The other day we were browsing through Leite’s Culinaria and stumbled on Coleman Andrew’s “recipe” for an ice cream float made with Guinness Stout. It fits fine within the “ice cream with flavorful alcohol” theme we are partial to, vanilla being a perfect foil for the chocolatey/spicy/bitter/maltiness of stout. (Our Amontillado Milkshake walks a similar line of grownup flavors). A Guinness Float is a brilliant play on the classic float idea: ice cream with something fizzy poured over, like root beer, or Coke.

Andrew’s divine and very grownup dessert is not really a recipe at all; it is more an equation:

really good vanilla ice cream like Haagan Daz’ Five Vanilla Bean + any really well-made RICH dark stout beer

(It couldn’t be easier to make: you spoon ice cream into a glass and pour the stout over, then eat with a spoon).

The possibilities for using different stouts are vast. Check out Advocate’s list of 750 American Stout’s from Beer Advocate. We’d also experiment with ice cream flavors, like chocolate or coffee…hazelnut gelato, perhaps?…

Photo above from Drink Eat Travel‘s feature on Kern River Brewery.

Related post: amontillado and other grownup milkshake(s)