Dairy-Free Irish Cream from Allergy Free Alaska
I’m a huge fan of Irish Cream liqueur. Okay, that’s an understatement. Irish Cream is truly heaven in a bottle to me! So I was thrilled to see that Megan of Allergy Free Alaska had created a recipe for Dairy-Free Irish Cream Liqueur.
Megan’s recipe is not only gluten free and dairy free, but it is also refined sugar free and vegan—without losing any of its luscious characteristics. As Megan says, “Irish cream has a very distinct flavor because of the Irish whiskey, but it is also creamy, and slightly sweet with a chocolaty-coffee taste. Honestly, it’s sublime.” I could not agree more and I suspect that she has made us all very happy with this easy-to-make, healthier “knock-off” recipe. And just in time for our New Year’s celebrations, too. Love that! Enjoy and Happy 2013, all!
Click here for Megan’s Dairy-Free Irish Cream Liqueur recipe over at Allergy Free Alaska.
Thanks again for sharing my recipe, Shirley!
Lots of love to you!
Megan
It was totally my pleasure, Megan! I am so looking forward to making this recipe. Maybe this weekend!
xo,
Shirley
Just a quick fyi: The recipe for this Irish cream is NOT gluten-free. Whiskey is made of wheat, rye, and/or barley, NONE of which is gluten-free. It might be ok for gluten sensitive or intolerant people, but not for celiacs. My husband is celiac and becomes violently ill if he eats or drinks anything with whiskey in it. The recipe looks great but please be aware that it is not gluten-free.
Hi Cori–Distilled alcohol is considered gluten free by the experts. The gluten molecule does not make it through the distillation process. It it not a matter of what celiacs can tolerate vs what gluten sensitive or gluten intolerant folks can handle. I am not a “gold-standard” celiac, but I am one of the folks who is super sensitive to gluten and I do perfectly fine with distilled alcohol. I will readily admit that some have issues with grain-based alcohols despite their gluten-free status. My son is one of them. Bourbon is made from grain. Most vodka is made from grain. All whiskey is made from grain. I appreciate your concern and encourage anyone who knows that they have issues with distilled alcohol to simply refrain from ingesting it in any form.
Shirley
Hi Shirley,
I have been a gluten-free baker for 10 years and have owned a gluten-free bakery for the last 3. I am by no means an “expert” but I am increasingly alarmed by the products with the gluten-free label on them. You are correct that the “experts” consider any form of distilled alcohol to be gluten-free. Those same “experts” allow a gluten-free label on products containing 20ppm or less of gluten. People do need to do their own research and not blindly trust everything they read on the internet. In further researching the “gluten-free” status of grain alcohols, you will find that yes, technically, the gluten peptide is too heavy to pass through the distillation process. However, this is entirely subjective to the quality of the distillery and their diligence in maintaining their equipment. Since there is absolutely no way to know if an alcohol distillery is exercising appropriate measures for limiting gluten contamination or even testing the alcohol once distilled, I think it is a little irresponsible of people writing or endorsing gluten-free recipes online not to offer this information as a footnote whenever using potentially glutinous foods, regardless of what the “experts” say.
I cannot tell you how many times, due to erroneous information, I have had clients of mine come to me and say, “I feel like I have had gluten poisoning, but everything I eat is ‘gluten-free.’” The last time my husband had gluten poisoning, he was in bed for 3 days with gastrointestinal problems, severe joint pain and headache. The really weird thing is, we do not have a molecule of gluten in our house so he must have picked it up when we were out and about. I learned a long time ago that even inhaling a floating gluten molecule makes him violently ill so we keep a 100% gluten-free home.
My point is, I find that often times celiacs who have severe reactions to micro amounts of gluten are not taken seriously because its not like they are going to go into anaphylactic shock from it, so hey, a little bit won’t kill them, right? Its at the point now that we cannot even trust the gluten-free label because technically there is an “allowable” amount of gluten in gluten-free foods. For severely reactive celiacs, of which there are many (I have 6 in my immediate family), there is no allowable amount of gluten. Yet, these same people turn to gluten-free websites and blogs, trusting that they are getting correct information, and still get sick.
