Rich, Creamy Dark Chocolate Milk Stout Ice Cream

I am a woman. I’m not supposed to like dark beer. But I do! I love it! Thick, dark beer. Beer so dark it could be mistaken for coffee. Oatmeal stouts.  Rogue Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout mmm. Cream Stouts. Porters. Double Chocolate Stouts. And my most recent discovery: Milk Stouts. On vacation in Colorado this year (the perfect place for a beer lover to vacation!), I found the Left Hand Brewing Company’s Milk Stout. To me, it’s like vacation in a beer. Now that we are home, I can’t find that one, but I did find some Moo Joos Milk Stout that is almost as good and it’s brewed a little closer to home.

Being a dark beer lover, chocolate stout ice cream is something I had heard of and always wanted to try. I ran across a recipe for Malted Guiness Chocolate Stout Ice Cream the other day at the Sassy Radish. I loved her post, but it was challenging me to try to make it lighter, healthier. Can you make ice cream that is thick and rich and chocolate that’s not going to make you incredibly fat? Hey I had to try.

I couldn’t bear to cut down the amount of chocolate, but I used the most intense dark chocolate I had on hand: Green & Black’s Organic 72% Baking Chocolate has just a hint of sweetness with an intense dark chocolate flavor. I didn’t have quite enough of that, so I threw in some Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet chocolate chips. Dark chocolate has the most health benefits of all the chocolates so it’s the perfect ingredient for a “healthy” but rich chocolate ice cream.

Rich, Creamy Dark Chocolate Milk Stout Ice Cream

I had no malted milk powder like she used in hers, so instead I added espresso powder and cinnamon–and a hint of kahlua. I cut out the whipping cream and used fat free half in half in place of both the milk and the cream. And I replaced the 4 egg yolks with 2 eggs. And this is what I came up with. It is amazingly thick and rich, with an intense dark chocolate, coffee flavor and a hint of that lovely dark milk stout taste. Stout and chocolate lovers  rejoice!

Ingredients:

• 7 oz. dark chocolate
• 2 c. FAT FREE Half & Half
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 1/4 t. nutmeg
• 1/4 t. cinnamon
• 1 T instant vanilla espresso powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup Milk Stout (or other stout beer–most people would probably use Guiness, but I wanted something a little more adventurous)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 c. Kahlua

Directions:

1. Place the chocolate in a large bowl and set a mesh strainer over the top. I chopped up the Green & Black’s chocolate bar into smaller chunks so it would melt easier.
2. In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, warm 1 c. of the fat free half and half, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, espresso powder and salt until small bubbles form around the edge of the pan.
3.  Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk the eggs till fluffy.
4. When the milk mixture is simmering, remove from heat and add about half the warm milk mixture, in a slow, thin drizzle, to the eggs, whisking constantly, then scrape it all back into the saucepan.
5. Whisk the mixture constantly with a heat-proof whisk over medium heat until the mixture thickens – about 3 to 4 minutes. Pour the custard through the strainer over the chocolate, stirring until the chocolate is melted. Once the mixture is smooth, whisk in the cream, then the beer, vanilla, and kahlua.
6. Chill the mixture for at least 8 hours or overnight (I had such a hard time waiting!), then freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Nutrition Information

Either way you make it, this ice cream is a rich, decadent treat. Just a small scoop of it is very satisfying.

Before (the Sassy Radish version) Calories from fat are almost 70% of the calories. This version is higher in vitamin A and iron, from the extra egg yolks.	After (lightened version … the recipe above) Calories from fat are about 35%. The sugar content is a little higher. This version is higher in calcium and protein.

Nutrition facts generated at http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php