Stout Ice Cream - With Dry Ice!

Ice cream is semi-solid deliciousness.

Dry Ice is rock-sold carbon dioxide.

By using dry ice you can make stout ice cream (or any other flavor) without an ice cream maker and in only a few minutes. The dry ice will partially carbonate the ice cream and leave it with a unique texture.

Supplies:

• Stand Mixer
• Dry Ice
• Rolling Pin or mortar and pestle for smashing dry ice
• Gloves
• Eye protection

Ingredients

• 2 cups Heavy Whipping Cream
• 1 cup Stout (the sweeter the stout the better)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1.5 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• about 1-1.5 lbs dry ice

Notes about beer: Beer is really bitter. For this reason it can be difficult to cook with. When heated a few things happen, the first is that the alcohol evaporates. The second thing that happens is that any unisommerized alph-acids from the hops with rapidly isomerize into very bitter compounds. These are the IBUs you see in beer labels. It stands for International Bittering Unit and is defined as 1ppm isomerized alpha acid.

In my opinion, the best beers to use are sweet, low beers with low bitterness.

Milk Stouts, Cream Stouts and Sweet Stouts work the best. Experiment with different types to see what works. I used an Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout that had a lot of residual sugar.

Precautions

Dry is is really cold. It is has a surface temperature of about -80c (-110F) and will can cause frost bite quickly if mishandled. Handle it with gloves and be cautious of accidentally chilling any jewelry. Rings and such conduct heat very quickly and can cause frost bite very quickly if not careful.

Dry is is CO2. As it sublimates, dry ice turns to CO2 gas. Carbon dioxide gas is heavier than air and will pool in low areas and can displace oxygen. Each pound of dry ice will make 8-9 cubic feet of CO2 gas.

Mix the cream, sugar, salt and chocolate in a saucepan over low heat.

Keep mixing until all the little chunks are gone as in the second picture. A whisk will make quick work of the chocolate and make a nice smooth mixture.

Add the stout and vanilla extract.

Pour the solution into a stand mixer.

Break off a few small pieces of dry ice. Dry ice is often sold by the pound Put the dry ice in a resealable bag. Make sure the bag can vent co2 so it doesn't pop!

Use a hammer or rolling pin to smash it into little pieces. The smaller the pieces the better. The chunks should look like course sand on small gravel.

I poured in from the bag onto the cutting board to make it easier to see.

My dry ice came in a 5lb block. I broke it up into maybe 1/2 lbs sections and then pulverized the smaller pieces with a rolling pin.

Now for the fun part.

Add the dry ice to the mixer. Turn the mixer on low and watch the fun. Continue adding smashed dry ice until you get the consistency you are looking for. Since the ice cream has less cream and/or milk than typical ice cream it will have a slightly different texture.

The first mixing photo shows partially mixed slurry. If the bubbling and off-gassing has stopped, try adding more dry ice.

The second photo show a better consistency.

You can keep adding dry ice and mixing until you reach the consistency you like. Since the dry ice is so cold, you can turn the entire concoction into a brick if you go long enough.

Serve in your most ridiculous beer glass.

The ice cream can be kept in the freezer line normal ice cream. It will eventually get weird but if it lasts that long then you aren't doing it right The alcohol will may gradually separate as it has a lower freezing point than the rest of the mixture. I've read about using gelatin to hold the alcohol in suspension. This may be necessary if using spirits or infusions to flavor the ice cream but doesn't seem to make a difference with beer.