Admittedly, I’ve been adding alcohol to a lot of the desserts I’ve been making lately. From cupcakes to brownies to cookies (coming soon!), you might think it’s been getting a little out of hand. But is it? I mean, alcohol is the key ingredient in a lot of cooking and generally the alcohol all burns off and wouldn’t have any effect on you anyway. Right? Er, except for this ice cream.
The original recipe I saw was for an ice cream using Dogfish Head World Wide Stout, which sounded amazing. But after not being able to find that variety of Dogfish Head in a few stores, I went for a different choice- Southern Tier’s Choklat Stout.
And no, you don’t have to wait for spring or summer to start making ice cream again. The beer has a warming effect, which makes this ice cream perfect for cold weather. I promise.
Chocolate Stout Ice Cream:
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 C sugar
• 1/4 C dark brown sugar
• 2 C heavy cream
• 1 C whole milk
• 12 oz. stout (I highly recommend Southern Tier’s Choklat Stout, but I’m sure World Wide is fabulous, too)
If you’re not familiar with Southern Tier Brewery, get familiar with it ASAP. They have some of my very favorite beers (like Pumking and Jahva and Creme Brulee and Old Man Winter). The brewery is in Lakewood, New York, right in a spot I used to vacation at every year with my family. But, of course, I was completely oblivious to the fact the brewery was here until a couple years ago… And we haven’t been back since.
BUT my family already has a fabulous trip planned for Lake Chautauqua this summer and visiting Southern Tier Brewery is one of the first things on my list. If you really must know, I basically already have the ENTIRE vacation planned out because I’m in major “I desperately need a vacation” mode and daydreaming about my July vacation is all that’s getting me by. 5 months. I can do it.
Southern Tier, I can’t wait to see you. And the lake. And the sun. And the pool. And lots of my relatives. And the I Love Lucy Museum. Yes, Jamestown is the home of Lucille Ball and the Lucy-Desi Museum. And yes, I will be going back to the museum.
OK, back from vacation and back to the ice cream.
This seemed to be a pretty standard ice cream recipe… I mean, except for the beer. But if you have an ice cream maker, this will be super duper easy for you!
Start by whisking the eggs until they’re light and fluffy, about two minutes.
Then add the sugar and brown sugar a little bit at a time, whisking as you go, until it’s well blended.
Add the milk and cream and again, keep whisking to combine.
Then pour in that bottle of beer! Well, 12 oz. of it anyway. My bottle was quite a bit bigger. Which meant drinking the rest of it while making the ice cream (as Charlie Sheen would say, #winning!! OK, I probably should not be quoting Charlie Sheen on this blog. Sorry. I told you I needed vacation).
Now comes the boring part. You have to chill this ice cream mixture in your fridge for 5 hours. Major snooze-fest. But you really do need to do it. So don’t try to skip this step. I guess you could just drink this mixture straight from the mixing bowl and it would be kind of like an ice cream float… Hmmm. Maybe just put it in the fridge and make ice cream with it instead.
After 5 hours, you can FINALLY churn your ice cream, according to your ice cream maker’s directions. Because there’s alcohol in this ice cream, it will likely take a bit longer to churn. Maybe even up to 50% longer.
I churned mine for 45 minutes before realizing it was as thick as it was going to get. I was a little uncertain as it looked like this:
But I kept it in the freezer overnight… In these completely awesome ice cream containers my sister got me from Zak! designs. I am SO in love with them. And if you make ice cream on a regular basis, I definitely recommend getting these. It totally beats putting an entire mixing bowl of ice cream in the freezer (ahem). Plus, you can easily transport these anywhere.
After freezing the ice cream overnight, it looked MUCH more like ice cream in the morning.
It was still pretty soft, but the recipe I followed let me know that the ice cream wouldn’t fully harden because of the alcohol content. Makes sense!
And it made for much easier scooping 
WOW. This sure is beer ice cream. There was absolutely no doubt about that.
Obviously the alcohol does not burn off since you’re not cooking this recipe. So, this ice cream tasted exactly how you’d expect a chocolate stout ice cream to taste. Full and rich, with a little bit of oomph. OK, a lot bit. And so, so amazing.
I suggest eating this ice cream slowly. Your frozen head will probably be compounded if you eat it too quickly. Plus, it’s so decadent, it’s the kind of dessert you want to slowly eat and savor. Then again, I sip my beer pretty slowly, so maybe if you’re a chugger, you’ll want to eat this quicker.
Since this is my first beer ice cream, I’m not sure how other beers would taste, but I can tell you that Southern TIer’s Choklat Stout was the absolutely perfect beer to use.
I might have made beer cookies to go with this chocolate stout ice cream, too. But that’s a story for another day.
Do you enjoy cooking/baking with alcohol?
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Wow, I didn’t realize how much I need an ice cream maker until just now! I know what you mean about needing a vacation… right now I just need some warm weather!
