Irish Coffee For Saint Patrick's Day

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! I hope your corned beef is defrosted!

In our family it doesn't matter if we're Irish or not. We'll use any excuse to celebrate an occasion with food and drink.

While I was thinking about this post in my head I couldn't help but think of my mother, who first introduced us to Irish Coffee. I've come to the conclusion that she must have had a certain thing for flaming foods! When our family came together for holidays she would pull out her Irish Coffee paraphernalia and let the flames begin!!!

I don't know which of us four kids managed to snag her special Irish Coffee glasses and burner, but it wasn't me. Still, I was able to figure out how to go through the process properly even without the equipment. So here is the recipe for Irish Coffee, courtesy of my memories and the Internet!

The ingredients are simple. You'll need brewed coffee (not pictured); heavy whipping cream; Irish Whiskey (of course!!!); brown sugar; and powdered sugar. Besides that you'll need a good glass or cup that can take the flaming.

First of all, have everything ready. Make your coffee. Then make your whipped cream. Whip about one cup with one tablespoon powdered sugar. You want a very soft whip, basically until the cream is thickened. I wouldn't even call it a soft peak, maybe just below that.

I used a thick glass mug one of my dogs won at a dog show umpteen years ago. I'm glad I finally decided to make some good use of it. Anyway, put about two tablespoons of brown sugar in your glass. You can adjust this to taste.

Then pour in about "two fingers" of the Irish whiskey and stir.Since I don't have the glass warmer contraption I put my mug in the microwave for thirty seconds, then stir again. I think the point of that is really to warm the alcohol, not the glass. It makes it easier to "flame".

Now for the fun part. Keep your face and any dangling things away from the top of the glass! Carefully bring your flame to the glass and stick it over and then inside until it goes "WHOOOF".
I keep the flame going by swirling the glass.
Sit back and enjoy the show!
You might have to do this once or twice to burn off the alcohol. Or not.

Now pour your coffee to about 3/4 full.
Carefully spoon the whipped cream so it's floating on the top.

At this point it will be very hot, so make sure you let it cool a bit. One internet site says to sip the coffee through the cream. MMMMMMM!

Enjoy!