Generally speaking, Irish Cream is not a low calorie or low carb drink, but it can be. You do need to make it yourself though. There are many Irish Cream recipes available and almost all of them call for sweetened condensed milk. While you can buy low carb sweetened condensed milk, you can also make your own. But the recipe I’ve adapted ever so slightly is from Mercy at Food.com, partially because it doesn’t require sweetened condensed milk and you are essentially making a sweetened cream. I called it O’Kelly’s in honor of my roomie’s Irish heritage.

Once you have the Irish Cream made, then try the Irish Cream Cheesecake made with it. Truly a great way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!

This recipe makes over 750 ml — I got about 850 ml, so prepare a bottle that can hold at least 750 ml and maybe a small jar for the extra. You will also need a funnel.

O’Kelly’s Slim Irish Cream

3 cups heavy cream
1 2/3 cups Irish whiskey
( I used Bushmill’s, but you don’t need an expensive whiskey, just an Irish one)
1 teaspoon instant Espresso coffee
2 tablespoons sugar free chocolate syrup (Hershey’s or Walden Farms)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup Ideal sugar substitute or other suger alcohol crystal
24 drops of liquid sucralose

Mix coffee powders with sugar alcohol crystals. Add a little whiskey and the chocolate syrup then stir to make a paste. This will dissolve easier when added to the recipe.

Place cream in a heavy pan and cook on very low heat until it is reduced to about 2 1/2 cups, about 30 minutes. If you want it a little thicker, cook until it is the consistency you prefer.
Cool until the cream is about room temperature.

Blend whiskey, liquid sucralose, coffee paste, and extracts and pour into a blender with the cooled cream and blend until smooth.

Makes about 25 1 oz servings

This will keep 2 to 3 weeks in the refrigerator. Shake well before pouring.

You can make this using a sugar substitute such as Splenda but the carbohydrates are higher due to the filler that is used to hold the sucralose. I use EZ-Sweet liquid sucralose, which you can purchase from Netrition or Amazon. I show the carb counts using the different chocolate syrups and using Splenda for all of the sugar replacement.

Nutrition Information:

1 oz serving With Hershey’s Sugar Free Chocolate Syrup
Calories: 89.5 Net Carbs: .6 g Fat: 5.3 g Protein: .3 g

1 oz serving With Walden Farm’s Sugar Free Chocolate Syrup
Calories: 88.9 Net Carbs: .4 g Fat: 5.3 g Protein: .3 g

1 oz serving With 1 cup Splenda & Hershey’s syrup
Calories:89.5 Net Carbs: 2.6 g Fat: 5.3 g Protein: .3 g

POSTED BY RENE AVERETT AT 3/14/2013 1:06 PM