A Rich Treat- Guinness Ice Cream

Nothing says St. Paddy's Day like a pint of the black stuff, Guinness. Yessiree, I'll dance a little Irish jig for you to enjoy a nice cold black brew!

Of course we were going to have Guinness with our meal on March 17th- but I wanted to do something special to cap the evening off right. After some searching, I found an interesting recipe for Guinness ice cream at Boston.com. This, certainly, was what I had been looking for! Too bad I had no ice cream maker at my disposal... but as you may have seen a few posts down, a quick trip to Target elminiated that issue!

So on Sunday night I made the beer flavored custard, which was a little scary for me, since custard is kind of like cooked pudding, which I have a poor track record with. Happily, I came out beautifully. Tonight I got out the frozen canister and got it churning. Oh, it was gorgeous! Thick, creamy, icy- just like ice cream from the store! My only complaint was the molasses flavor- next time I'll reduce it from 2 T, 2 tsp, to just 2 T. of molasses.



Overall, a triumph! It had such a nice bite accompanied by a nice sweetness, and the shortbread I garnished it with added a perfect crunch. Mmmmm-mmmmm!


Guiness Ice Cream
From Boston.com

• 1/2 Madagascar Vanilla Bean, split lengthwise
  
• 1 C. Whole Milk
  
• 1 C. Heavy Whipping Cream
  
• 3/4 C. Guinness
  
• 2 Tbsp. and 2 tsp. Molasses
  
• 4 Egg Yolks
  
• 1/3 C. Sugar
  
• 1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

1. (As written by The Boston Globe- my edits are in italics and green.) In a medium saucepan, scrape in the vanilla bean seeds. Add the pod, milk, and cream. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Turn off the heat, cover the pan, and let the flavors infuse for 30 minutes.
   
2. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, whisk together the stout and molasses. Bring to a boil and turn off heat.
   
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the yolks, sugar, and vanilla extract. Whisk in a few tablespoons of the hot cream mixture, then slowly whisk in another 1/4 cup of the cream. Add the remaining cream in a steady stream, whisking constantly. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan.
   
4. Stir the beer mixture into the cream mixture. Cook the custard over medium heat, stirring often with a wooden spoon, for 6 to 8 minutes or until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon. (It didn't really "coat" it, but when you are cooking, you'll notice the difference when it just pours right off, versus when it thickens up some.)
   
5. Pour the mixture into a bowl, removing the 2 vanilla bean pod halves and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight. Process the custard in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.