Stout Ice Cream Recipe

Stout Ice Cream
This recipe was inspired by our trip to Bluebird Ice Cream in Seattle. They had a delicious stout ice cream, and told us that the secret was reducing the stout over heat until it made a “beer caramel”, and then mixing that into the ice cream.

Stout Ice Cream

Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Servings 1 quart

Ingredients

  • 4 tsp cornstarch
  • 1-1/2 cups whole milk
  • 1-1/2 cup heavy cream (33-36% fat)
  • 3 tbsp 1-1/2 oz cream cheese
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 2 tbsp corn syrup
  • 2-1/2 cups stout reduced over heat to a thick caramel sauce (be careful not to burn!)

Instructions

  1. Bring cream cheese to room temperature, then whisk in a bowl until smooth.
  2. Mix sugar, corn syrup, and remaining milk in a saucepan. Bring the mixture to an almost boil.
  3. Cook at an almost boil for 2 minutes.
  4. Whisk cornstarch mixture into milk mixture, then continue to cook for 60 seconds, stirring constantly with a spatula, until slightly thickened.
  5. Pour mixture into the cream cheese bowl, whisk until cream cheese is dissolved.
  6. Add cream and mix thoroughly.
  7. Allow mixture to cool.
  8. Whisk in the stout caramel sauce until combined.

  9. Chill thoroughly in refrigerator, preferably overnight.
  10. Churn ice cream!  We love and recommend our Cuisinart churner!


Stout Caramelization:
We recommend choosing a smooth stout that’s not very bitter or strong in flavor. Guiness would work nicely; we opted for a more local Left Hand Milk Stout. (We once used a 12% ABV Russian Imperial stout and it did not turn out well!)

Left Hand Milk Stout Beer Bottle
Left Hand Milk Stout, the beer we used

Cook the stout over medium heat, stirring fairly regularly so it doesn’t burn, and scraping the sides of the pot with a spatula. This process took us 1 hour, and at the end the stout had reduced to 1/4 cup of slightly thicker liquid.

Heating the stout at the very beginning.
The stout is slightly changing color and beginning to coat the sides of the pan.
The stout is thickening and darkening in color.
The stout is reduced as much as possible.

When transferring the stout from the saucepan to a measuring cup, it’s better not to scrape the sides of the saucepan too much. The hard, burnt chunks stuck to the side can give your ice cream a too-bitter flavor.

Reduced stout beer caramel
The 1/4 cup beer caramel after reducing the stout.

After that, proceed with the recipe as normal and enjoy your delicious ice cream!

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