Bailey's Irish Cream Tiramisu. (2024)

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by Jessica March 12, 2021

It should come as no surprise that Irish cream tiramisu is my new favorite thing.

Coffee + dessert + Bailey’s irish cream all whipped together for a lovely light but decadent treat? Heaven on earth I tell you! Just in time for Saint Patrick’s Day too.

We need a little treat to celebrate, after all.

Plus, I’m so glad I’m long gone from the green beer/green vodka phase. Ooomph.

Oh my gosh.

As a huge fan of tiramisu and an even huger (?) fan of Bailey’s (or homemade irish cream!), this is my dream dessert.

I’ve made many versions of tiramisu over the years (there’s a tiramisu bread pudding in The Pretty Dish which is wonderful) but have never tried it with irish cream. Which is mind blowing!

Since we’re coming up on mid-March, I figured this was the perfect recipe to share for Saint Patrick’s Day – and bonus points for it not including Lucky Charms. I mean, one can only take so many squeaky-teeth marshmallow cereal desserts.

This is my grown up Saint Patrick’s Day dessert, which probably sounds horrific to true Italians. But thankfully I’m Irish and just want to consume all the Irish cream!

So here we are.

My parents always had Bailey’s over ice during special times – like on holidays with desserts, or even as a dessert on Saturday night. As a kid, it smelled so so good to me. When I turned 21, it was one of the first liqueurs I couldn’t WAIT to try. And even though I didn’t love coffee back then, I always loved the smell of coffee. The coffee scent to me has always been comforting – it was the first thing I could smell everyday waking up.

So the idea of irish cream in coffee was also something I just couldn’t wait to have once I was older. I even made homemade irish cream liqueur when I first started the blog! It’s so good, but takes a while to come together. Stash that recipe in your back pocket when we get closer to the holiday season, and you can gift it!

Another thing? When I was a kid, I always assumed the ladyfinger cookies were actually cake in the tiramisu. I think many people still do! But they are actually crisp cookies, and once they take a super quick bath in some coffee and irish cream, they soak it up like a sponge. And then they create the most wonderful cake-like layer with the best cloud-like mascarpone filling.

The combination is just so delish.

I like to add a little more Irish cream to my espresso mixture when soaking the cookies. It’s no where near as potent as rum and of course, I want to maximize the flavor. You could also add a drop or two to your whipped cream!

Speaking of, the tiramisu recipe that I like best comes from the NYT. It does use raw egg yolks (just make sure to use pasteurized version), but it doesn’t use the whites and instead uses heavy whipped cream. I LOVE this combo. It makes a perfectly creamy, cloud-like, whipped mousse filling that melts in your mouth. Yet at the same time, it can hold up well to the liqueur soaked ladyfingers and doesn’t turn into mess. I make just a few modifications and can’t even handle how good it is.

The filling is silky, the cookies soak up the booze and when served with a cup of coffee, it’s such a treat. Wish it could be in my fridge 24/7!

Irish Cream Tiramisu