This month’s Session topic (hosted by Beer 47) is “Beer Desserts”:

What beer desserts have you tried and liked? Disliked? What beer styles work well with dessert and which ones do not? Do you have any beer dessert recipes that you enjoyed and would like to share?

Cooking with beer is interesting, because it’s similar to pairing beer and food, except that you also have to consider the change that will take place to the beer itself once it’s within the food. It’s slightly challenging because not every beer works as a cooking ingredient.

I’ve had some great beer desserts — Belgian tripel ice cream, beer floats made with chocolatey stouts, spiced stout cake… The common theme amongst beer desserts that work well is malty beer. IPAs just don’t work as well in desserts as less hoppy brews do.

This is because after cooking, hoppier beers can come off as harsh and unpleasantly bitter, especially if the other ingredients in the dish are not intense enough to overcome the bitterness. Malty beers, on the other hand, give a dish a rich, deep sweetness, which is perfect for dessert.

Stouts almost always work well because of the chocolate/roasted character of the malt. Stouts that edge toward the hoppier side of things shouldn’t be used in delicately flavors desserts for the reasons mentioned above. If there’s enough intensity in the rest of the ingredients to mask the bitterness, go ahead and use that Imperial stout in your dessert!

I recently made a crème brûlée with Stoudt’s Fat Dog Stout. I was sort of guessing when I came up with this recipe; I wasn’t really sure it was going to work. But I gave it a shot, and I’m glad I did because it came out awesome!

My recipe for Stout Crème Brûlée is chocolatey and roasty, and you can definitely taste the stout in it. Even though I used a fairly hoppy stout, the bitterness is nicely balanced by the sweetness of the custard.

So here’s the recipe. If you try making this, let me know how it comes out!

(By the way, for detailed instructions on making crème brûlée, check out this post from my archives – Homemade crème brûlée – Get out your blow torch!)

Stout Crème Brûlée

Ingredients:
6 oz heavy whipping cream
4 oz half and half
6 oz stout
2 oz bittersweet chocolate
1/2 cup sugar
4 large egg yolks
1/8 tsp salt
Raw sugar

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325°F.

Place the chocolate in a heat-safe bowl. Heat the cream, half and half, and stout until it reaches a simmer, then pour it over the chocolate. Whisk until the chocolate is melted.

Whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Slowly whisk in the hot cream mixture. Strain the custard into a measuring cup.

Arrange four (or more) ramekins in a roasting pan, and divide the custard into the ramekins. Add enough warm water to the roasting pan to reach halfway up the ramekins. Bake until the centers are set, about 65-70 minutes.

Place directly in the refrigerator and chill uncovered until cold, at least 3 hours and up to 1 day.

Sprinkle raw sugar on top of each custard. Shake the ramekin to cover the custard evenly. Using a kitchen blowtorch, flame the sugar, constantly moving the torch, until it melts and browns. Serve immediately.