Irish Cream: Less Sugar, More Flavor!

This is the first of two recipes I will be creating for St. Patrick's day 2021. Irish cream is on of my favorite liqueurs. It is a combination of Cream, Irish Whiskey, Chocolate and coffee. Click on the image to go to the video.

I looked through several recipes for Irish cream and found a lot of sugar being used. I was hoping I could change that. Considering my belt size these days, I need to change that!

First I noticed that there were two very bitter components that needed to be compensated for. The coffee and the chocolate. I know what you are thinking "chocolate is not bitter." Chocolate is not bitter because it is loaded with sugar! in its purest form, chocolate is very, very bitter.

Two forms of chocolate were used, in the recipes I reviewed. Cocoa powder and Chocolate syrup. When the cocoa powder was used I saw an increase in sugar from either granulated sugar or increased sweetened condensed milk.

Chocolate syrup is cocoa powder with a simple syrup. A simple syrup is nothing more than 2 parts sugar to 1 part water that is heated to dissolve the sugar and stabilize the solution. In other words chocolate syrup is chocolate flavored sugar water!

Regular cocoa powder is what is commonly used. To reduce the bitterness let's use Dutch process cocoa powder. Dutch process cocoa powder is is alkalized to remove the natural bitterness of the chocolate. So we can use less sugar!

Now let's talk coffee. I love the bitterness I get from coffee. I have a cup of black coffee 3 inches from my left hand as I type! I have seen multiple recipes that call for black coffee, espresso, instant coffee and instant espresso. All of these forms of coffee are very high on the bitterness scale. (Ok, I made up the bitterness scale!) Here is another opportunity to reduce the bitterness and therefore the sugar by using cold brewed coffee.

Cold brewed coffee has very little bitterness. I have made a video on Cold Brewed Coffee. It is very simple to make. The ingredients are water, I like filtered, and coarse ground coffee. For every 8 ounces of water use 2 ounces of coffee. Place the ingredients in a jar and let the water infuse overnight. Strain the mixture the next day and you have cold brewed coffee.

Now that we have our substitutions, let's make our Irish cream.

Ingredients:

8 ounces Heavy or Whipping Cream

One 14 ounce can of Sweetened Condensed Milk *

1 ounce Cold Brewed Coffee

1 Tablespoon Dutch Process Cocoa **

500mL to 750mL Irish Whiskey ***

Place all ingredients in a blender carafe and mix thoroughly. I used a Kitchen Aid immersion blender. Be careful you do not whip air into the mixture. Transfer to a bottle or jar and store in the refrigerator. The cream is perishable so it must refrigerated, no longer than two months. This is a non-issue in my home.

* This is the only source of sugar in my recipe. I have seen some recipes that double this for the same yield. Also the 14 ounces is by weight not volume.

** You can use up to 4 Tablespoons of the dutch process cocoa if you would like a drink that is more chocolatey!

*** You can use as much or as little whiskey as you like. If you like it stronger use the whole bottle. Weaker, use less. I used Jameson's but any Irish whiskey can be used. Look for a whiskey in the $20 to $30 range.

I like my Irish Cream on the rocks, but in a cup of coffee or even in cold brewed coffee is also very good!