Kitchen Project #164: Irish Cream
A baking remix with Brian Levy
Hello,
Welcome to today’s edition of Kitchen Projects. Thank you so much for being here.
I’m very excited to share this new edition of Brian Levy’s Baking Remix (a column that dedicated alternative baking ft. recipes to accommodate gluten-free and vegan ingredients) just in time for St Patrick’s Day. I mean, if there was ever a time to knock up a batch of homemade Irish Cream, isn’t it now?
Over on KP+, Brian has developed a beautiful chocolate cake that will pair perfectly with your Irish Cream: Enter the 1/8th Irish Cake. It’s light yet rich and gluten-free and a one bowl delight. There’s also details on how to make it vegan - yay, chocolate cake for everyone! Click here for the recipe.
What’s KP+? Well, it’s the level-up version of this newsletter. By joining KP+, you will support the writing and research that goes into the newsletter (including the commissioning - and fair payment - of all the writers), join a growing community, access extra content (inc., the entire archive) and more. Subscribing is easy and only costs £6 per month or £50 for the whole year. Why not give it a go? Come and join the gang!
Love,
Nicola
A quick announcement…
Before we get into today’s newsletter, might i tempt you with another dessert? I’ve teamed up with Pastaio in Soho for a very exciting collaboration: Banana Pudding Tiramisu.YES! it’s time that London had a banana pudding revolution and I’m SOOOOO READY.:
And I am very excited to let you know that KP+ subscribers are entitled to a free banana pudding tiramisu with their meal! All ya need to do is subscribe (and check this post for the deets of how to claim). Yay!
(And, in case you are nowhere near London but would very much like a banana pudding tiramisu, you can get the recipe here!)
(Re)opening Our Minds to Irish Cream
by Brian Levy
Like many objects of popular affection, Irish cream has never garnered much public respect from snobs. Before preparing to write this piece, I can’t remember having drunk any since I was 21, when, as an exchange student in Paris, I would sometimes cap the night by sipping iced Baileys with a group of English girls in a bar on Rue Mouffetard.
Indeed, Baileys was dismissed as “a girl’s drink” by the first male focus group to taste it. When I recently visited my nice local wine and liquor shop for research material, I reddened from the hot rays of judgement that emanated from the wineseller when I asked him where to find the Baileys.
“[M]ost people of legal drinking age regard Baileys as a bit naff”, admits its creator. “It comes in loads of flavours, at Christmas it sells in Tesco for under a tenner a bottle and a call for Baileys in a smart West End bar is hardly likely to register you as one of the ‘beautiful people’. Chic it ain’t.” But that, of course, doesn’t make it any less delicious to many of us if and when we set aside our snobbery for a sip of what suggests a pre-melted, boozy affogato. Let us rediscover it with an open mind.
What even is Irish Cream?
If you’re wondering what exactly Irish cream is—and why I keep alternating between the phrase “Irish cream” and a brand name, “Baileys”, as though they’re interchangeable—here’s the story:
According to the “Technical File Setting out the Specifications with which Irish Cream Must Comply”, from the Irish Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Irish cream is one of three Irish spirit drink Geographical Indications officially “provided for under the EU regulation[s]”; the other two are Irish Poteen and Irish Whiskey. Under these regulations, it’s defined as a “Blend of fresh Irish dairy cream”—the blend must comprise a minimum of 10% milk fat—"in a flavoured/sweetened alcohol base”—for a minimum of 15% alcohol and 100 grams of sugars per litre in the final product—"containing Irish Whiskey”--minimum: a measly 1%]—"and other permitted ingredients”. It must be made on the island of Ireland, and the blend must be a stable emulsion with a “homogenous and smooth consistency”.
As for why I focus on Baileys in this piece: as the label suggest, the brand truly is “The Original Irish Cream” that inspired any to follow.
The Origin Story
There’s little romance in the genesis tale of Irish cream liqueur; it was invented in the 1970s by two London-based ad men responding to a corporate client’s brief. At least one Irish cream brand (I’ll keep it anonymous as my goal here isn’t to throw them under the bus) claims that Irish monks began blending cream and whisky in the fourteenth century, but I’ve found absolutely no evidence of such ancient origins, and when I emailed the brand asking them to point me in the direction of historical documents that illuminate their claim, I received no response.
Quaint though the monk tale may be, it is pretty clear-cut from David Gluckman’s firsthand account in That sh*t will never sell (and indeed from Ireland’s Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine): he and his business in product development hastily came up with Irish cream in 1973 in response to a request by a client, International Distillers & Vintners (IDV), “’to create a new drinks brand for export.’ They hadn’t said what kind of drink, just that it should be alcoholic.” Having worked “in the team that created the Kerrygold brand in the early 1960s,” Gluckman was well versed “in Ireland’s reputation for dairy produce”. “What would happen if we mixed Irish whiskey and cream?” asked his partner. They immediately gave it a try, mixing “a small bottle of Jamesons Irish Whiskey and a tub of single cream”.
The result was “bloody awful”, but the addition of some sugar and Cadbury’s Powdered Drinking Chocolate did the trick. Gluckman took a taxi to the client, Irish cream sample in hand, who was immediately smitten with the product. Not long after, the branding duo encountered a restaurant in London called Baileys Bistro, and Baileys struck them as the perfect “’Anglo-Irish’ name” to assign as a brand name. IDV bought the name, Baileys launched in 1974, and within three years the liqueur “began to look like a winner”—such a winner, notes Gluckman, that “After only firve years in the market, Baileys [had] attracted as many as seventy-five competitors round the world.”
The birth of Irish cream required no monks in monasteries, no Baileys brothers perpetuating a family tradition: just a couple of branding blokes and an assignment to come up with a new “Irish” alcoholic drink.
One Bowl 1/8th Irish Chocolate Cake
Over on KP+, Brian has developed a beautiful chocolate cake that will pair perfectly with your Irish Cream: Enter the 1/8th Irish Cake - light yet rich, gluten-free and it’s a one bowl delight. There’s also details on how to make it vegan - yay, chocolate cake for everyone! Served with Whipped Irish Cream, you really can’t go wrong here:
Making Your Own Irish Cream
Baileys and other Irish cream brands are, understandably, coy about their proprietary recipes. Nevertheless, clues from Gluckman’s account, from the technical file detailing compliance requirements (minimum 15% alcohol, of which at least 1% must be Irish Whiskey; minimum 10% milk fat; minimum 100 grams of sugar per litre), and from descriptors and nutritional details from Baileys (“the sweetest meeting of fine Irish whiskey and spirits, Irish dairy cream, rich chocolate and vanilla flavours”; 13.6g fat, 21.7g carbohydrates, of which 18g sugars, 2.8g protein, and 0.2g salt per 100ml, 17% alcohol) offered a very good starting point for reverse engineering a recipe.
It took just a few tests to get the ingredients and method right.
I heated heavy cream with cocoa powder and sugar, brought it to a boil to bloom the cocoa and dissolve the sugar before cooling and adding the whiskey. Compared to the control (Baileys), it was too dark in color and tasted too chocolatey.
Next, I halved the amount of cocoa and made up the difference with nonfat milk powder, which has a pleasant milky, vanilla flavor and helps to emulsify and thicken. Still, the result was too chocolatey and too dark, and the shade of brown was much redder than the control, which is a yellowish beige.
I belatedly noticed the Baileys bottle said “coloured with caramel” and realized that both the color and flavor of caramelized sugar might bring my concoction closer to Baileys. So, for the next test, I halved the cocoa again and caramelized the sugar before adding the cream, milk powder, and cocoa to it. The color and flavor were nearly there! Just one more reduction to the cocoa quantity and my Irish cream seemed spot on.
MAKING IT PLANT-BASED
It couldn’t have been easier to make a dairy-free, plant-based version of my homemade Irish cream. I simply swapped in unsweetened coconut cream, my go-to dairy cream replacement, and the dream scenario played out: it worked! Canned coconut cream is simply a more concentrated (or, more accurately, less watered down, as it starts with coconut meat) version of coconut milk with a fat content comparable to that of dairy cream. As expected, this plant-based Irish cream has a pronounced coconut flavor, which I find very pleasing.
Ok, let’s make it.
