As I’ve mentioned before, Irish food is celebrated during the first half of March in my household. “Traditional” Irish food is often typical pub fare, and these are March staples for us: sausage rolls, bangers and mash, shepherd’s pie, and beef and Guinness pie are musts. But we also love to make the not-so-traditional Irish fare, such as my Irish cider pork roast and the many seafood dishes I’ve recreated from my travels around Ireland.
What I don’t often make in March are Irish desserts. Honestly, I’m not a huge dessert person and generally only make desserts for my teenage son who devours them within days. Man, I miss being a teenager and being able to tuck away food without worrying about my waistline!
Even in my many travels to Ireland, I did not often order dessert. Maybe a dessert coffee… Irish coffee anyone? But rarely dessert. The only dessert I can actually remember ordering was a pavlova in this out of the way restaurant in Wicklow county.
We stayed at this new B&B that was right next to the Meeting of the Waters, made famous by Thomas Moore: “Sweet vale of Avoca! how calm could I rest / In thy bosom of shade, with the friends I love best”. How true. Having access to this small park in the evenings after any tourists had already come and gone were magical and peaceful moments for my husband and I. The two rivers meeting was calming to watch, and fortunately the other side of the rivers was empty land. Hopefully, it stays that way!
Our B&B host recommended the Wicklow Brewery in Redcross. From the Meeting of the Waters, we took all country backroads to the small village of Redcross. The restaurant had several sections, and we were tucked away in a back area by ourselves for much of the evening. So many of my memories of Ireland are with magical sentiment, and our journey into Redcross was one of those moments.
I do not recall what we had for dinner, although I do remember we enjoyed it thoroughly… particularly after having hiked the main pass around Glendalough Upper Lake that morning. But, I do remember that my husband and I shared a pavlova for dessert. As I said, we didn’t often order dessert, but having seen pavlova on menus around the country, we figured we should finally try it!
But alas, this is not a recipe making pavlova, and so you may be rolling your eyes as to why I just shared all of that. And, I guess, it’s because Ireland has so many fantastic nooks and crannies to explore that are not always on the main thoroughfare. There is a magic and beauty to Ireland that is best seen off the grid.
And, the other point is that, I never bothered to really explore Irish desserts while exploring Ireland! I know there are so many adaptations on Irish flavors that have been adapted into desserts: Bailey’s cheesecake and Guinness chocolate cake, to name two. Some consider soda bread or scones dessert, but I think any true blooded Irishman or Brit would agree that those most certainly are breakfast fare. Or, have I just drawn the line in the sand and shown which side my house stands on that debate?
I was very tempted to make Bailey’s cheesecake for St. Patty’s Day this year, but I honestly did not want to buy an entire bottle of Bailey’s just to make dessert! We normally have a bottle in the house, but as we’re both trying to lose some weight, we aren’t housing those kinds of treats.
Randomly, what kicked into my head, was making Irish whiskey cookies! My husband loved my mint chocolate chip cookies that I posted last fall. But, I wasn’t sure if the flavor of the whiskey would be lost to the mint, so I decided to split the batch of cookies in half and make half regular chocolate chip cookies and the other half mint chocolate chip cookies. You can choose to make all of yours mint or plain, or have a mix like I did! I opted for dark chocolate for the mint and milk chocolate for the plain, but feel free to use all dark chocolate, all milk chocolate, or a mix of both!
Much to my bff’s chagrin, I dyed these a bright green in honor of St. Patty’s Day… they’re not St. Patty’s Day cookies unless they’re green, amirite? But if the green coloring creeps you out a bit too much, just skip it!
So, do you taste the whiskey? You do, but it’s very subtle and compliments the flavors of the cookies.
What whiskey should I use? Irish of course! I opted for Tullamore Dew because that’s the whiskey of choice in our house right now! Jameson would be equally fantastic (although I wouldn’t use the really good stuff like Midleton for baking!). Bushmills, Tyrconnell, etc. etc. etc…
Can kids eat these?? Absolutely! Any alcohol cooks off when they’re baked! Just don’t let them eat the raw dough!
These are delicious heated up and crumbled over vanilla or mint ice cream!
Enjoy!
Irish Whiskey Chocolate Chip & Mint Cookies
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes per sheet
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: ~36 cookies
- Category: Baking, Desserts, Irish
Ingredients
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup dark chocolate, roughly chopped
1½ cups brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
2 tsps vanilla extract
½ TB peppermint extract (if making half a batch of mint cookies ~ double if making a full batch)
½ cup Irish whiskey
green food gel coloring
4¼ cups flour
1½ TBs cornstarch
2 tsps baking powder
½ tsp salt
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line 3 baking sheets with silicone mats or parchment paper.
In a large bowl using an electric hand mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment on, whisk together the two sugars and butter until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla extract. If making a full batch of mint chocolate chip cookies, add the peppermint extract now. Otherwise, wait. Once everything is well mixed, turn the mixer to low and add the whiskey until well-incorporated.
In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add it the the wet mix, whisking together on medium-low. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula, if necessary. Once fully mixed together, add in the green food gel coloring until you achieve the desired color of green.
If making a half a batch of chocolate mint cookies, remove half of the dough and place in a medium bowl. Return the stand mixer bowl back to the machine and add in the peppermint extract. Whisk together on high.
To the NON-mint bowl, add in the milk chocolate chips and mix together with a wooden spoon. In the MINT bowl, add the dark chocolate and mix together with a wooden spoon or on high speed with the whisk.
Spoon 2 to 3 tablespoons of cookie dough per cookie and roll gently into a ball. Place the cookie dough balls onto the baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake one sheet at a time for about 10 to 12 minutes (10 minutes for softer cookies ~ NOTE: they will seem very gooey but will firm up as they cool). Let the cookies cool for about 5 to 10 minutes on the sheet before placing them on a wire rack to cool completely.
Enjoy!
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