Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day on a keto diet doesn’t mean giving up delicious treats. This Keto Irish Whiskey Custard is rich, velvety, and delicious — plus it has a notable flavor of genuine Irish whiskey. It’s just the perfect adults-only treat for your ketogenic St. Patrick’s Day celebrations! Naturally, I’ll provide an alcohol-free variation as well, just scroll down the page.
How to prepare the Keto Irish Whiskey Custard
This is a relatively easy recipe to make, though it requires a few more steps than my other custard recipes. Of course, you can also cut corners here and just mix all ingredients together and then bake. But, I wanted to make this dessert especially smooth and velvety, so that’s why the cream is scalded at first, and the mixture is poured through a sieve before baking.
Talking about smoothness, if you would like to have a smooth and soft surface as well, remove the air bubbles from the top of the ramekins before baking by scooping them out with a spoon. In case you would like to have a little bit of crust, beat the mixture until foamy and don’t remove the air bubbles. The more bubbles, the more crust you’ll get.
And if you would like to ensure that the surface of the custard is as smooth as the interior, you can steam the custards in a large skillet. Cover the ramekins with foil and the skillet with a lid before steaming.
By the way, this keto dessert is intentionally not very sweet — my mission is to wean off people from overly sweet flavors. However, if you anyway prefer it sweeter, add more powdered erythritol or, for example, vanilla stevia.
But, let’s take a look at how to prepare this fun and festive treat:
First, pour 1 2/3 cups (400 ml) heavy cream into a saucepan.
Bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and set aside.
Take a mixing bowl and add 4 eggs…
…1/2 cup (120 ml) — or to taste — powdered erythritol…
…2 tablespoons Irish whiskey (yes, it has to be the genuine stuff for this dessert!)…
…and 1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract.
Whisk…
…until well combined and frothy.
Add the scalded cream to the egg mixture while whisking.
Pour through a sieve.
Like this.
Place 6 ramekins (or other oven-proof small 4-oz = 115 ml forms) into a large roasting pan. This roasting pan is from Ikea.
Divide the custard mixture into the ramekins.
Here we go.
Create a water bath by pouring boiling water into the roasting pan so that the water is halfway the sides of the ramekins. Be careful not to pour water into the ramekins.
Bake at 300 °F (150 °C) for 30-40 minutes, or until the custard is just firm. Don’t overbake!
Remove from the oven.
Carefully, remove the ramekins from the water bath.
Let cool down first to room temperature, then refrigerate for several hours, or preferably overnight.
Serve.
Yum!
How I came up with this recipe
Since the last week’s post was a real monster with close to 3,500 words, I’ll keep this week’s post short and sweet (pun intended!).
This week, I wanted a post a recipe for St. Patrick’s Day. Yep, I know, it’s going to happen within a couple of days — but you still have time to prepare this dessert just on time!
Actually, for some years, I’ve wanted to post this custard recipe here on my blog. I’ve posted relatively many custard recipes, but since custards are so wonderful desserts — naturally full of fat — and you can easily ketonize them, why not post yet another one, I thought. This one is specially designed for St. Patrick’s Day.
I had the basic idea in my mind, but the actual experiments were missing. One of my readers (thanks, Gladys!) was sending me lots of links to Hong Kong Steamed Eggs recipes — a perfect coincidence just when I was planning this Irish Whiskey Custard recipe! The Hong Kong Steamed Eggs is also a type of custard made with milk, eggs, sugar, and fresh ginger juice. These custards are steamed rather than baked in the oven. That method guarantees a very smooth texture, and also a smooth and silky surface.
Well, I’ve never seen custard been prepared by steaming, so I thought it might work well as this custard recipe, too. However, I didn’t manage to try it out in practice, so if you try to make this Keto Irish Whiskey Custard with the steaming method, please let me know how it worked out!
But, I also had an old recipe for a regular, sugary Irish Whiskey Custard baked in the oven. That recipe used milk and sugar in addition to eggs and Irish whiskey. For my keto version — like for all my keto custards — I decided to use heavy cream. And because I was after a super-smooth texture, I decided to use powdered erythritol instead of erythritol crystals. Moreover, erythritol crystals tend to form hard lumps in cold desserts, something that powdered erythritol doesn’t do.
I thought scalding the cream — i.e., bringing the cream to a boil — makes the texture of the custard even smoother, so I quickly boiled the cream first and let it cool while I was doing further preparations.
My purpose wasn’t to strain the mixture, but since the mixture for the Hong Kong Steamed Eggs was strained, I decided to pour my custard mixture also through a sieve to guarantee all possible lumps were removed. Well, the scalded cream had a thick and lumpy cream layer on top, so the easiest way to get rid of it would be indeed by straining the mixture.
My original ketonized recipe had 1 tablespoon of Irish whiskey, but after tasting my custard mixture, I thought it doesn’t have enough whiskey flavor, so I decided to add another tablespoon of whiskey.
I also had to increase the amount of powdered erythritol. At first, I used 1/3 cup (80 ml) that was even too little for me — and I don’t like very sweet flavors. So, using altogether 1/2 cup (120 ml) powdered erythritol did the trick.
