alcohol

(Looking for older or more traditional Irish desserts? Please click here.)

You could probably make a case that all Irish desserts can be divided into two periods, B.B. and A.B.: Before Baileys and After Baileys. Devised by the Irish distilling company Gilbeys in 1972 as a way to exploit two abundant local resources -- Irish cream and Irish whiskey -- Baileys Irish Cream became the world's number 1 selling liqueur within a decade of its invention. As a result, it has since been stuffed into almost every kind of dessert preparation imaginable, some of them much better than others.

It's uncertain how much effort other drinks manufacturers might previously have made to try to get the whiskey and the cream to stay mixed together -- probably the single factor which kept a commercial cream/whiskey blend from coming on the market much sooner. But after several years of intensive research, Gilbeys solved the problem, producing a creamy, rich drink with just the right balance of sweetness, smoothness and booze... and one which contained no preservatives except the alcohol. Even now, people sometimes need to be reminded that Baileys has a shelf life of only two years. But inside those two years, it's possible to do all kinds of things with it besides just drink it. And rich, creamy desserts are a favorite way to go.

Here we offer you three recipes that we've found most successful at setting off Baileys' unique characteristics to best advantage. One of them, perhaps, is a little more traditional than the others: a Baileys-based pudding which contains the unique Irish natural gelling agent, carrageen.