Homemade Irish Cream Recipe

Here’s the Homemade Irish Cream recipe from our Inn Serendipity B&B cookbook, Edible Earth. Cheers!

After the rocky economy and related bumps along the way in 2009, everyone is looking for a smoother New Year.  Indulge your guests this evening with a toast with Homemade Irish Cream, a creamy indulgence that makes any worries melt away.  At least, shall we say, for the moment.

I confess, for a celebratory toast I’m always partial to something sweet.  But as I started reading labels of my favorite commercial liquors I realized how much of that sweetness came from high fructose corn syrup and other additives.  With that motivation, I started experimenting with various homespun versions on our B&B guests at Inn Serendipity (didn’t need to twist any arms there), and this Irish Cream (kind of like a Baileys) quickly became the house favorite.

By controlling the ingredients that go in the drink, you can opt for better quality items like organic cream (I use Organic Valley), fair trade cocoa (our B&B orders cocoa from Equal Exchange by the case), and sugar (we buy bulk from Wholesome Sweeteners).  Skimp a little on the whiskey if you need to.  A cheap variety would work just as well as it will be masked by the other flavors.

Homemade Irish Cream

Yield: about 2 pints

Ingredients:
1 c. dry milk powder
1/3 c. hot water
1/3 c. sugar
3 T. butter (melted)
1 c. half & half cream
1 2/3 c. whiskey
1 t. instant coffee
1 t. vanilla extract
1 t. almond extract
1 T. cocoa powder
2 T. sugar

Directions:
*  Mix the dry milk powder, hot water, sugar and melted butter in a blender (this is the equivalent of one standard can of sweetened condensed milk; feel free to use in other recipes).
*  Add all other ingredients and blend for about 30 seconds.
*  Keep refrigerated.  Will last about two weeks refrigerated.

Photo credit:  Lisa Kivirist