This post was made in partnership with Kerrygold Irish Cream. Recipe and ideas are my own.
This weekend marks the unofficial end of summer. And to send everyone off, I’ve got one last summer drink with Kerrygold Irish Cream headed your way today. But first, a question. Have you ever had salted cream on your coffee or tea?
Right now I’ve noticed a big push at some national coffee chains where they’re advertising cold foam, or sweet cream, salted or unsalted, on their iced drinks. This may be a new concept for a lot of customers at these stores (especially with the near fanatical hype I’m seeing on some social channels for the stuff), but for several years now I’ve been getting salted cream topped tea at a restaurant called Din Tai Fung (which happens to have several locations here in SoCal and more world-wide). I had never heard of it before trying it there, and I have since gotten it every single time I go there for soup dumplings (which is all I want to eat when it’s winter here in LA). It’s basically whipped unsweetened cream that has a nice layer of salt sprinkled on top (and actually it may be lightly sweetened but as I gobble it up so fast every time I haven’t stopped to think about it). I get it atop black tea, but you can also get it with green as well.
Anyways, I also really love a tea syrup or tea infusion in my cocktails and the idea of adding a salted cream on top of one sounded, quite frankly, delicious to me. So, here we are today.
This is also a transitional cocktail in the sense that I’m incorporating tea into it, thinking ahead to cooler temps and warm sips by the fire; but for now I’ll enjoy that tea iced. The resulting flavor is quite unique here with a floral, bright, and fruity forwardness on the palate that finishes smooth with hints of chocolate and spice. Over ice it is light, with hits of salty richness from the cream. Bergamot, the flavor associated with Earl Gray tea, has always tasted a little like Fruity Pebbles cereal to me, and here that citrus/fruitiness provides a nice contrast to the cream found in the Kerrygold and the topping. I think this would be a nice cocktail for happy hour, enjoyed outside during these last few weeks of summer.
Salted Cream Earl Gray Tea Cocktail
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1-1/2 ounces bourbon
3/4 ounce Kerrygold Irish Cream
1/2 ounce Earl Gray tea syrup (recipe follows)
1/3 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice (about half a medium lemon)
pinch black salt or pink salt, optional
- Make your salted cream by beating the heavy cream a few minutes until just about soft peaks form. Stir in sea salt. Set aside.
- Next, in a shaker 2/3 filled with ice, pour in bourbon, Kerrygold Irish Cream, Earl Gray tea syrup, and lemon juice. Shake hard about 20 seconds, and then strain into a highball glass filled with ice.
- Top the cocktail with the salted cream and optionally sprinkle some additional black or pink salt for added saltiness and contrasting color.
Earl Gray Tea Syrup
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
2 bags Earl Gray tea
In a small saucepan, combine sugar and water over high heat, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved. Bring to just about a boil and then remove from heat. Add in tea bags and let steep, covered, for 30 minutes. Then strain into an airtight container. Use immediately or refrigerate up to one month.
This post was made in partnership with 
Sweet cocktails can many times feel too heavy, like you’ve just drank a bowl of ice cream, and honestly, no one should have to endure that. What I like about this drink is that while it leans towards a dessert it most definitely is not heavy. It walks the line between being light while also having a nice richness to it. That unexpected smoky flavor also gives it depth. Sound good so far?
I’m back again with Kerrygold Irish Cream, who provide some richness with cream and a touch of chocolate to the drink. I thought that those chocolate notes would pair really well with some dried Oaxacan chiles I had in my pantry which have a sweet, smoky aroma to them. If you can’t find any Oaxacan chiles, try guajillo peppers instead. I also wanted to punch up the chocolate factor here and added in some chocolate liqueur (and if you’ve been following along with my summer recipes then here’s another recipe with chocolate liqueur for you to try!). Lastly, to round it out I added in some lime juice for balance.
Kerrygold Chocolate Chile Cocktail
Mint and chocolate are such a perfect pairing in my mind that every time my husband tells me he ABHORS the two flavors together I want to throw a shoe at him. The nerve! It’s SO good! And I hope you all agree with me!
As some of you might know, I’ve teamed up with Kerrygold Irish Cream this summer to create some FUN recipes to enjoy in these warm months (Southern Hemisphere readers, bookmark these for your summer!). And today, Kerrygold Irish Cream is kicking in some creamy, chocolate flavors with a touch of Irish Whiskey with these minty fresh popsicles. To make them extra rich, we’re using two types of coconut milk, and a touch of chocolate liqueur for additional chocolate flavor! These aren’t dairy free (because Kerrygold has cream in it) but I find that using the coconut milk creates a much richer popsicle with a better mouth feel. Sometimes just milk creates an “icy” popsicle and I wasn’t looking for that here. Optionally, I’ve also added as a topping some white chocolate that I’ve colored green… reminiscent of that classic ice cream color. Also, I like any excuse to create some magic shell.
Kerrygold Mint Chocolate Popsicles
Although dubbed a fad by many, the excitement waning for most diners, the techniques still hold a fascination with me. This probably has to do with my love of chemistry as a young person that has carried through decades later. Recently, for a 
So, that brings us to today’s recipe, made in partnership with our friends over at Kerrygold Irish Cream. When thinking about some fun summertime recipes to make, the idea of milkshakes came up, but here in Los Angeles, I’m more likely to run across a boba shop than a milkshake shop, so I thought, why not combine the two? However, we’re using some artistic license here and instead of the tapioca pearls found in your boba tea, we’ll be using flavorful strawberry spheres instead. Because, while some might like their stone fruit during the summer, it’s all about the berries for me.
