Pastry chefs are starting to tap the beer keg for inspiration. Brews that were previously poured into mugs are now making their way onto dessert plates.
XIX
Philadelphia
Pastry chef Dan Pino offers a special menu for the city’s beer week (March 7 to 16) that includes Sticky Toffee Pudding with Malted Weyerbacher “Old Heathen Stout” Ice Cream, Milk Chocolate Mousse with Red Hook Ale Sorbet and a variety of additional beer ice cream flavors and sorbets. “Beer is made with yeast, and as a pastry chef, yeast is close to my heart,” says Pino. “It’s nice to work with the same ingredients.”
The Chocolate Room
Brooklyn, New York
Garrett Oliver, the Brooklyn Brewery’s Brewmaster, has written extensively about the possibilities of pairing stout beers with desserts. This cafe, four miles south of the brewery’s headquarters, has taken that advice to heart by actually incorporating one of Oliver’s beers, the Black Chocolate Stout, into its Chocolate Stout Float; it comes topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
The Harp
Cleveland
If stouts work well in sweets, it’s logical that Guinness appears in desserts at Irish pubs. The Harp serves a Guinness ice cream sundae, with a brownie, caramel sauce and honey-roasted pecans. Irish-themed chains like the Guinness idea, too—Rí-Rá serves chocolate sauce, flavored with the beer, on a sundae and Fadó Irish Pub offers a black and tan brownie with Guinness ice cream.
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