Irish Cream Pie

One of my fantastic Christmas presents from my fantastic mr. was this cookbook:


He knows very well that I like booze. And I like baking with them--they add complexity of flavor that you can't get with anything else. And there are so many recipes in here that I'm itching to try. Now, before you get all het up about my boozy baking and feeding baked goods to children...don't. The very last thing I need in my house is for my 8- and 11-year olds to be walking around buzzed. They sass me enough as is. So, trust.

Anyway, Sunday was National Pie Day--one of three annual celebrations of pie that I know of (not including Thanksgiving, AND there really should be more, IMO), and I wanted to make a pie that I hadn't before. This little book had the perfect thing: Irish Cream Pie. It's a basic cream pie--gelatin, sugar, egg yolks to make a custard--with a little Irish Cream (Bailey's only at our house, Carolan's=NO), folded together with whipped egg whites and whipped cream. All piled up in a chocolate cookie crust.


So so so delicious. I make a cheesecake that is very similar, so I thought I'd do what that recipe calls for and add chocolate chips. It was a stroke of genius. If I was to make this recipe again (which I probably will--on St. Patrick's Day, or I'll try the alternate version using Kahlua instead of Bailey's), I would do two things differently:

1. Strain the "custard" before adding the Bailey's. There were some little masses of eggy, gelatinous stuff that I didn't really like the look of. It didn't affect the texture of the pie ultimately, I just didn't like the looks of them.
2. Use mini chocolate chips or chop regular-size chips into smaller pieces. The regular-size chips work well in cheesecake because it is baked, so they get a little soft. In this, it was sort of jarring to have a relatively large crunchy piece in opposition to the soft creaminess of the rest of the pie. A little smaller crunch would be perfect.

TGIP Rating--Irish Cream Pie--KEEPER. Make a couple of fixes and try the alternate version.

Next up: I'm about to go into rehearsal, so it will be a couple of weeks before I bake again (never fear, there will still be interesting things here). But when I do bake next, it will be for Valentine's Day. And it will be Whoopie Pies. Which I don't think I've ever tasted, let alone baked. I can't wait! And yes, you can look forward to many jokes about making whoopie.