Homemade Peanut Butter Ice Cream and a Chocolate Stout Float
Every blog I've been reading has been either excited or depressed that its the end of summer. For the first time in 10 years, I can finally feel it happening! In Las Vegas, autumn would always hit us overnight at Halloween time. I know this because throughout October it would still be hot enough that you'd think you could pull off that skanky halloween costume. And then like 2 days before Halloween the weather would be all "nope!" and you'd freeze your butt off. Those were the college days...don't worry, since I've grown into my late 20s I no longer wear those skanky halloween costumes. Last year I was Andrew for Halloween, beard, cigar, and the rest of the getup. Hardly any skin showing:
Now that I live 8 hours north of Vegas, its safe to say seasons are a little more prominent. Our days are still 90 degrees but it drops to the low 60s at night. Talk about a mountain town!
So before the summer totally slips away from us, let me share this awesome beer float I made this weekend. In attempts to spend only $30 on our groceries each week, I'm obviously not buying any snacks or desserts. But sometimes you've got to satisfy that sweet tooth! Ice cream can be a super inexpensive dessert to make and will last you as long as you can let it in the freezer (before eating it).
The Pairing
I don't think I need to go into too much detail of why peanut butter ice cream goes with chocolate stout. Thanks to Reese's ads, I grew up knowing the two go hand-in-hand.The key here is to make sure you're putting a sweet, chocolate-y stout into that beer float. Stay away from traditional dry Irish Stout like Guinness or Murphy's (unless you intentionally want a coffee-flavored float, which I do not prefer). I also paired sweet stout with those mouth-watering brownies I posted a while back, so the same principles apply here. These are some of my favorite stouts to pair with dessert:
- Great Basin Outlaw Milk Stout (used in this recipe!)
- Young’s Double Chocolate Stout
- Left Hand Brewing Milk Stout
- Hitachino Nest Sweet Stout
- Samuel Adams Cream Stout
Just look for "sweet", "cream", or "milk" stout on the label. That means you're good to go.
The Recipe
Now I am no expert at creating ice cream recipes from scratch yet. The recipe I used to make my peanut butter ice cream was from Ashlee Marie's blog. (And side note, I've totally fallen in love with her blog and started following it...I love the simplicity of her recipes and layout of her posts.)
So to make the float...do I really need to explain? I put 3 scoops of the peanut butter ice cream in my glass and filled it with sweet stout. Then I ate it (and drank it). If you feel like being really creative you can put a few salted peanuts or chocolate sauce in the float, but it was absolutely delicious just as it was. Eat it quickly as the ice cream will melt! I may just need one of these for dessert tonight...mmmm....
Happy Pairing!