Homemade Irish Cream Liqueur

     One of the main lessons I've learned in college is that many special occasions/holidays that you thought were awesome when you were a little kid are ten times better, and more appreciated in college. Examples include Halloween, snow days, sporting events, weekends in general and of course, St. Paddy's Day. No matter what day of the week St. Paddy's falls on, you can fully count on nearly the entire student population (regardless of their lack of Irish heritage) spending the day celebrating.....as in drinking. Some are up as early as the sunrise and tossing back car bombs before they've even had breakfast. Needless to say I was a complete waste of life on the day-after-St. Paddy's day. But I did make some pretty good hash out of the leftover corned beef....

    I decided to contribute to the festivities by making some homemade Baileys. It is SO simple to make, and it tastes amazing. Also, if you think about the cost of making it yourself vs buying a bottle, you save quite a bit of money. To put it in perspective, the fifth of whiskey we got cost just about the same as a fifth of Baileys, but it's nearly doubled in volume once you make the actual recipe, so your costs are cut in half! (And it's stronger than the 17% alcohol volume in Baileys when you use whiskey that is 40% - it would be just above 20%)

    We used Paddy's Irish Whiskey for this recipe. I hadn't heard of it before buying it, and I found out it is more commonly known in Ireland than it is in the US. Jameson would be great too, or any other Irish whiskey you prefer.

 

     Us college kids love any excuse to celebrate. I'm happy that my last St. Paddy's day at UMaine was a blast, and though I spent the entire day today being a baby, nursing my hangover, it was well worth it!! 

PS- I'm thinking little decorated bottles of this stuff would be perfect for a thoughtful holiday gift! :)






Homemade Irish Cream Liqueur
 Ingredients:
1 2/3 cups Irish Whiskey
1 cup heavy cream (don't try and diet here... use the heavy cream, no half and half or anything!)
14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
2 tbsp strong brewed coffee
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions:
Place all ingredients in blender and mix til smooth.
Store in fridge. It's best if you wait overnight to drink it so flavors can set!