This is the first of my new Church Cookbook Classics series and with St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner I thought I’d start with one of my dad’s recipes in our church cookbook. I realize that not all church cookbooks include alcoholic beverages, but it’s a Catholic cookbook, and we subscribe to the “Jesus liked Parties” theory. We back this up with the Gospel of John and the Wedding at Cana where Jesus’s first miracle was to turn water into wine because his mother told him they were out. Turned out to be really good wine and they partied on.
St. Patrick’s Day is a special holiday in my family. Although my father was 100% Norwegian, my mom was 50% Irish — the Irish seems to be the dominant gene! We all love a good celebration and enjoy all of the trappings that go with any holiday!
Having an Irish Coffee out of my dear sainted mother’s Irish Coffee cups makes me feel “fancy” and warm to my toes. Thus it has become a tradition to toast St. Marie who went to the good Lord as St. Patrick’s Day dawned in Ireland.
A traditional Irish coffee recipe requires having some heavy cream on hand – these are pretty wonderful, however, having a bottle of Irish Cream on hand makes it easy to enjoy an Irish Coffee without a trip to the store. Dad’s recipe works great to add to coffee for a Irish Coffee or straight as a nice after dinner drink. I did make one modification and that was to eliminate raw eggs. And one tip I can give you from experience is NOT to use powdered coffee creamer — I made this mistake the first time I made it — I was young and stupid and didn’t know the difference. Well 12 ounces of a powder versus 12 ounces of a liquid makes things pretty thick — I ended up just adding more and more whiskey — so you can see where this went! You can, however, use 12 ounces of heavy cream or 1/2 and 1/2 if you prefer, but it does last longer with the creamer.
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk
- 12 oz. Coffee -Rich (this is a frozen non-dairy coffee creamer)
- 3 TBS chocolate syrup
- ¼ tsp coconut extract
- 1 to 1⅓ cup good blended whiskey
- Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend at low speed until smooth.
- Serve over ice, plain or add to coffee.
- Store tightly covered in the fridge up to 1 month. Stir before serving.
An Irish Blessing
May your day be touched
by a bit of Irish luck,
brightened by a song in your heart,
and warmed by the smiles
of the people you love.Keep it simple and enjoy!
— Mary
We have a family member born on St. Patricks Day. This sounds wonderful. I’ve pinned for referring to. I’ve never purchased the frozen non dairy creamer so this will be a first.
Coffee-Rich is the only brand I know of that is frozen — we use it for many recipes to avoid dairy for my daughter — it is not sweetened — so you can use it anywhere for a replacement for milk, 1/2 & 1/2 or cream — it doesn’t really whip very well however.