Fifteens for St Patrick

Happy St Patrick's Day! All over the world, people of Irish descent will be celebrating their patron saint. I'm not aware of any Irish blood in either me or my friends but, on Saturday night, we celebrated anyway!

Chickpea and I both wore green and a simple shamrock brooch I'd made out of felt. We listened to Irish drinking songs, watched The Yank (funny for all the wrong reasons) and ate traditional Irish food, like potato cakes.

My contribution to the food was a batch of Fifteens. I first tried these biscuit-like goodies at my quilt group's Christmas party and thought they were delicious. The name Fifteens comes from the fact that there are 15 of most of the ingredients.They're a traditional treat in Northern Ireland and couldn't be simpler to make. In fact you can  probably make them in 15 minutes! If you'd like to make a batch for your own St Patrick's celebrations, or just because, here's how.

Ingredients

15 large marshmallows, halved
15 digestive biscuits, crushed
15 glace cherries, halved
150ml condensed milk
75g desiccated coconut

Mix together the marshmallows, biscuits and cherries.

Gradually stir in the condensed milk until it starts to form a stiff dough.

Then the messy bit: use your hands to pull the ingredients together and then form the dough into a long sausage.

Spread a layer of the coconut on a clean surface and roll over the sausage, pressing lightly until it's well coated. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 2-3 hours. Cut into 15 slices!

Yummy! Very sweet so you probably won't want more than one and even better the next day.

I'll leave you with an Irish blessing:

May your troubles be less
And your blessings be more
And nothing but happiness
Come through your door.

xx