Random moosages as I see fit.

And it was delicious.  The end.

Ok, not really the end.

I had been looking into chocolate Guinness ice cream recipes because chocolate and stout, in particular Guinness, go well together.  It’s interesting that I know this considering that drinking beer does not interest me and I do not do it.  Thus I would have obviously never drank a stout and eaten chocolate at the same time to know that they go well together by experience.

But anyway, I was looking into recipes and I first found this one from allrecipes.  I didn’t try this recipe because I was a little concerned about the alcohol content in how it would affect freezing, I didn’t want the ice cream to taste really boozy, and I really wanted to make a custard based ice cream. So I was looking around for custard bases to adapt and I found one a really good chocolate Guinness ice cream recipe from the Marvelous Misadventures of a Foodie.  So I tried it.

Thoughts:

• I used a Cuisinart ICE-21 churner, which I quite like.
• Guinness has downsized their bottles, like most other food manufacturers, because of the economy.  So instead of 12fl oz bottles, you have 11.2fl oz.  It’s not that big a deal.  You can still reduce that to about 0.5c.
• I did not realize that it would be so stupidly difficult to get Dutch processed cocoa powder.  For some reason, I used to see it all the time and now, I can’t find it anywhere.  I can get it, but not easily at the stores around me.  So, if you need to get Dutch process cocoa, plan ahead and order online.  I ended up using Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder, which is a blend of Dutch process and normal cocoa.  It’s not bad but I think I would prefer using all Dutch process cocoa powder next time.
• The Guinness flavor is pretty subtle.  I was a little disappointed in that.  I think I might play with the recipe and use two bottles of Guinness reduced to about 1c and lower the milk content.  And probably change the whole milk to evaporated milk to keep the water level down but have the milkiness still.  I might also up the vanilla a little.
• This ice cream is incredibly smooth.  Really great texture.
• I may add walnuts and English toffee next time.  Maybe.
• Remember to put your storage container inside the freezer while you’re churning the ice cream so it’s nice and cold.  That way when you dump out the ice cream from the mixing bowl, it doesn’t immediately melt in your room temp storage container.  Especially if you happen to be making ice cream in 90+ deg weather.