Father's Day - Guinness Brown Bread Ice-Cream

As I write this, my father is slumped dejectedly on the sofa, holding his head as the West Indies cricket team loses spectacularly to Sri Lanka. After the first three wickets fell, West Indies had only one run on the scoreboard. Wow! This is serious and it is guaranteed to put him in a bad mood. For the next couple days, we will have to endure constant grumbling and muttering in undertones about how "dem boys throw way de wicket."

It's true that my dad loves his cricket but here is something else that he loves - Guinness ice-cream. Fortunately I have some tucked away in the freezer for Father's Day tomorrow that will hopefully lift his spirits.

Outside of the odd Irish priest, you're not likely to run into an Irishman on our shores, yet there isn't a man in my family who doesn't love this ice-cream which is obtainable only from street ice-cream vendors.I wonder how it became so popular and if this is a favourite of other Caribbean islanders as well?

I just love the sharp, bitter, flavour and the contrast of the sweet in this ice-cream. Unfortunately the texture of most ice-creams bought from street vendors just isn't up to standard. My gold standard for ice-cream texture and flavour is Häagan Dazs®. The kind bought from street carts is icy and or chalky - not creamy. I have always wanted to improve upon this but I did not have a recipe until I stumbled upon Murphy's Guinness Brown Bread Ice-Cream. Go to their site if you want to see a totally delectable, makes you want to eat it, not melting, nicely styled scoop of ice-cream. I guarantee it will make you want to have this. The rest of their site is worth browsing as their ice-creams are unique. Have a penchant for goat cheese ice-cream...no I'm not kidding-you'll find it there.

I've made Murphy's Guinniss Ice-cream twice before and both times the ice-cream never set up past a very soft serve consistency. Granted I make a horrible custard, but suspecting that there might be too much alcohol in the Murphy's version which can cause ice-cream not to firm up, I tried another recipe using less stout and ......well almost! It firmed up nicely but the texture was still not what I was looking for as the custard was just a wee bit over cooked.

Finally, like the West Indies team I just threw in the towel and opted for an eggless version. Love it! Because it doesn't contain eggs or cream it is economical to make and a very forgiving recipe. I cooked the bejesus out of that 'custard' and it was not ruined! Why did I cook it so long? Well... if you've been reading carefully, which most probably you haven't because unlike myself you have a life and have just been skimming along, hoping at some point I'll stop blathering and just get to the recipe already - I suck at making custard.

Okay, so here it is the recipe already!

Guinness Brown Bread Ice-Cream

1 cup water
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cups evaporated milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Guinness stout

Method

In a heavy saucepan whisk together the water and the cornstarch and simmer the mixture over moderate heat, whisking, for 2 minutes. Add the milks, the salt, and the sugar, heat the mixture over moderately low heat, whisking, for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the sugar is dissolved, and remove the pan from the heat. Let the mixture cool completely, stir in the Guinness. Put into your ice-cream maker and follow manufacturer's instructions

* I must have cooked this for about 10 mins before I finally figured out it wasn't going to get as thick as an egg custard.

*used leftover bread crusts to make this and tore them by hand because I find that the food processor gets them too fine and then they just get lost in the ice-cream.

Brown Bread Crumble
Can be made in advance or while the 'custard' cools.

Ingredients
1 Cup stale brown bread crumbs
7 Oz brown sugar
2 tablespoons Guinness stout

Method
Put the sugar in a pan, add the 2 tbsp. Guinness, and cook until it is melted and completely liquid. Do not let it get too dark. Remove from the heat.

Stir the bread crumbs into the melted sugar, then spread on a baking tray and cook in the oven at 350F for about 20 min, until the sugar is caramelised and the crumbs are crispy. Keep an eye on it, though, that it doesn’t burn.


Cool the crumbs, and add to the custard base according to your ice-cream maker's directions.

The flavour is superior and as as to that elusive texture, ooooooooh so close.

*Entered in Social Media Ice Cream Social, by Savor The Thyme, Scotty Snacks and Tangled Noodle