What’d You Do Last Weekend?
Best brunch item ever? Maybe, but why don't you try them yourself and decide?
Hops Ice Cream
We had leftover Northern Brewer and Willamette hops when we finished making our Sour Cherry Stout, so I decided to take a leap and make some ice cream. Todd had expressed interest in it before – and I thought it might be a nice accompaniment to the cherry rhubarb pie I was making too. Two different combinations of hops and cherries – how fun is that? Well, wait until you hear the result before hopping on board.
I don’t know if there’s some sort of chemical reaction that occurs when combining milk (or cream) with herbs (or hops, in this case), but this is the second time I’ve noticed the combination produces a very bitter result. Earlier this week I steeped tea in cream and it turned out bitter, but I was unprepared for how bitter the hops would be. I made sure to leave them in for less than a minute – even less time than I’d left the tea – but that didn’t make a difference. The ice cream, while a lovely jade color, was bitter, bitter, bitter. I could have added enough sugar to the mixture to cancel out the bitterness, but then there wouldn’t have been any hops flavor left.
Maybe the answer is to work with malt powder or some other been ingredient – I don’t know. I’d love to hear from anyone who’s had experience with this before and has gotten a better, less bitter result. I’ve seen plenty of beer ice cream, but never hops – and I would like to know why. Is there a chemical reaction that I don’t know about? Any clues?
Hops Ice Cream
2 c milk
1/4 oz Northern Brewer hops
2 c half and half
3/4 c sugar
2 T cornstarch
1 egg yolk
vanilla extract
- Scald the milk and half and half.
- Add the hops to the milk mixture and steep for 1 minute.
- Strain the milk into a clean saucepan. Discard the hops.
- Add the sugar to the milk mixture and stir to dissolve.
- Combine the cornstarch with the egg yolk until it forms a thick paste.
- Temper the egg mixture with a little warm milk and then add it to the pan.
- Bring the milk mixture back to the heat and cook until thickened slightly.
- Cool completely and process in an ice cream maker.
Makes 1 quart.
