Going for the Gold Ice Cream

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I love the Olympics, especially the spectacle that is the opening ceremonies. Typically, I have a party where I ask people to bring food and drink from various countries. This year we are keeping things a little more low-key, but I still wanted to make something special to enjoy while watching. With the hot weather we've been having, ice cream seemed to be the way to go.

I wanted to celebrate England with this ice cream, so the base is flavored with Hobgoblin Dark English Ale and then studded with pieces of honeycomb candy (what you'd find inside a Cadbury Chunchie bar). The ice cream has a nice strong malty beer favor (with just a hint of banana from this beer). The honeycomb candy melts into sweet, golden caramel/toffee flavored bites. Together they make a winning team.

I use the ice cream base recipe from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams. Jeni's is in Columbus, Ohio, but our local higher end grocery store has recently started carrying her small batch ice creams (all the pints are hand labeled in Sharpie). We fell in love with flavors like Brambleberry Crisp and Brown Butter Almond Brittle. When we saw that she had a book out on how to make her ice creams at home we grabbed it! You can get her basic ice cream base recipe on Saveur too.

Going for the Gold Ice Cream
The beer is not cooked down in this recipe, so the final ice cream does have a small alcoholic content.

Ice Cream Base:

2 c whole milk
1 1/2 T cornstarch
1 1/2 oz cream cheese
1/8 t fine salt
1 1/4 c heavy cream
2/3 c sugar
2 T light corn syrup
1/2 c Dark English Ale (a stout or porter would be good too)

Make the ice cream base:

Mix 2 tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch and set aside

Put the cream cheese and salt into a large bowl, whisk and set aside.

In a large heavy saucepan, add the remaining milk, cream, sugar and corn syrup. Bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat. Let boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in the cornstarch mixture. Return to heat and bring to a boil again. Let boil whole stirring, for one minute. It should be smooth and slightly thickened.

Slowly whisk the hot mixture into the cream cheese. Stir in the ale.

Cool in the fridge overnight or put into an ice bath to chill completely.


Honeycomb Candy:
from Wikihow though I added the bits about reaching the proper candy temperature.

5 T white sugar
2 T golden syrup (I've seen some recipes that just use honey, but golden syrup is traditional in England)
2 T honey
2 t water
1 T baking soda


Make the Honeycomb:

Have you water and baking soda measured out and ready to go. Grease a baking sheet or cover the bottom with a silicone mat or parchment paper.

Put the sugar, golden syrup and honey into a heavy saucepan. Melt over medium-heat. Bring to a low boil, stirring quite often. Boil until the mixture reached the hard crack point, just above 300F. The mixture should caramelize to a slightly darker brown. Remove from the heat and add the water and baking soda. Stir in quickly. The mixture will foam up (this created the honeycomb). Pour out on to prepared baking sheet. Let cool completely. Break into small pieces, smaller than a nickel. (Don't worry if your honeycomb isn't completely crisp, mine wasn't. It'll melt in the ice cream so just needs to be stiff enough to break up.)

Freeze the Ice Cream:

Freeze the ice cream according to the directions on your ice cream maker. Package it in an air tight container, layering in pieces of honeycomb candy. Let sit in the freezer for at least a couple of hours to let the candy to soften.

Makes 1 quart

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