Bailey's Irish Cream Creme Brûlée

Bailey’s Irish Cream Creme Brulee

How did it get to be almost St. Patrick’s day again? (Wasn’t it just Valentine’s Day?)

As a baker you’re expected to come up with desserts geared around a theme, and I usually give into the hype. (Oh, you want examples? Try these heart- shaped cookies meant for VD, or these nest egg cookie things for spring. And I can’t forget the candied cherry shortbread cookies that scream ‘Christmas holiday theme’ in all their red and green glory.) So with Valentine’s Day passing a few weeks back without so much as a bat of an eyelash around these parts (don’t feel sorry for me- The Husband and I have committed to a possibly lifelong anti-romance pact on 2/14, so I’m not fishing for sympathy), I knew I had to bake something festive in honor of small green leprechauns.

(Quick note on the whole ‘I’m a bad baker because I didn’t make something heart-shaped this Valentine’s’ Day thing… I did try and pawn off a Red Velvet Cake as a VD dessert because of its color alone. Red. A bit of a stretch, I know, but the cake is really so good that I believe I should be forgiven for the leap. I really think you should make it after this recipe. Maybe you could use green food coloring instead? Ew- maybe not.)

So back to St. Patty’s. I want to play the theme game, and I have been wanting more creme brûlée in my life. Oh, and I like alcohol. So the recipe was a given— I took my tried-and-true classic, splashed in some Bailey’s, and the rest was history. Cheers!

Adapted from my original recipe…

8 egg yolks

1/3 cup sugar (plus extra for sprinkling over tops of ramekins)

2 cups heavy whipping cream

3 tablespoons Irish cream

1 teaspoon real vanilla extract
1. Preheat oven to 300° and line two large casserole dishes with a paper towel each (the ramekins will sit and bake inside of these casserole dishes, FYI).
2. In a large bowl, whisk yolks with sugar until smooth and pale (2 minutes). Add heavy cream, Irish cream and vanilla, and whisk until incorporated.
3. Strain mixture with a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl (one with a spout if you happen to have).
4. Pour into four ramekins (or six shallow ones), and place into prepared casserole dishes on top of paper towels (placed to prevent the ramekins from sliding around). Fill the pans with water so it reaches halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
5. Bake for 40 – 50 minutes, until jiggly in the centers. Remove from oven and place ramekins on cooling rack. Cool completely before caramelizing sugar on top.
6. CARAMELIZED CRUSTS: sprinkle 1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar over tops of custard and using a crème brûlée torch or the broiler in an oven, caramelize the sugar until browned but not burned. Serve immediately (with or without fruit on the side) and enjoy.
Tips:
- The Irish cream is just one start of an idea. Please know that you can substitute pretty much any flavored liqueur to change the dessert… like Grand Marnier, Kahlua, whatever. So many options. And so little time.
- What’s with the water bath? It helps the custards bake evenly in their ramekins, instead of just from the tops and bottoms through to the inside. Be careful not to splash water into the ramekins when pouring into the casserole dish.
- The crust: it’s just so darned important. Dab any excess moisture off the tops of the custard with a paper towel if necessary. Gently tip the ramekin around to distribute the sugar over the entire surface, and pour out any excess sugar (into the next ramekin). If you are using your oven broiler, make sure the ramekins (placed on a baking sheet to make handling easier) are within 5 inches of the broiler flame, and watch them from start to finish. You might want to move the pan around to prevent hot spots from burning the sugar in one particular area… and after you have finished browning the sugar, place the ramekins back in the fridge for at least 10 minutes to re-chill the custard.
- Storage: these wait nicely in the fridge without their crusts… so prepare in advance by a day or two and then do the crusts right before serving. I freeze the individual ramekins (again, sans sugar crust) and just thaw in the fridge, no problemo.
- Want more Irish cream or St. Patty’s desserts? Try this Irish Cream Chocolate Mousse… or these Bailey’s Irish Cream Fudge Brownies.
- Photo confession: Yeah, um, the photo in this post. So you might have noticed the coffee beans in the photo… and the speckles of vanilla. You’re right. I recycled the photo of the Espresso Creme Brûlée because I kind of sort of forgot to take a photo of the Irish Cream version before they were *gone*. (But really- one creme brûlée looks like any other creme brûlée, right?)
- Enjoy!
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March 13th, 2014 | More Sweets Please | No Comments | Tags: Booze, Goopy