.jeri.

Okay, so Kristen shared this recipe with me, and I instantly went to the store to make sure I had the ingredients to try it. Now, the author on the site refers to the final product as homemade Bailey's, but let me tell you up front that it's merely homemade Irish liqueur. It tastes great, but I plan to tweak the recipe each time I try it to see if I can get it closer to actual Bailey's. Luckily, I had some of the lovely Bailey's in my fridge so I could take a comparison swig.

The Ingredients!

- 1 cup of light cream
- 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk
- 1 to 1 and 2/3 cups of Irish whiskey
- 1 teaspoon of instant coffee
- 2 tablespoons of chocolate syrup
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla
- 1 teaspoon of almond extract

The Easy Process:
Pour all the ingredients into your blender and blend away for 30 seconds!

I had some heavy whipping cream left over from Christmas and was out of almond extract. As a result of those alterations, as well as probably missing some key ingredient in the recipe, my liqueur came out thick, strong on the whiskey front, and was definitely missing the je ne sais quoi that says "Drink me, I'm Irish!" in Bailey's. I think the next time I try it I will use light cream, a little less chocolate, a little less whiskey, and add in some almond extract. If I ever get the recipe close to the real thing, I'll make sure to post an update.

It was still tasty enough to drink, though! Ric liked it and I did too, until I figured out that it averages about 95 calories per ounce the way I made it. You may want to take that into consideration. It's definitely why I'll be trying out the light cream next time. We liked it enough that I altered my old St. Brendan's bottle to honor the lovely lady that made me aware of the fact that I could concoct my own liqueurs:

(Yes, that says Kristen.)

Update as of 1/20/10: When I opened the fridge to pour some of this sweet stuff the other day, it had congealed enough that it wouldn't leave the bottle. I think the heavy whipping cream may be the culprit. I'll keep trying!