- Julia Thiel
- Homemade Irish cream
Last November, when a couple of friends from college said they’d visit me in early January, I promised to make them homemade Irish cream. I can’t remember why, exactly, but I know I had been reading about how to do it—it sounded like a fun project, but at the time I had eggnog to make, age, and then taste. About an hour before they showed up I remembered the promise and took a quick trip to the corner store for the necessary ingredients: cream, sweetened condensed milk, and Irish whiskey.
I bought Fecking Irish Whiskey, because it was fairly cheap (around $20) and I thought the name was funny. I was worried this would turn out to be a mistake, but it’s actually pretty good: while it’s not particularly complex, it’s very smooth and works well for mixing. I did make a mistake, though, in substituting dark chocolate melted in some of the cream for chocolate syrup. I could swear that I saw at least one recipe that called for real melted chocolate instead of cocoa powder or chocolate syrup, but the slightly grainy texture it produced wasn’t ideal. I also used a couple tablespoons of strong coffee instead of the coffee granules, and skipped the almond extract.
