Guinness Milk Chocolate Ice Cream

I wanted to make a special ice cream for St. Patrick's Day, but couldn't decide between Guinness Milk Chocolate ice cream or Baileys Irish Cream ice cream, so I took a poll on Facebook. I got 4 votes for Guinness, 8 votes for Baileys, 3 votes for both, and 1 vote for corned beef and cabbage ice cream. Thanks, Ed. =P It was pretty interesting that all the guys (except for Ed) voted for the Guinness, and all the women, except for one, voted for the Baileys.

I ended up making the Guinness Milk Chocolate ice cream because it only needed 4 egg yolks, vs. the 6 needed for the Baileys, and also because I needed to buy some beer to make my mom's beer duck. And also because I was just curious about what Guinness Milk Chocolate ice cream would taste like (I'd already had the Häagen-Dazs version of Baileys).

Guinness Milk Chocolate Ice Cream (from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop, via flamingobear)
makes about one quart

7 ounces milk chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup whole milk
½ cup sugar
Pinch of coarse salt
4 large egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream
¾ cup Guinness (I used Guinness Draught)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Put the chocolate pieces in a large bowl and set a mesh strainer over the top.

Heat the milk, sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan until hot and steamy. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Temper the yolks by slowly and gradually pouring in the warm milk mixture. Whisk constantly so that you don’t scramble the eggs. Then scrape the warmed egg yolk mixture back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula (which will be at about 170-175°F on an instant-read thermometer). Pour the custard through the strainer over the milk chocolate, then stir until the chocolate is melted. Once the mixture is smooth, whisk in the cream, then the Guinness and vanilla. Stir until cool over an ice bath.

Chill the mixture in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight – until the mixture is 40°F. Then freeze it in your ice cream maker. This ice cream is very soft coming out of the ice cream maker. It hardens somewhat in the freezer but maintains an almost soft-serve consistency due to the alcohol content. It melts quickly, so eat fast!

So let me first say that I'm not really a big fan of the taste of beer or milk chocolate. I was hoping that the two flavors together would meld into something that's greater than the sum of its parts, but in the end, what I taste is beer and milk chocolate. I think I was trying to taste the beer, though, so its sharpness was very apparent to me. I bet if you like the taste of beer and milk chocolate, you'd love this ice cream.

Then I had the brilliant idea of adding some Baileys on top, just to see how that would taste. And let me tell you, that totally transported me away to this little green island to the west of England where leprechauns roam and rainbows end with pots of gold. This, my friends, was pure awesomeness. I think next year, I might try to make both the Guinness Milk Chocolate ice cream and the Baileys Irish Cream ice cream and swirl them together to make an Irish Car Bomb ice cream. But for this year, I'll just keep enjoying my Irish Car Bomb Sundae. ;)