Irish Coffee Pudding

Here's a little something for St. Patrick's Day that takes very little effort to put together. It's inspired by Irish Coffee, a drink that consists of brown sugar, cream, Irish whiskey and strongly brewed coffee. It seemed like the perfect kind of thing to turn into my favorite comfort food - pudding.

The whipped-cream-to-pudding ratio is about 50/50 here. The pudding is filled with potent coffee flavor, and the whiskey imparts barley and oak flavors. It's not overly sweet, so the sweetened whipped cream gives the entire dessert a nice balance.

I found some chocolate coins at the grocery store and decided they'd make cute St. Paddy's embellishments. A few coins were made into picks using bamboo skewers.  It's easy to do, and there's an instructional picture below the recipe if you'd like to try it for yourself.

I think they're pretty cute, and hellooo - chocolate!

This dessert was so well loved, it was gone in a snap! And since it's so easy to whip up, I'll be making a second batch for our St. Paddy's Day dessert this Sunday.  Hope you enjoy it too!

Irish Coffee Pudding
[click for printable version]
Source: SprinkleBakes original recipe
Prep: 15 minutes plus 2 hours chilling time
Yield: 4 servings

This is an easy recipe, but if you want to shortcut it further, use prepared whipped topping from the grocery store. I use heavy cream in the pudding recipe, but whole milk can be substituted. If you want to make this dessert non-alcoholic, omit the whiskey and add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Pudding
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
Pinch of salt
2 cups heavy cream 
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder or 1 1/2 tablespoons instant coffee
3 tablespoons Irish whiskey

Whipped topping
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

Pudding directions

1. Whisk the cornstarch, sugar and salt together in a medium saucepan.  Stir in the heavy cream. Bring the mixture to a bubble over medium-high heat whisking constantly until thickened and smooth. Remove from heat and whisk in espresso powder and whiskey. 
2. Divide the pudding evenly between four 6 oz. dessert glasses. Chill for 2 hours.

Whipped cream directions

1. In a medium bowl, whip heavy cream on medium high speed with an electric mixer.  Gradually pour in extra fine sugar, 1 tbsp at a time.  Increase speed to high and whip until thick and fluffy.  Dollop or pipe whipped cream on top of puddings. 
2. Sprinkle a pinch of instant espresso powder over the whipped cream if desired. Embellish with chocolate gold coins if desired. Refrigerate leftovers.

To make the picks: gently skewer coin at an angle. Do not press skewer point all the way through the coin. Stand skewered coin upright and shake slightly to make sure it's secure.  Place skewer upright into puddings.

link Irish Coffee Pudding By Heather Baird Published: Friday, March 15, 2013 Friday, March 15, 2013 Irish Coffee Pudding Recipe