This frozen dessert can best be described as raspberry cheesecake in a glass. As an alternative to your traditional root beer float, this version uses Framboise Lambic, a Belgian beer that is fermented with raspberries (they also make a cherry, peach, and black currant version). This lambic has a rather low alcohol content, coming in at around 4 to 5%. This is not the type of beer I usually go for, a bit too sweet for my taste. However, the combination of the tart, sour notes from the goat cheese ice cream marry well with the sweet raspberry effervescence of the lambic. I’ve typically seen this made with vanilla ice cream, but am really diggin’ the goat cheese addition. I chose a creamy chevre and the goat cheese flavor really comes through.
This may not strike you as a typical winter dessert; although there’s not been much of a winter this year (at least not here in Washington, DC). Having spent ten, long, cold winters in Chicago (and many a day in which it was so bitterly cold that you were reluctant to emerge from under the covers), on the few days when it has been coldish [here in DC] such that I needed a light jacket, I quietly chuckled to myself as I overheard a few people commenting about the “cold” weather.
Anyway, I came across this combination of lambic and ice cream while surfing around online. I opted to change things up a bit by using fresh goat cheese from my local farmers’ market (to accompany milk and eggs I picked up as well).
I already have plans to make this again in the spring — garnished with a few fresh raspberries on top (can’t wait to see you spring). Or, forgo the lambic and make a nice raspberry sauce to drizzle over the goat cheese ice cream.
To be continued in spring 2012…
Lambic and Goat Cheese Ice Cream Float
goat cheese ice cream
Scoop the ice cream into a tall glass. Pour the Lambic over the ice cream. Eat immediately.
Goat Cheese Ice Cream
1 1/2 cups whole milk
2/3 cup sugar
8 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
6 egg yolks
Warm the milk and sugar in a medium sauce pan. Place the goat cheese in a large bowl with a mesh strainer on top. In a separate bowl whisk the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm milk-sugar mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly. Scrape the egg yolk mixture back into the sauce pan. Stir over medium heat, until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon.
Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the goat cheese. Whisk until well incorporated.
Chill in the refrigerator and freeze in your ice cream maker.
