Food & Wine

Breaking bread with the world: Darina Allen’s recipes from far and wide

These recipes from the legendary cook’s New Ballymaloe Bread Book evoke memories of the generous home cooks and chefs who taught them to her on her travels

Darina Allen, co-founder of Ballymaloe Cookery School, pictured at Airfeld in Dundrum, Dublin. ‘To this day I still get a flutter in my tummy every time I take a loaf out of the oven.’ Picture: Fergal Phillips

Memories come flooding back as I flick through the pages of my latest publication, The New Ballymaloe Bread Book. So many of these recipes and techniques were taught to me by generous home cooks and chefs over half a century of travels around the world.

The recipes for msemen and baghrir both bring me back to Morocco, particularly beautiful Marrakech, which is still recovering from the devastating earthquake that ravaged the Atlas mountains in September ...