Homemade Irish Cream Liqueur recipe

Okay, my DIY self couldn’t resist this one…over at Eat Drink Better, Lisa Kivirist posted her recipe for homemade Irish Cream Liqueur. I immediately pulled out the ingredients–or a fair approximation thereof–and gave it a shot.

My verdict? Bearing in mind that I a) never measure things well, b) always halve recipes the first time I make them, c) am even less precise with ingredients when I’m halving recipes, d) am free with substitutions especially when they decrease fat content, like milk for some of the half and half, e) always increase the booze amount in any booze-involving recipe, and f) only had American blended whiskey, no Irish…

LOVELY.  Definitely Irish Cream–this recipe is right on the money.  It tastes…right.  And as Lisa says in her original post, you have total control over your ingredients–fair trade cocoa, grass-fed cream, organic sugar, complete absence of HFCS, and so forth.  Mine was thinner and boozier than probably intended (see D and E above), but still really nice.  I expect after sitting overnight it will be even better.  (Bear in mind that even if I’d used all half and half, it still wouldn’t have that carrageenan-enhanced thickness the bottled stuff does…it’s a little thinner.)

Here’s Lisa’s original recipe (from her Inn Serendipitycookbook, Edible Earth), with notes about my adjustments and questions/issues…

Ingredients:
1 c. dry milk powder (I use Bob’s Red Mill–nice quality and flavor but tends to clump!)
1/3 c. hot water
1/3 c. sugar
3 T. butter (melted)
1 c. half & half cream (I used half milk and half half and half, because it’s what I had.) (Half half and half. That looks funny.)
1 2/3 c. whiskey (Probably increased it by about a third of a cup…and we used American whiskey instead of Irish, because it’s what we have.)
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). (My note: I got a thick paste here; I can’t understand how possibly that amount of powder mixed with that amount of liquid, hot or not, could wind up acting like condensed milk.  Although the idea of making my own sweetened condensed milk is a nice thing to know about!)
*  Add all other ingredients and blend for about 30 seconds. (Again, because of the paste issue, I had a little trouble here and had to scrape it down a good bit before everything would blend nicely)
*  Keep refrigerated.  Will last about two weeks refrigerated. (I’m betting this two weeks could be deeply extended, but that’s my own business.  I’d never advise anyone else to keep it longer…)

This one is a keeper! Happy–hic!–New Year!