I had a chance to try out some recipes I’ve had on my “to try” list for a long time. Both of them used Irish Whiskey.
First, I whipped up some homemade Irish cream liqueur (from The Hungry Mouse) during our time in Whistler. It was so good, I’m making some more for New Year’s Eve tonight. Here are the ingredients… You just throw everything in a blender and whip it up. Then strain the liquid to catch any remaining egg or coffee granules.
The Hungry Mouse’s Homemade Irish Cream Whiskey
- Half of a 750ml bottle of Jameson’s Irish Whiskey
- 1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk (NOT evaporated)
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 4 eggs
- 2 tbs chocolate syrup
- 2 tsp instant espresso
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
I used the same Perrier bottles as The Hungry Mouse did, after some serious scraping off of the label. (It was really stuck on there.)
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I’m eating the remaining frosting from these brownies as we speak. Making the Irish cream liqueur sparked my memory of this one on the list. A fellow Capitol Hill blogger, Wesa, got an honorable mention for her recipe at The Kitchn. I did not use dark chocolate, so they didn’t turn out as beautiful as hers. But VERY yummy.
Wesa’s Irish Coffee Brownies
1 1/4 cups sugar- 3/4 cup butter
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1/4 cup Irish Whiskey
- 2 tbs instant coffee crystals
- 2 oz bittersweet (70% or higher dark chocolate) shavings
Melt the butter, sugar and cocoa powder in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly.Remove from heat. Add eggs and 1 tsp vanilla; beat lightly just until combined. Stir together flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a bowl; set aside. Stir together milk and whiskey; stir in coffee crystals. Add flour mixture and milk mixture alternately to the chocolate mixture, beating by hand after each addition.
Pour into a greased 15x10x1-inch baking pan. Sprinkle chocolate shavings on top. Bake for 15-20 minutes in a 350 degree oven (or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean). Cool in pan on a wire rack.
Wesa’s Irish Coffee Brownie Glaze
- 2 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tbs Irish Whiskey
- 1 1/4 tsp vanilla
- 3 to 4 tbs brewed coffee
Stir together ingredients until of drizzling consistency. Pour over brownies once significantly cooled.
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The last recipe I tried didn’t include Irish Whiskey, but I was helped along by my coffee and Bailey’s this morning. Close enough… I wanted to make the famous NY Times chocolate chip cookies. I haven’t actually baked these yet, because the dough needs to chill for 24 hours. Will have to wait until next year to eat them… Har, har.
Wishing everyone a Happy New Year! May it be full of sweets and Irish Whiskey!
[...] As I read more about the Solstice I realized that almost every tradition around the world has some sort of celebration of light, be it Christmas, Diwali, Yule or Hanukkah. Candles are an obvious symbol used in these celebrations, so I was sure to have plenty of them around our house last night. The evergreen tree is also a symbol used in many traditions. So, in addition to the glass tree that I’ve been using for the last few years, I made some of these magazine trees to decorate. I was also inspired by How About Orange’s tutorial on making 5-point snowflakes, and got a little carried away with making them out of magazine pages for our walls and to decorate the party favors (bottles of my “Holiday Cheer”! [...]