Now you have me wanting an ice cream maker MORE THAN EVER. In addition to a donut pan
wow! this is so creative!!! what a fun flavor!
It is one of my goals to make ice cream for my 30 by 30 list and those Zak containers look AWESOME! I’m adding it to my Amazon wishlist now!
Yes! I have been wanting to make a beer ice cream for a while now, and was going to try Guinness… but Southern Tier makes some of my favorite brews and the Choklat Stout is fantastic. I also need to get my hands on those ice cream containers, because I do make ice cream on a regular basis. Great post
.
I am so making this for the boy’s bday in April. He’s obsessed with icecream and stout (often eating a bowl while drinking a beer) so I think I would officially become the best fiancee ever
laura
This is by far my favorite ice cream of all time. Everyone should make this right now. If you are working, tell your boss you quit and go home and make it now!
* Maybe you shouldn’t quit, but if you do quit and then you bring your boss some of this ice cream you may get your job back as well as a promotion.
Baking with beer is perfect- after all St. Paddy’s is right around the corner!
This is totally awesome and reminds me of my Stout Floats I make. You know, like root beer floats but with stout instead of root!
Thanks for sharing! However, Southern Tier makes a beer that would be even better for this than the Choklat, which is their Creme Brulee stout! Try that next time, and I’m sure your head will explode. I’ve made desserts with it with great success since it’s a dessert beer.
Thanks Scott! Yes, I mentioned Southern Tier’s Creme Brulee stout as one of my faves
I just wanted to start off with a chocolatey beer for my first beer ice cream. Now the possibilities are endless!
DO i. actually giving away a copy of my new favorite cookbook “the boozy baker” today
I made a chocolate cake with Choklat Stout last St. Patty’s Day. It was really strong! I can just imagine how that ice cream must be savored.
Yum! I do enjoy using alcohol in baking and cooking. Every chance I get, in fact
I’m a bit obsessed with Charlie Sheen’s rants, too. I just can’t look away!
We at Lake Effect Ice Cream make an amazing Chocolate Stout Ice Cream and Southern Tier Brewery is in our backyard. However we chose a local brew that I actually think uses Southern Tier as their bottler. We use Ellicottville Brewing Companies Blackjack stout. A lot of our customers love to make Stout floats with it. We add some tiny milk chocolate flakes to sweeten it up a bit. We have done many different beer ice creams but the Stouts and Lambics seem to work the best.
Hmmm. If you end up making this again, check out the recipe on my blog. It uses plain stout and chocolate and doesn’t turn out icey at all. (Probably because there is less stout in it and more fat. The stout is there but more of a background flavor to the chocolate.)
I don’t typically bake with alcohol but it seems like a really great way to use up all the alcohol I have laying around that I don’t drink! This stout sounds like my kind of beer!
Dessert and alcohol a perfect combo.
i’ve been to southern tier brewery!! i went in Dec w/ my girlfriends – did the beer tasting tour and got to try the choklat! definitely one of my favorites that they have. anyway, this ice cream looks pretty interesting. never made ice cream before…
These look amazing! I recently made a rum rice pudding, and someone pointed out that the alcohol doesn’t actually burn off as much as most people think. . . oh well!
Wow that looks delicious. I am definitely a fan of ice cream any time of the year, and ice cream with beer in it… yum!
stout is my favorite thing ever, and this ice cream looks seriously amazing. like, i would make an entire batch if i didn’t live by myself and would be tempted to consume it all in one setting.
Oh yum!! I have no words!!
I seriously love chocolate stout!
I do enjoy baking with alcohol, especially Amaretto, I put a little bit in lots of my baked goods for a little extra flavor.
This is totally amazing.
What a unique ice cream – we’re huge beer lovers so i’ll have to try this
My two favorite things mashed together – I love it!
This ice cream sounds amazing with the stout, yum!
That sounds so interesting! Did the alcohol cause any freezing problems? I know the addition of a small amount is helpful when you find your ice cream becoming TOO hard, but you have to be careful not to add too much.
This reminds me I need to post my fresh strawberry ice cream recipe soon! So good and thank goodness for the KitchenAid ice cream maker attachment huh?
i’m still having visions of how amazing this was. thanks for sharing!
Very interesting! I would love to try it.
Those containers are look awesome. They would be very convenient, like you said. I just got an ice cream maker through Swag Bucks and I love it. It is quite bulky, though, and takes up some space that I really don’t have for it.
I love baking with beer – chocolate stout cakes, or chocolate beer blaster cookies. I think you made good decision in regards to your stout – the Dogfish has a strange metallic taste. I’ve tried all of the Southern Tier offerings except for Old Man Winter – I’ll have to hunt that one down!
This is the most amazing ice cream I have ever eaten!!!!! Can’t eat chocolate, so we made the Southern Tier Creme Brulee version. Didn’t have any milk, so using all cream was the only other change we made to the recipe..
Thanks for posting it.