beating the February blahs – one homemade Baileys at a time

It’s February, it’s cold, and it’s snowy. And it’s Sunday. The fire is on. The dog is sleeping. The pine tree out my study window looks like an old-fashioned Christmas card. I should go skating but it’s so much easier to stay indoors. Time for a coffee with Baileys. 

Just before the holidays, I saw a blog post  with a recipe for homemade Baileys Irish Cream. It reminded me that I had a recipe for Baileys from my university days that I had not made for years.

And then I saw a recipe for this Baileys and Malteser Cheesecake on one of my favourite blogs, Food and Forage Hebrides. I had a bottle of Baileys in the liquor cabinet so I made the cheesecake – DIVINE! I added about four times as much liqueur as the recipe called for and served my cheesecake frozen – thawing it for about fifteen minutes prior to serving. I wanted to use up my store bought bonafide Baileys before I hauled out my old recipe and made a batch of my own.

There are a lot of recipes for homemade Baileys. This one is simple and delicious. It’s economical too – which makes me wonder why the Baileys I buy in the LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario – for those of you wondering) is so expensive.

February is a great excuse for lighting the fire, watching movies, and reading. And drinking coffee with Baileys in it. I’ll skate later….

Ultimate, simple, homemade Baileys 

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 can (use the empty can from above) table cream (I used 5% because – well – it has fewer calories)

1 can (same can) Irish whisky or rye whisky or vodka

1 shot espresso (I used decaf)

Mix the ingredients together and pour into an empty bottle. I happen to have this lovely glass bottle with a proper sealer for making berry infused vodka (more on that soon) but any old clean glass bottle will do. Refrigerate. Will last about two months according to my old recipe card. I don’t know about that – it’s never hung around that long.

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