Bailey's Irish Cream French Silk (2024)

March 9, 2019

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This elegant Bailey's Irish Cream French Silk is a melt-in-your-mouth delicious, no-bake, make-ahead dessert that always elicits rave reviews!

French Silk has been a go-to recipe of mine for many years. I've tried a zillion variations - in pies and tarts, layered with ice cream, brownies or jam. Sometimes I've combined it with crushed peppermints for the holidays, paired it with fresh strawberries or raspberries and lots of other renditions. This Bailey's Irish Cream French Silk is a delicious adaptation of the recipe to celebrate St. Patricks Day.

What is Irish Cream?

As the name suggests, this dessert includes Irish Cream. Irish cream is a liqueur containing Irish whiskey, creamand varying other ingredients, depending on the brand.The most common brands of Irish cream include Baileys, Kerrygold, Carolans and Saint Brendan's.It's served on its own or in mixed drinks, most commonly,Irish coffee.

How to concentrate Irish Cream

I wanted the Irish Cream flavor to shine in this French Silk dessert so I reduced one cup of the liqueur to a syrupy consistency. It will take 5-10 minutes and the result is a wonderful concentrated Irish Cream. Almost all of the alcohol simmers off, but what's left is super delicious and a fabulous compliment to this chocolate dessert. We love this Irish Cream syrup over ice cream too!

This French Silk never fails brings oohs, awws and rave reviews! I remember serving it to a dear friend many years ago. He ate it painstakingly slow, taking tiny bite after tiny bite as if he didn't want it to ever end. When he finally finished, he looked around a bit sheepishly, then picked up the plate and licked it clean! He's a guy who normally has extremely good manners, but he didn't care who was looking! Try it yourself, you may find yourself with an overwhelming desire to pick up your plate too!

Cafe Tips for making this Bailey's Irish Cream French Silk

Look for your prettiest glasses/bowls to serve this elegant French Silk. The recipe makes eight 6-ounce servings but it's a decadent, rich dessert so you could also make it in smaller containers and get more servings.
The easy Irish Cream syrup (below in the recipe) is a fun little secret to keep up your sleeve as it adds a gourmet touch to just about any chocolate dessert. It's also wonderful drizzed over ice cream!
The eggs in this dessert are not cooked. Raw eggs can be a health concern for anyone with a compromised immune system such as very young children, pregnant women, those undergoing chemotherapy and the elderly. The solution is to use pasteurized eggs.
What are pasteurized eggs? They're eggs which have exposed to heat in order to destroy potential bacteria, making them safe to use in any recipe that calls for uncooked or partially cooked eggs. Pasteurized eggs can be found at most larger grocery stores with the regular eggs. Use them in the same way you would use regular eggs.
If you prefer a delicious chocolate dessert that doesn't include raw eggs, check out this wonderful Chocolate Tart with Brown Butter Crust. Serve it with the raspberries as pictured or you could drizzle it Bailey's Irish Cream syrup (below in the recipe) for a fabulous Irish-inspired dessert.
Use good quality semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolatechips for these French silk desserts. I likeGhirardelli, Guittard and Hershey’s Kitchens Special Dark Mildly Sweet Chocolate Chips. You can also use the same amount of semi-sweet or bittersweet bar chocolate for this recipe.
This recipe is extremely versatile, add more melted chocolate if you want a more intense chocolate flavor, less if you're more of a milk chocolate fan.
Sometimes I make this into a tart by using a springform pan. I make French Silk (omitting the Irish Cream) and layer it in the pan with softened ice cream and raspberry or strawberry jam.
At Christmas, I often will add some crushed peppermint candies and decorate the desserts with tiny candy canes (omitting the Irish Cream).
Fresh strawberries are also a beautiful and delicious pairing with French Silk.
Use your imagination, anything that might be nice with chocolate is fair game here.

This post was first published back in 2012. It's a wonderful classic and too good to be lost in the deep Café archives of over 1100 recipes so we've polished the text and pictures up a bit and are sharing it again for you sweet enjoyment. Bon Appetit!