Kieran 
We’re looking for sundae and other ice cream dessert ideas. If you have any suggestions of how we can improve our dessert offerings or create something new and fabulous, please leave a comment below!
It could be anything from the tried and tested to the wild and wacky (recently someone asked we make the following dessert: banana, maple syrup, vanilla ice cream, and streaky bacon).
Thanks a million!
The thing about a family business is that the entire family tends the be pulled in, even if on a very temporary basis. Here’s my sister Deirdre, who is visiting from Germany, helping decorate the Temple Bar shop…
We still don’t have our proper, surfboard tables for our Wicklow Street shop, and we decided while we were waiting to simply use plywood in the shape of a surfboard as a temporary measure.
The tables looked a bit unfinished and tacky, so we put out some pens with the thought that customers make the shop their own and do the decorating for us. We’ve learned one thing – people LOVE writing on tables! It will almost be a shame to take them away when the new ones come!
Maybe we can find a place for them, because I find them really fun to look at…
My niece, Áine, is in Ireland, and she has brought with her a seriously old-fashioned, fully manual camera, a 1978 Exa 1, which were manufactured in Dresden. She’s shooting black and white film, and in the age of digital images, her photos do capture a mood that I miss. Below are: 1. Áine in the Dingle shop 2. Ailish 3. Claire making coffee 4. My nephew Ryan with my mother in the background. I think she’s showing talent!
Photos courtesy of Áine Goodman.
I wrote this for today’s Irish Times magazine, with the sea salt and sea salt ice cream recipes:
WHEN IT COMES to summer, at least in memory, the days are sunny, lazy and worry-free. This year, we have already had so many sunny days that it feels like a real summer, and it’s triggering memories that have been dormant these past few years. There’s the smell of pollen, cut grass and barbecue smoke on clothes, the tired buzz of insects overwhelmed by abundance, music outdoors, ripples of contented laughter, the slipperiness of suntan lotion, the heat of the skin after a day at the beach, and the softness of truly ripe fruit. The senses awaken.
Of summer tastes, the first that comes to my mind is salt. It’s the salt of sweat, but even more so the salt of the sea; salt dried on the lips and flavouring everything consumed post-beach. We are lucky here in Ireland that the sea is never too far away that we can’t reach it when a day off coincides with sunshine. I am lucky living in Dingle, when even on a busy day I can escape to Bín Bán or Doonshean for a quick, cold dip and return to work within the hour, revived, with feet sandy in my shoes and a thin shield of salt on my skin.
Salt, in moderation, is not only tasty, but it is a vital component of our bodies. We need it to regulate our fluid content, especially in summer, and perhaps that’s what makes salt a slightly primeval experience. John F Kennedy, at the America Cup race in 1962, said: “All of us have, in our veins, the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea – whether it is to sail or to watch it – we are going back from whence we came.”
I find it strange that most of us give salt so little thought, especially since it is a staple of the kitchen. It’s so varied, and so easy to make if you have access to the sea. Try it. When you’re leaving the beach this summer, fill up your empty water bottles with sea water after you pack away your towels, trowels and that weighty tome you’ve put off reading all year. A litre of seawater should make 40 grams of salt. You’ll find that it’s more complex and more interesting in flavour than anything you can buy in a shop. It will give you a lingering taste of your holiday and a great conversation piece at a dinner party.
Tonight we opened both shops in Dublin for a few hours. As always, the last pieces are the most difficult and finishing the shops is proving quite a challenge.
The glass in Temple Bar finally arrived (photo above), and it took three days to install instead of the one we had expected, but at least it’s in and now there’s just some more cladding to do and general tidying up.
In Wicklow Street (photo right), we’re still without a few key pieces – extra cladding, tables for the back, swings for the front, and various bits of branding.
I’m very tired and very excited at the same time. I know it’s going to take an awful lot of effort to get the final bits and pieces done, but at least the shops are in our control now, and at least we can start doing what we love, and that’s selling ice cream!
I don’t know if the blog is the right place for this, but I thought I’d make the press release available on-line:
Cool Summer Treats in Dublin
Murphys Ice Cream, an Irish company that has built a cult following for its frozen artisan delights, is celebrating its 10th Anniversary by opening two new shops on Wicklow Street and in Temple Bar Square, Dublin, creating 15 new jobs.
The new locations have been designed as little havens of delight amidst the hustle and bustle of Dublin and will give denizens and visitors to the capitol an opportunity to taste some of the Murphy Brothers more interesting creations. Besides the signature ice creams, Murphys will also serve carefully sourced, biodynamic coffee and a range of sweet treats.
“We are thrilled to announce such a positive move, especially in such a difficult economic environment,” say Sean Murphy, “but we believe there is no wrong time for good ice cream.”
There are many in the capital already familiar with the brand since Murphys is sold in some of Dublin’s top food stores, and visitors to Kerry will most likely have ordered up a scoop of their favourite Seacláid, Brioscaí or Sú Craobh in Murphys Dingle and Killarney shops.
So, what can the uninitiated expect? Kieran Murphy says their flavour inspiration at the moment is a return to basics, with ice creams that highlight top quality ingredients along with a base of fresh cream, milk of the rare Kerry cow breed, and free range local eggs.
“We’re offering interesting but simple flavours this year,” he says. “What’s new is that we’re encouraging customers to combine two flavours, even in a small size, which allows for a little experimentation. For example, you could choose our Dingle sea salt ice cream with burnt caramel or intense dark chocolate, or you could order mint leaf and raspberry sorbet.“
The two shops will open Friday, 25th June 2010.
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Photos and samples available on request