I poured the custard mixture into ramekins and baked them in a water bath at a low temperature for 45 minutes. They got nicely set, and I simply had to taste one while it was still hot. I was delighted with the super-smooth consistency! Now, I just should gather all my patience and let the custards cool down properly, and also refrigerate them overnight.
The next day, I made another taste test. The texture was very firm, yet velvety and super-smooth. The mouthfeel was rich and creamy, and there was just enough taste of whiskey, with a hint of vanilla. Also the sweetness was to my liking. Mission accomplished: the perfect St. Patrick’s Day keto dessert was born!
Here’s the recipe for you to enjoy:
- 1 2/3 cups = 400 ml heavy cream
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 cup = 120 ml powdered erythritol
- 2 tablespoons Irish whiskey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Preheat the oven to 300 °F (150 °C).
- Pour the cream into a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and set aside while you do further preparations.
- Combine the eggs, erythritol, whiskey, and the vanilla extract in a large bowl. Whisk until well combined and slightly frothy.
- Pour in the heavy cream while constantly stirring.
- Place 6 ramekins or other small 4-oz (115 ml) oven-proof forms in a large roasting pan. Divide the custard mixture into the ramekins.
- Pour boiling water into the roasting pan so that the water is halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
- Bake for about 30-40 minutes, until the custards are almost firm. You can check the firmness by gently shaking the pan. If the custards are firm, they stay still, or the center will only slightly shake like jelly. If the custards are not ready, the whole top will shake like jelly. Be careful not to shake too hard, the hot water in the pan spills and burns easily! A safer way is to insert a stick or a knife into the center of a ramekin. If it comes out clean, the custards are ready. The custards will solidify more when they are chilled, so in this stage, they don't have to be completely firm.
- Place the ramekins on a cooling rack. When they have cooled down to room temperature, refrigerate them for several hours, or preferably overnight.
- Serve chilled.
| Nutrition information | In total | Per serving if 6 servings in total |
| Protein | 38.7 g | 6.5 g |
| Fat | 164.2 g | 27.4 g |
| Net carbs | 12.7 g | 2.1 g |
| kcal | 1726 kcal | 288 kcal |
How to get some variation to the Keto Irish Whiskey Custard
First of all, if you would like to make a completely alcohol-free version, you can simply omit the whiskey — the vanilla extract is enough to lend enough flavor to the custard. In that case, be sure to use 2 teaspoons vanilla extract. Actually, there is lots of difference between brands, but the one I use is one of the best and natural ones I’ve seen. By the way, I don’t recommend vanilla powder here, as it tends to sink to the bottom while baking.
Naturally, you can add other natural, brisk spring-time flavorings, like freshly-grated lemon peel, or for orangey flavor, 2 drops (not more!) of food-grade 100% orange essential oil. Alternatively, add 1 tablespoon freshly-grated peel from organic orange to the heavy cream before you boil it. The peel will be filtered off when you pour the custard mixture through the sieve, so you will end up with a smooth, yet deliciously orange-flavored custard.
General prattling
You might remember that last week, I posted some photos of my son’s 9th birthday party, especially the party food. Well, this week, we were celebrating the 10th anniversary:
Nope, my son didn’t turn 10 years this fast. That cake was for my husband and for celebrating his survival of a severe aortic aneurysm and an extensive heart surgery he had exactly 10 years ago. You can imagine that I’m so relieved to have him here still today — it’s definitely worth a keto cake and celebration!
Other than that, the coronavirus precautions seem to cause lots of changes in everyday activities. We should have visited in Vaajakoski (located in Central Finland) in the factory that will manufacture our keto treats. But, we had to cancel the meeting and have a video call instead. That was the second meeting I had to cancel this week — or actually have as a video call instead of a face-to-face meeting.
On Friday, I visited again in Bistro Naapuri in the center of Tampere to talk about some cooperation. In the photo below, I’m enjoying some superb Keto Lemon Cheesecake with the owner, Maarit Vihma. I promised to develop a few keto recipes for them. If you are located in the Pirkanmaa region in Finland, stay tuned for some delicious news!
On Sunday — just when this post goes live — I will be talking about the ketogenic diet in Ruohonjuuri Kamppi, in Helsinki (if the event won’t be canceled because of the coronavirus!). You are warmly welcome to have a chat with me!
Next week, I should be in Greece. I keep my fingers crossed that the flights won’t be canceled because of the coronavirus. Anyway, I need to get somewhere to make the final edits to my upcoming book — and I can work best in another environment, away from home. The deadline for the book is approaching fast. I’ve got two editors for the book who have now checked the text and given their feedback, so it’s about time to make the final edits.
Here in Finland, people are shopping like crazy and preparing to the worst with the coronavirus. In our nearest grocery store, the shelves were almost empty. For example, people have bought all the meat, like you see in the photo below. Luckily, the next day the shelves were filled again right in the morning.
Stay healthy out there! Remember, the keys to prevent all kinds of bugs are avoiding stress, eating nutritious, clean food, and if necessary, taking supplements like vitamins C, D3, and A (retinol) as well as magnesium, selenium, and zinc. If you develop any respiratory symptoms, go and get some N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC). It should help a lot.
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