Homemade Irish Cream (Classic Version)
This recipe produces a creamy, boozy Irish cream that tastes remarkably like the original, Bailey’s, with a more pleasant mouthfeel and a slightly more straightforward, identifiable combination of comforting flavors (cream, whisky caramel, and a quiet hint of cocoa). Some cocoa will settle to the bottom over time, so give your homemade Irish cream a gentle shake before pouring.
Makes 375 mL
Active Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes
Ingredients
15g nonfat milk powder
1/4 tsp cocoa powder
140g heavy cream (US) or 93 double cream plus 47g full fat milk (UK)
10g water
55g sugar
155ml Irish whiskey
Method
In a spouted cup, mix the milk powder with the cocoa. Add the cream and mix well (a mini whisk is the best tool for this; a fork is a fair alternative). Set aside and have a flexible spatula ready.
Put the water in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan. Spoon the sugar over the water; doing it in this order helps the sugar to dissolve evenly. Cook over medium heat to caramelize the sugar until it has a rich amber color; this should take about 6 to 8 minutes, but watch it closely.
Carefully pour the cream mixture (use a flexible spatula to get every last bit) into the saucepan—caution: it will bubble—and bring the mixture to a low boil. Reduce the heat to low and whisk continuously until you can feel that all of the caramelized sugar has re-dissolved. Remove the pan from the heat, strain the cream through a fine-mesh sieve into a jar and let it cool. Once it stops steaming, cover it and move it in the fridge to chill. Once it’s about room temperature, about 30 minutes, add the whiskey, mix well, and transfer to a bottle or jar.
Keep refrigerated for up to 2 weeks or more; sniff it as you would any dairy product to check for spoilage.
Homemade Irish Cream (Plant-Based Version)
Coconut cream lends a subtly tropical quality to this plant-based Irish cream, as if a souvenir from the Caribbean had been brought home to a wintry Emerald Isle. Be sure to use canned coconut cream rather than coconut milk, as the former has the necessary higher fat content. This Irish cream will separate slightly over time, with just a bit of liquid settling to the bottom; adding a dash of guar gum to the mixture will help to stabilize the emulsion, if the separation bothers you visually—or, you can simply shake the bottle gently before pouring and it will come back together.
Makes 375 mL
Active Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes
1/4 tsp cocoa powder
147g unsweetened coconut cream (not coconut milk; preferably with guar gum), mixed well
10g water
63g sugar
155ml Irish whiskey
a pinch of guar gum (optional)
In a spouted cup, mix the cocoa with the coconut cream (a mini whisk is the best tool for this; a fork is a fair alternative). Set aside and have a flexible spatula ready.
Put the water in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan. Spoon the sugar over the water; doing it in this order helps the sugar to dissolve evenly. Cook over medium heat to caramelize the sugar until it has a rich amber color; this should take about 6 to 8 minutes, but watch it closely.
Carefully pour the coconut cream mixture (use a flexible spatula to get every last bit) into the saucepan—caution: it will bubble—and bring the mixture to a low boil. Reduce the heat to low and whisk continuously until you can feel that all of the caramelized sugar has re-dissolved. Remove the pan from the heat, strain the cream through a fine-mesh sieve into a jar and let it cool. Once it stops steaming, cover it and move it in the fridge to chill. Once it’s about room temperature, about 30 minutes, add the whiskey and, if using, guar gum, mix well, and transfer to a bottle or jar.
Keep refrigerated for up to 2 weeks or more; sniff it as you would any dairy product to check for spoilage.
If you are looking for other Irish recipe inspiration, we are lucky to have two incredible KP+ community recipes: David’s Wheaten Bread (aka the wonderful ode to the ‘OG bakers’ of the word - Farmer’s wives!) and Rory’s Brown Bread and Amaretto Ice Cream. Happy St Patrick’s Day!
 | A guest post by
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We live in a small village in southern Spain. Allegedly, of of the men who came up with the idea bought a house in the village in the 70s. It’s now owned by the sons and let out for holiday makers. The same chap also had running water and electricity brought to the village. He was a busy guy.
Years ago I met a woman whose tipple of voice was Baileys mixed with brandy. Kind of festive but you wouldn’t want more than one…