Guinness Ice Cream

I heard once that Ted and Wally’s made Guinness ice cream, but I’ve never been there when it was on their menu.  Ice cream and Guinness are two of my favorite things so this seemed like the most perfect treat I’d ever heard of.  As soon as we got the ice cream maker attachment for our stand mixer I had to give it a try.  I wasn’t disappointed.  I know it may sound strange to make ice cream out of beer, but Guinness is slightly sweet on it’s own and has notes of coffee and chocolate.  The Guinness mostly just adds a malty flavor to the ice cream.

September 24th was the 250th Anniversary of Guinness so I made this again to commemorate the occasion.

The recipe I used is basically thrown together from a few other Guinness ice cream recipes I found.
1 12 oz bottle of Guinness stout
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 egg yolks
1/2 tsp kosher salt

In a large saucepan, combine the Guinness, cream and milk and bring to a simmer over moderately high heat.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar, salt and vanilla. Gradually add the hot Guinness cream to the yolks, whisking constantly until well blended.  Add very slowly or you’ll get Guinness flavored scrambled eggs.

Pour the mixture into the saucepan and cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly until it coats the back of a spoon, about 6 minutes; do not let it boil.

Strain the custard through a fine mesh strainer into an air-tight container.  Place plastic wrap directly in contact with the custard to prevent a skin from forming.  Chill in the refrigerator for at least two hours (overnight is better).

Pour the custard into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Pack the ice cream into an airtight container and freeze until firm.

For this go I found a recommendation to top it with chocolate covered pretzels as kind of a play on “beer and pretzels.”  It’s definitely a nice touch.