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A
REALLY COLD ONE: Beer Ice Cream
Beer in ice cream often elicits nothing more than "eeeeuu" from disgusted
devotees of the pure cold creamy dessert.
But
as many brew pubs and restaurants are discovering, beer in ice cream
can make a refreshing change of pace from that ubiquitous brewpub
finale, cheesecake. Instead, try a scoop of raspberry lambic sorbet
served in a stemmed Belgian glass... or a triple decker treat, a la
Fred Eckhardt: fudgy brownie, vanilla ice cream and porter poured
on top!
Sweet
cream, whipped and frozen smooth, is a perfect foil for malty, slightly
bitter flavors of beer. Blended with chocolate, or tropical fruits,
beer can be a good stand-in for other liquids in the typical recipe
for ice cream.
Most
ice creams start with a cream or dairy base: skimmed evaporated milk,
custard, whole milk, yogurt or half and half.
Add
a sweetener, such as white or brown sugar, or even a reduced wort
or malt extract syrup.
Blend
with a binder of some sort--eggs, gelatin, cornstarch or rice flour--especially
if the recipe will incorporate fresh ripe berries or cut fruit. Cook
the blend (a necessary step if raw eggs are used).
Add
other flavors (vanilla, chocolate, beer), stir well and chill. For
best results, the cream base should be well chilled before freezing.
"It's
a little tricky to make a smooth, creamy malt ice cream from reduced
wort," said Darren Chadderdon, a former chef at Gordon Biersch's Palo
Alto brewpub in a phone interview. "If there is too much sugar in
the wort, it will interfere with the fine ice crystal formation that
you want in a frozen dessert." Chadderdon experimented with pure malt
ice creams, as well as a Maibock Wine Sorbet. "The wine added another
layer of flavor to the sorbet, which made it even better."
Other
chefs have experimented with freezing fruit lambics for refreshing
ices, or intermezzo sorbets served between courses. In Jamaica, I
once sampled a delicious granita made by freezing Dragon Stout with
sweetened lime juice syrup. At Chicago's Goose Island the chef devised
a trio of Timmermans sorbets: kriek, peche and framboise. Charles
Finkel has tasted Lindemans lambics made into sorbets at beer tasting
dinners held across the country.
Brewpubs
aside, other restaurateurs develop frozen desserts with beer. At the
April 2002 Craft Brewers Conference in Cleveland, the Metropolitan
Cafe restaurant created a special malted vanilla ice cream made with
swirls of golden malt extract.
Still
other brewers prefer to drink, not eat, their beer. Brendan Moylan
of California, says, "I'd rather have a beer with dessert, than a
dessert made with beer. For instance, a raspberry-infused beer goes
great with a chocolate and raspberry dessert."
Remember
to follow manufacturers directions to freeze recipes (crushed ice
really makes a difference in the old salt-and-ice bucket makers).
Prepare the recipe 12 to 24 hours ahead of serving time, to let the
ice cream ripen in the freezer.
Raspberry
Lambic Ice Cream
Speedy
Stout Mocha Freeze
Apricot
Ale Frozen Custard
Spicy
Spiked Ice Cream
The
original, longer version of this article appeared in Beer: The Magazine.
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