Tuesday, December 02, 2008

homemade spirits~ a holiday tradition

every season my husband and i make several batches of irish cream to gift to our friends, family and neighbors. it is super simple, and has become a super popular gift with our crowd. we collect bottles throughout the year~ after trying empty bottles from different types of liquor we decided our favorite containers are empty flavored syrup bottles. you can ask your local coffee shop to save them for you. we also go through a few of the smaller syrup bottles in our home thanks to our new espresso machine! the smaller bottles are the perfect gifting size.


homemade irish cream
2 eggs (i use an egg substitute)
2 TBSP instant coffee
2 TBSP chocolate syrup
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
2 cups whipping cream (one pint)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup irish whiskey
(rum also works, and i have even used vodka in a pinch!)
blend, then pour into bottles. voila! homemade irish cream! i can usually fill 3-4 small bottles with one batch. you can also leave out the liquor and the almond extract and add some flavored syrup for a yummy coffee creamer. peppermint is really good! this will last 2-3 weeks stored in the refrigerator, but seriously, who is going to let this sit around that long?!

i print out little tags to tie around the neck of each bottle and we gift them with a bag of coffee and some biscotti. they make wonderful host/hostess gifts!


and yes, that little bottle has been, um, sampled...

14 comments:

kraftykash said...

What a GREAT idea! And yummy too!

Jess said...

You never cease to amaze me with the things you come up with. :-* Truly a talented mama. :)

Anonymous said...

Ooooh I love this! I am so trying it!

Stacy said...

Those look yummy. I considered making some Kahlua but never got around to it. Maybe next year!

cLOVErs said...

Thanks for the recipe! I am so going to copy you! Ha ha. My brother always made homemade Irish Cream so I never bothered to learn... I can't believe how easy it is!

Heidi said...

I am so glad you shared this!! I loved the bottle you gave us last year :) sooo good in coffee.
Where do you buy your bottles?

Anonymous said...

I'm absolutely going to do this for my mister, but wouldn't you have to use irish whiskey to make it "irish cream"?

erika~ the inspired mama said...

hi wroth! you are correct, irish whiskey would make it actual "irish cream" but i just personally prefer rum ;) you can use just about anything in this and it would be fine! but if you want it to be authentic, reach for the whiskey~

i hope the mister loves it!

xo,
erika

emerzim said...

Wow, I love this idea! Thanks.

Katy said...

This is such a great idea! :)

Katie @ makingthishome.com said...

This recipe looks fantastic. I'm going to take you up on it and mix some up. Thankfully, we're in the US for the holidays, so I can find the ingredients.
Katie
p.s. Some of the other commenters are people I love to read and who read my site... so I have no idea how I missed you. But you're on my list now!

Robyn said...

What's the "shelf life" for this? Though I assume it needs to be kept cold... Not that it would last that long around my house!?

annie said...

I love this! (found you on sew mama sew) I know several people (including my husband!) who would love this as a gift. Who knew you could make your own?

Bird said...

I'm sure going to try this one...

thanks for the recipe