I bring up the molecular gastronomy because you can, in fact, make these spheres, and I will list a few of my go-to resources below. However, because it’s summer and we don’t want to be stuck in the kitchen making spherification baths all day, I’m also listing where you can buy these strawberry spheres. So now you can follow your own adventure.
I’ve listed my resources for the reverse spherification process below the recipe if you’d like to try your hand at that!
Resources:
At first I was a little skeptical, who drank milk made of rice (this was before it was cool to drink MYLK)?! But once I tried a sip, I was hooked. Now, Horchata, which can be found beyond Mexico into South America and Spain, as well as similar variations in other cultures, is not necessarily made of rice. Ground nuts and seeds are also common. Here in Los Angeles we mostly are served Horchata made of rice and sweetened with vanilla and cinnamon.
While sitting outside recently enjoying a glass and finally welcoming some warmer temps here, I thought to myself: this would taste excellent as a cocktail too. So, today, in collaboration with Kerrygold Irish Cream, I’ve created an almond based version, heavy on the cinnamon and vanilla, with some spicy notes from gold rum, and a creamy finish with hints of chocolate from the Kerrygold Irish Cream.
This post was made in partnership with 
What I’m getting at is this, Tiki cocktails have come a long way and these new modern nods are just as interesting, and sometimes, much more complex and delicious, than the originals. And today I have a very out there, very delicious, addition to this new wave, the Port Dues Cocktail.
If you’re a familiar reader around here you may have noticed that I partnered with 
So I’m super excited about this cocktail, with nods to some of my favorite tiki drinks and especially to the Missionary’s Downfall with the herbal, minty notes from the fernet. You’d be surprised, but there are actually quite a number of tiki drinks out there that incorporate a hint of chocolate in them too. Using the creamy, rich Kerrygold Irish Cream here gives this dry, rum forward cocktail with a sour punch an unexpected twist with a hint of chocolate at the end.
Port Dues
This post was made in partnership with 
We’re making Grasshopper Brownies today with Kerrygold Irish Cream. Based on the components of the classic dessert cocktail, The Grasshopper, these decadent brownies are minty, chocolatey, boozy, and so that no one goes into a sugar coma, small batched. A Grasshopper cocktail includes crème de menthe, crème de cacao, and cream, all of which in some form are found in these brownies. So hopefully it goes without saying, but 21+ please!
These brownies might look like a labor of love, THREE layers! But rest assured, they come together pretty easily. Let’s look at each layer for a minute. First, the base of this dessert is the brownie, which, in my opinion, is the essential layer to all of this. Because I wanted this to be a small batch recipe and only yield about 8, 2″ pieces, I looked to my favorite brownie recipe from 
Next you have two different chocolate layers: the green mint layer with crème de menthe, and the chocolate top layer. These require a little more patience and a little stove-top stirring. The green layer can be achieved by one of two ways. Your first option is to add green crème de menthe. Second, you can use peppermint extract (or clear crème de menthe) with green food coloring. If crème de menthe in any color is hard to come by where you are, then peppermint extract can be found through online retailers. And for the final layer, you can optionally add in some crème de cacao to the ganache although I found it chocolate enough for my tastes. Both these layers will set up firm, but not hard.
Now, will this be the most amazing dessert to bring to your St. Patrick’s Day party? Yes, probably. Will people ooh and ahh about what you made? Definitely. Will you be able to leave with a few spare brownies? I doubt it. But you can make more next week too. Let’s get baking!
Kerrygold Irish Cream Grasshopper Brownies
This post was made in partnership with 
You’ve probably had a spicy Marg, or a skinny one, or a Cadillac, or a frozen, fruity, whatever one. But have you ever had a chocolate one? Before you raise your eyebrows at me, take a moment and I’ll explain.
First, we’re using mezcal for the base today. Mezcal has a lot of similar flavors that I associate with good quality chocolate: vanilla, tobacco, earthy, nutty, burnt caramel, etc… And while they have these similar aspects, the sweetness you get from chocolate cuts back on the smokiness from the mezcal so they also work together in that respect. But what about the acid needed in a Margarita? How does that work here? And well, I’ll assure you that lime juice still works. The brightness of the lime juice helps keep this from becoming an overly heavy cocktail. To give this an extra chocolate kick and a creamier mouthfeel, I’m adding Kerrygold Irish Cream to the mix. I love how balanced and unexpected the flavor of this is. The mezcal is definitely the powerhouse here but it’s tamed by the richness of the Kerrygold Irish Cream and the sweetness of the chocolate liqueur.
I note below that the chocolate liqueur should be used to taste. If your bottle is very sweet, as a few brands are, then I’d cut it back to 3/4 ounce. Also, salt is totally optional here. I’m one who likes a little salt to balance out the sweet so I kept my salt rim; you do you though.
Chocolate Mezcal Margarita
I told my husband that this year I would like flowers, and maybe some burgers, but please don’t buy me a box of chocolates. Still, Valentine’s Day doesn’t seem like a holiday without something sweet. So this year I’ve decided that something light, with a hint of chocolate, and a tart burst of fruit would suit my palate more. And hey, why not throw some booze in there too?
I’ve teamed up with 
I love a fruit gelée and right now I’m on a passion fruit kick. That sweet-tart golden liquid is a wonderful contrast to the rich, creamy Kerrygold Irish Cream. With a hint of chocolate, real cream and a touch of Irish whiskey, you don’t need to add much to these jellies to make a delicious treat; you just need a little patience.
A few notes for this recipe: