With Saint Patrick’s Day tomorrow and a night to myself I knew I had to pick up some stout and play in the kitchen. The liquor store around the corner only had a couple options; Guinness or ToolShed Flat Cap Stout and since I generally prefer to support local, I decided to go with the latter.
I have some salted caramel chocolate pretzel ice cream from Village Ice Cream in the fridge, a perfect pairing for some stout caramel. Also, I just want to take a moment and say how perfect that ice cream flavour is, Village, you just get me.
Anyhow, this caramel is pretty easy to make and only uses a few simple ingredients. Drizzle this gorgeous silky sauce over cake, ice cream, directly into your mouth-hole, you know, whatever you like.
Ingredients:
1 355ml can Stout
2 tbsp butter
1 3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/8 tsp salt
Process:
- Cook stout in a saucepan on medium-low heat for 20 minutes or until almost halved in volume. Keep an eye on it to start, reducing beer at too high of a heat can result in some messy boil overs (trust me, I’ve been there.) Stir occasionally to ensure it is cooking evenly.
- Stir in melted butter and the brown sugar.
- Leave to simmer lightly, without stirring, for 15 minutes until a candy thermometer reads 225 and it is a similar consistency to maple syrup. If you don’t have a candy thermometer, that’s alright, following the time and temperature should do the trick.
- Remove the candy thermometer, turn heat right down, then add the evaporated milk and salt, mix thoroughly.
- Increase the heat again to medium-low and cook for 15 minutes until further reduced and thickened slightly. A good way to know it is done is if the bubbles on the surface look sticky and linger a while.
- Let cool for 30 minutes or until ready to serve. At the right consistency, you should yield 1 1/2 cups of liquid.
- Serve over vanilla ice cream or, even better, salted caramel. If you could eat heaven, it may just taste a little something like this.
Have a safe and happy Saint Patrick’s Day everyone! Cheers!
