our mixers are bigger than your domestic mixer, yes, but what goes into them is the very same. We stick to a certain size of mix. We never change it and we do more mixes, rather than bigger mixes.”

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Top notch Simply Better All Butter Lemon Sponge Puddings baked with a layer of luscious lemon curd served with blueberries, pomegranate and mint

Texture is important. There is a difference between the mass produced, somewhat synthetic feeling where the food is liquified and emulsified and the more homely sensation where the finished product is consistent without being uniform or bland.

Savour the heartwarming delights of this family-run Irish dessert business, sprinkled with love and tradition

Looking back to the beginning of their story, Catriona recalls how she was looking after her Belfast-born mother in Dublin and scouring the shelves of local supermarkets for a sweet treat to round off the day’s mealtime. Christina’s mother always referred to this part of the meal, unambiguously, as ‘pudding’, a tradition that Catriona has carried on. After her mother’s passing, all sorts of images and memories were thrown up and with them came the seed of an idea. “I was just reminiscing about coming in from school and asking ‘What's for pudding?’ — not what’s for dinner — and I just thought yeah, that's it.” Having come up with the name and the product, Catriona was initially convinced that the business would be “a small little local thing”, selling to a few shops in the area, and indeed it was to begin with. Quite quickly, however — having come to the attention of Dunnes Stores as a perfect product for their Simply Better range — the Flaherty family puddings were to be found on shelves across the country. The question of What’s For Pudding? is today being answered by a growing legion of fans.

Rory, Catriona’s son, has been on board from the beginning. He looks after the day-to-day running of the business while Catriona continues to develop new products — testing, refining and experimenting with ingredients. These subtle new takes on traditional recipes keep the range fresh. There has been a conscious effort to keep that level of craft and human interaction in the process, even while scaling up from the kitchen table to a new state-of-the-art premises overseen by Rory and located at the end of a small, secluded gravel driveway. Names are important: Catriona and Rory are keen to emphasise that their new building is “a bakery, not a factory”. It’s an important distinction. Rory’s background as a surveyor meant he could oversee the construction of the bakery and make sure everything inside was up to scratch. With any small business, there is an endless list of things to be thought about and planned for. The bakery is built on the foundations of an old hay barn. “We used to have animals here, as Dad is a retired vet. We used to have sheep, a few horses, a few cattle — and then we built this,” Rory says. It’s a pleasant environment in which to come to work, and when the work itself involves creating things that people love to eat, it makes for a good atmosphere. On a cyclical level, winter is dessert season and the weeks around Christmas are when the bakery goes into overdrive, the team packaging products that wend their way into shopping trolleys across the country as shoppers plan their bit of indulgence over the holidays.

A bakery. Not a factory

NEVEN'S RECIPE FOR

What's For Pudding?

THE SWEET. HERE. AFTERS.

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It takes a village The What's For Pudding? team celebrate their Great Taste award

Like a tomato (or a fine bottle of Côtes du Rhône), strawberries, according to Pat, taste better when allowed to breathe. “We like to eat them fresh, that’s number one. Number two, if you have to put them in the fridge, eat them at room temperature – always at room temperature.” So, if you’re having strawberries for dessert after your Sunday roast, remember to take them out of the fridge in good time for optimum flavour. And it’s not just Queen Elizabeth II who had a hankering for Clarke’s produce. The current incumbent of Áras an Uachtaráin, President Michael D Higgins, and his wife, Sabina, get a portion of their five a day from Pat’s farm too. Clarke’s has been supplying the Áras with strawberries for many years now and continues to do so. As for the future, Clarke’s has several products in the pipeline, including a smoothie that looks “very promising”, as well as other innovations to market. The combination of old school knowledge and modern technology seems to be working so far. The farm is in safe hands, and as Pat says, “we have a growing family that certainly will be taking over the business. Clarke’s is going to continue… We are growing the most wholesome and flavoursome fresh Irish strawberries. That’s what Clarke’s are all about.” So, if you’re looking for fresh fruit fit for a king, queen, president or head of state, keep an eye out for those punnets with the Simply Better logo at your local Dunnes Stores.

The presidential sweet

In the mix Simply Better Irish Handmade All Butter Triple Chocolate Puddings are baked the traditional way, in individual containers

Sea Salted Toffee Sauce

Rice Pudding

All Butter Bramley Apple Pudding

Rum Butterscotch Sauce

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Chocolate Sauce

All Butter Triple Chocolate Pudding

When you tour the premises you can see the initial mix of each pudding being made up in relatively small container loads, which are purposely agitated and manipulated by hand for practical, as well as esoteric reasons. The mixing helps to aerate the sponges and bases evenly; the human touch ensures that the puddings themselves are crafted by real people in a relaxed, convivial setting — and it shows. These are puddings with personality. The result is hard to define… but you know it when you taste it. Texture is important, too. There is a difference between the mass-produced, synthetic taste of a food that has been liquified and emulsified, and the more homely sensation of a finished product that is consistent without ever being uniform or bland. The hard work has paid off with recognition in the form of awards such as a Golden Fork at The Great Taste Awards in 2016 for Dunnes. “[It was] the first time a supermarket had won it and that was massive — the Great Taste Awards are basically the Oscars of the food industry,” says Rory. Basing the bakery in Meath was obviously important too. “One thing I take a lot of pride in is the fact that we've generated a lot of local employment,” Rory says. The broad age profile of the workforce makes for a great mix of youth and experience. Some of the staff have grown-up families and were looking for a new challenge. “We have a great kitchen manager, Heather, who does an amazing job for us. Myself and Heather chat on a regular basis. I firmly believe that if you look after your staff and try to help them out when they need it, they will reciprocate — and they do. They do, big time.” The staff are a harmonious group with a good-natured attitude that translates to the food; the only bone of contention in the bakery might be about who has control of the Spotify playlist that wafts through the air along with the nutty aroma of shortbreads and pastry. It’s warm, hearty and puts a smile on your face. Outlining the latest additions to the range, Rory says: “We have the rice pudding, a mixed berry pudding and lemon curd pudding. They have all had little tweaks to get them 100% right.” With the holiday season looming large in producers’ calendars, there are plenty of other treats in the pipeline too. “We've developed some stuff for Christmas — we already have a Christmas crown for Dunnes Stores. There’s mixed spice in it, with a different type of flavour. It’s very subtle, but it's there. There are always little bits and pieces and we're working on something new all the time.” The rice pudding is made using the finest Italian Arborio rice, Jersey milk (a richer, creamier milk with a higher fat content), Irish cream and sugar. Catriona has done her own independent taste-test of the product and is happy to report that it passes with flying colours. “Really, it’s all about family food. Our whole background is that if you do it well, and you use good ingredients, the flavour will reflect what you put in,” she says. As to the question that is the brand name: What’s For Pudding? With a range of 10-12 products constantly being updated and refined, the answer has to be ‘Whatever you fancy, yourself’.

Pudding it all on the line