Liqueurs in baking

Liqueurs are flavored distilled spirits. The federal alcohol regulations describe them as spirits mixed or redistilled with fruits, flowers, plants or other flavorings and sweetened to at least 2.5 percent sugar by weight. Paula Figoni's How Baking Works calls them very useful for flavoring pastries and notes they can be made from fruits, nuts, seeds, berries and flowers.

Bakers use orange liqueur in soufflés and syrups, kirsch with cherries, rum and bourbon in fruitcake and chocolate, and coffee or nut liqueurs in buttercream and tiramisu. They are brushed on sponge layers, soaked into dried fruit, or folded into ganache and custard.

Figoni cautions that large amounts of alcohol can curdle dairy mixtures and lower the freezing point of frozen desserts.