Beer ice cream
If you still think beer is only for drinking, then you haven’t been spending enough time in the kitchen, online or maybe at Golden State in Hollywood, which has been making ice cream floats with beer for years. Pour yourself a pint and check out all the beer recipes Martha Stewart has, then get yourself into the kitchen and make some beer ice cream. Because cooking with beer gives you an excellent reason to buy more of it.
Beer ice cream is very simple to make, as you’re basically just adding beer to a crème anglaise. Since the flavoring is mostly coming from your pint, the ice cream takes only four ingredients — including the beer. Thus, which beer you use determines how your ice cream turns out. So use flavorful beer, like a brown ale or a roasty stout. Even a coffee stout would be great, which shouldn’t surprise anyone who loves coffee ice cream.
Four stouts that we’d recommend? Smog City Coffee Porter, Stone Smoked Porter, Maui Brewing Co. CoCoNut Porter and Left Hand Milk Stout. All of them are around 5% to 6% alcohol, so they won’t affect the freezing too much. Make your ice cream, then maybe have another pint while it freezes. Or go start on that beer bread recipe.
In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until they are pale and lemon-colored. Bring the beer and the cream to a simmer in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, then slowly pour over the sugar mixture, whisking constantly. Return the mixture to the pan and cook over low heat, whisking frequently, until it thickens.
Pour through a strainer into a mixing bowl set over ice and whisk until cool. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s directions.
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