Guinness Floater With Coffee and Guinness Ice Cream

There are three things that pop in my mind instantly when it comes to how to beat the heat. Watermelon, ice cold beer and ice - cream.

I am not a real beer lover, but after a long and exhausting day with the heatwaves currently at their peak, a glass of beer definitely helps. I prefer root beer, especially Guinness with its rich, creamy caramelly flavor.

The other thing I love is ice - cream. I remember when I was a teenager we went on vacation to Greece, it was there where I first tasted coffee and ice cream floater. It was a heavenly treat and that is how I drink my Sunday afternoon coffee in the summer whenever I can ever since.

I thought: why not swap coffee for Guinness so as to include two of my top three picks in the same dessert … beverage, treat, whatever it is? I made a search on the Internet and it turned out that such recipe already existed. A read a few and then I created my version.

It may sound a weird idea at first, but it definitely works. I used coffee, dark chocolate in the ice-cream, salted caramel as topping and of course, Guinness both in the ice-cream and to pour on it, and all of these main ingredients have a slightly bitter taste that harmonize really well.

Step 1: You'll Need

Ingredients of the ice-cream:

2 cups whole milk

2 cups heavy cream

¾ cup brown sugar

8 egg yolks

vanilla

1/3 cup Guinness extra stout

2 teaspoons instant coffee powder

a pinch of salt

1/3 cups of chocolate chips

Rest of the ingredients (to make it a floater):

Guinness extra stout

whipped cream

salted caramel topping

You’ll also need:

electric whip (or ordinary whip plus enough strength)

pitcher

saucepan

bowls

spoons, cups, spatula

ice-cream maker

glasses for serving

Step 2: Make the Ice-cream

Start by preparing a classic custard.

Put the milk and the heavy cream into a saucepan, bring it to boil. You don’t actually have to boil it. Remove it from the heat as soon as small bubbles start to appear on the surface.(pic. 1 and 2)

Meanwhile, mix the sugar and the egg yolks with an electric whisk. When combining egg yolk and sugar for custard it is said to be ready when the color gets paler. Since we are using brown sugar, you will not see it getting less vivid yellow, but the volume of the mixture will considerably increase. (pic. 3 to 5. That's right, I started off with an ordinary whisk but give up at an early stage and switched to an electric one).

Step 3:

While whisking constantly, add the still hot half and half mixture in a slow stream to the egg yolks. Add the vanilla.

Step 4:

Heat the custard, constantly stirring till it reaches 78 -80 Celsius. Another good indicator is that if you pull your finger across the back of a wooden spoon, the mark will stay there (and yes, it’ll hurt a bit). Beware not to overheat the mixture, eggs in the base get scrambled easily.

Step 5: Let Your Base Get Cold

Let the custard cool to room temperature. If you are using a thick-bottomed saucepan, I recommend to keep stirring the mixture even after you removed it from the heat, as it may be overheated by the stored heat. You can speed up cooling if you put the saucepan over ice - cold water.(pic.1)

Add the salt, instant coffee and Guinness. Put it into the fridge for at least 12 hours or overnight. Use a pitcher, it will be easier to transfer the base into the ice cream maker. To chill it, I put the mixture for about half an hour into the freezer.