Homemade Irish Creme

Both my husband and I grew up in families that really kept Christmas well.   He enjoys decorating, baking, and concocting as much as I do, so it was something we wanted to recreate for our kids. I am pretty happy to see that my oldest daughter who is off on her own, is following suit for her own little one.

The first recipe I am sharing is my homemade recipe for an Irish creme with fairly-traded, organic ingredients. I start by making my own sweetened condensed milk, which is a nice trick to know for holiday baking,  so I will toss that recipe on at the end of the post.  You will also want to have some really strong, hot coffee on hand.

The thing is that Bailey’s Irish creme is really a pretty new invention.  It popped up in the 1970s and it seems to me that it was just their way of bottling up something that tastes like eggnog with a generous splash of whiskey. So when I make it at home, I just go back to that family recipe. 

You can play with the number of eggs you use. We like a good thick nog, so we use six.  We also put a whole bottle of whiskey in this, because I am a good Gaelic gal who has sloshed back my fair share of poteen in my day.  Basically what I am saying is that this is really tweaked to my liking. If I were going to make this for company, I would use a half bottle of whiskey and only three eggs.

My Homemade Irish Creme

Ingredients

8 oz sweetened condensed milk
1-quart cream or half-and-half
4 oz of hot, strong coffee
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
3-6 eggs
1 tsp almond extract
1 750 ml bottle of Irish Whiskey

Directions

1. First, dissolve the cocoa powder in the hot coffee.
2. Then stir in the sweetened condensed milk, cream, and almond extract. You can use a blender to mix this or whisk it by hand.  I use my immersion blender.
3. Then whisk in the eggs, one at a time.
4. After you have whisked this all together until it’s frothy slowly pour in the whiskey.
5. Store this in a glass jar in the refrigerator to be safe. I’ve seen people insist it doesn’t have to be kept cool but I don’t like to take chances.

Sweetened Condensed Milk

Ingredients

6 cups organic whole milk
1 stick butter
4 1/2 cups organic evaporated cane juice
1 vanilla bean or 1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract

Directions

1. Melt the stick of butter in a 3 quart sauce pan.
2. Stir in milk, sugar and vanilla.
3. Bring to a boil and simmer for at 1 hour; stirring frequently.
4. Remove from heat. When it cools store in the refrigerator. This thickens as  it cools, so don’t worry if it isn’t as thick when it is hot.