I think your site is great. Please don’t feel that I am attacking you or your site. I am so glad to see so many sites and blogs with great recipes for people like us! Ultimately, we are each responsible for our food choices, but partial information makes that increasingly difficult. And to think I thought it was difficult 10 years ago when it was nearly impossible to find any pre-packaged product with a “gluten-free” label! Now we can’t even be sure if the “gluten-free” labels are really gluten-free
Cori–First, I didn’t mean to offend you with my reference to experts. Second, I’ll admit that I really did not want to get into a detailed discussion here on this topic. I know the questions that you reference on distillation. In response, I could have shared this post from Pete Bronski http://noglutennoproblem.blogspot.com/2009/01/distilling-facts-about-distillation.html (or his clearing of Everclear here http://noglutennoproblem.blogspot.com/2009/01/clearing-up-debate-about-everclear.html). Or I could have shared this post from About.com http://celiacdisease.about.com/od/copingwiththediet/a/AlcoholicDrinks.htm. But I really had not planned to enter into these types of discussions on this site. They are more the types of discussions that I share on my original blog, gluten free easily, gfe.
I don’t know if you read gfe or my gfe Facebook page, but I’ve shared much information and my experiences in both those places which agree with a lot of what you are saying. I am one who has reacted to “gluten-free” products that tested as low as .5 ppm and 2.5 ppm per R5 ELISA testing (although accuracy is simply considered to be less than 5 ppm). And I get very sick when exposed to even minute amounts of gluten, and I know quite a few others who do as well. So I do believe that there are some of us—probably many—who react to far less gluten, certainly far less than 20 ppm. In fact, when the data came out from the FDA prior to public comment on the less than 20 ppm standard, it showed that there was damage done by far less than that amount for some individuals. (The safety report showed 1 ppm to be exact. Read more here in PDF. http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/ScienceResearch/ResearchAreas/RiskAssessmentSafetyAssessment/UCM264152.pdf) Dr. Fasano was asked about the super sensitive in this interview in Gluten-Free Living (see page 5 of this PDF) http://www.glutenfreeliving.com/Browse/file/GFL_Fasano_interview.pdf. He acknowledged this reality, but still said that the standards would work for the majority. As one of the super sensitive, I’m not necessarily in agreement with that. That’s why you won’t see recipes featured here that include “gluten-free” products that I don’t think are safe. Like you, I’m constantly being contacted by folks who feel they are still getting “glutened” and I run down the lists of possible culprits with them. Sometimes it’s “gluten-free” products that are doing them in. Sometimes it’s sharing a kitchen and home with gluten-full folks. And as far as gluten in the environment in general, I’m one who reacts to wheat when riding by a newly harvested wheat field on the back of our motorcycle or walking by the sourdough factory’s steam exhaust.
But all that said, I’m not going to police this site with its recipes and ingredients to the level that you seem to be asking me to. Again, historically, I’ve been very outspoken in my concern about certain products and accepted levels of gluten (e.g., this post http://glutenfreeeasily.com/my-trip-to-general-mills-a-k-a-betty-crocker-central/). However, I am sharing recipes on this blog that meet the accepted definition of gluten free with the emphasis being on recipes that include real food, naturally gluten-free ingredients. I’m sorry that you think that I am not being protective enough of my readers. This site is pretty new and not everything is in place yet. You can be certain that there will be a disclaimer present soon to remind folks to be sure to do their own research and only consume what is right for them.
Best,
Shirley
Cori–For some reason, the links I’ve inserted are not showing up. I can see them as an administrator, but readers cannot see them. I apologize for that and hope to get this issue fixed soon.
Shirley
Hi Shirly,
Don’t worry, I was certainly not offended by your response and I can see that you are diligent in your gf research. I was just concerned when I was looking for a recipe for gf Irish cream and came across this one. I didn’t mean to offend either. I like the recipes and site very much. As a fellow blogger, I understand that it is difficult to keep up on everything all the time.
I will admit that I tend to get a little vehement on the topic due to my experiences with gluten free claims. A restaurant that my folks frequent has a gf menu on which is included beer-braised tacos (made with non gf beer); a sushi restaurant served my husband tempura shrimp, claiming it was gluten free; a fellow baker/vender at the farmers market I participate in claims that Kamut is not wheat! It’s often impossible to know who knows their stuff, and it is now obvious that you do. Thank you for your dedication and helping me to understand where you are coming from. I look forward to reading your blog and trying out some of the recipes here.
Cheers and keep up the good work!
Hi Cori–Thanks for the follow-up comment with the kind words. I appreciate it!
Best,
Shirley