Hop Ice Cream
Created | Updated Nov 14, 2013
When you think of ice cream flavours, hops aren't usually at the forefront. However given their citrus notes and balanced aromas, they make an excellent flavour.
This recipe doesn't use an ice cream maker, although if you have one it will save you taking your mixture out to stir regularly while its freezing. It's also an egg free recipe, so if you're worried about eating raw eggs, you don't have to be.
Hops
Hops are added to beer for two main reasons, their bitterness and their aromas. The bitterness comes purely from the oils present in the hop leaves and isn't really wanted in an ice cream. When making beer, the hops are boiled to release the oils, but with ice cream we don't want as much oil out of the leaves, so we need to make sure to only warm them. The leaves themselves have a wonderful delicate flavour to them, but can be a bit like chewing grass if they're not very finely chopped.
There are a lot of different sorts of hops out there, with more being developed each year. The best ones for ice cream depend purely on your personal tastes, but the newer American hops with their citrus aroma make for a really tangy taste. Hops are all measured with an alpha content, this is the primary way of measure the amount of oils in them, the higher the alpha content, the more powerful the hop. American hops such as Amarillo and Simcoe in particular have a high alpha content, English hops, particularly Fuggles and Goldings tend to have a low alpha content. So if you like a more citrusy hop use American hops, if you want something more sutble, use an English hop.
You really don't need many hops, if you use a lot you'll get both a very bitter, and a very grassy tasting ice cream. About two or three hop cones (a moderate pinch) is more than enough. Getting hold of just a pinch of hops isn't as hard as it sounds, you possibly know someone who does homebrew that can spare you some, or most small or micro breweries will let you have a bit if you ask nicely. Failing that, any moderately decent homebrew shop will sell you 100g worth (for a few pounds in the UK) which is enough for quite a lot of batches.
Ingredients
150ml Milk
3oz Sugar
300ml Cream
Pinch of Hops, finely chopped.
Method:
Warm the milk in a saucepan with the sugar, stiring all the time to dissolve. You don't need or want to boil the milk, only to dissolve the sugar.
Add in the cream and continue to warm gently over a low heat, stirring until all the cream has mixed in well and there's no lumps.
Once the mixture is smooth and warm, remove from the heat and add the very finely chopped hops and stir them in for about five or ten minutes before transferring to a suitable tub for freezing. Leave covered on the side until cool, then place in the freezer.
About every half hour, remove from the freezer and stir thoroughly with a fork to make sure that everything is mixed well and no large ice crystals are forming. If like me you forget to stir every half hour, don't worry too much, just make sure to stir it well when you do remember. All that will happen is your ice cream will be a bit thicker and harder.
When the ice cream is frozen right through to the middle of the tub, it's ready to eat.