Ready to get your Irish on? Here's a fun twist that will liven up any party! If you've never had a Guinness Float well, I was with you until the other day. It's been something I've wanted to try but still had a bit of trepidation about mixing beer, chocolate and ice cream. I'm not typically a beer drinker; using beer more often to cook then to sip but I developed a fondness for Guinness after participating in a beer tasting a couple of years ago so if the situation is right and the beer ice cold, then I'm game. How much colder could it get than blending it with ice cream? I wanted to try something more than plain vanilla so added a bit of chocolate and Irish cream and voila...a Guinness Float with Irish Cream Ice Cream. Oh my.
I know, it sounds weird but beer and chocolate are a known pairing and I was hoping the beer in this float might remind me of using Coors Beer in a favorite bread; evident but not overwhelming. I did find that my nirvana was after I mixed everything together and the end result was a very adult float, not as sweet but definitely could taste the beer. Was it strange? Yes. Different? Definitely. But also so amazingly good. Take your favorite float and kick it up a notch...or two!
I wanted to try it with some Irish Cream ice cream; I'm pretty sure I've seen it available this time of year but I couldn't find any last week so I did the next best thing and just mixed some vanilla bean ice cream with a bit of Bailey's Irish Cream. If you don't have the Irish Cream, no biggie, just plain vanilla ice cream would be fine too.
I made my own chocolate sauce but certainly use what you have on hand if you prefer. I do like a sauce that blends milk and dark chocolates but change those quantities if you prefer all dark or all milk chocolate. A bit of half and half will help it melt and thin it a bit and a dash of Irish Whiskey will make it...GOOD!!
Let's be Irish; this is such a fun dessert cocktail. Try one, bet you like it!
- For the Irish Whiskey Chocolate Sauce:
- 2 oz dark chocolate
- 6 oz milk chocolate
- ¼ cup half and half
- 2 Tbsp Irish Whiskey
- 24 oz (1/2 container) vanilla bean ice cream, softened
- 3 Tbsp Bailey's Irish Cream
- Combine chocolate and half and half in a small saucepan over low heat. Warm and stir until the chocolate has melted. Stir in the Irish Whiskey and cook on low for 1 minute.Turn off heat but keep covered to keep warm.
- Stir the ice cream until smooth, add the Bailey's Irish Cream and stir in thoroughly. Freeze in container until solid (several hours or overnight).
- Drizzle some chocolate sauce onto the inside of the glass.
- Put 2 scoops of the ice cream into a chilled glass or mug.
- Top with the chilled beer and drizzle top with additional chocolate sauce.
