Irish Coffee

How to Cook Irish Coffee

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1. Whip the cream by hand until it thickens and just holds a trace from the whisk, then stops. It must still pour. Thirty seconds of hand-whisking is usually enough.

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2. Warm a stemmed glass with hot water and tip it out.

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3. Put the sugar in the glass, pour in the hot coffee and stir until every grain has dissolved.

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4. Add the whiskey and stir once.

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5. Hold a teaspoon upside down just touching the surface of the coffee and pour the cream slowly over the back of it, so it spreads across the top rather than breaking through.

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6. Do not stir. Serve at once and drink the coffee through the cream.

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Things to Watch For

1. Under-whip rather than over-whip. Stiff cream sits in the glass like a scoop of ice cream.
2. The sugar must dissolve completely before the cream goes on, or the float fails.
3. Warm the glass. It buys you five more minutes of a hot drink.

Ingredient Swaps

• In a sauce, full-fat crème fraîche can usually take the place of the double cream; single cream is thinner and more likely to split if it boils, so keep it below a simmer.

On the Table Alongside

A slice of fruit cake · The end of a long lunch · Nothing

Storing Leftovers

Made to order.

The Numbers per Serving

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. The calories include 17 g of alcohol a serving, which is not part of the protein, carbohydrate or fat. How the figures are worked out.