Oh my Guinness

Kiss me I'm Irish!



Source: allrecipes.com via Tanya on Pinterest

OK, so I'm not really. But I do love to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Maybe it's because of the green beer, or Irish food, or because it's the only day that is is OK to dress head-to-toe in green, but I think it is mainly because in Canada St. Patrick's Day is an excuse to have fun with friends with no strings attached.

So once again we invited our friend over for a little Irish themed festivities.

After the success of the Guinness Cupcakes last year I decided to try a recipe that I pinned for Guinness Chocolate ice cream.


It is a great simple recipe that only has 4 ingredients!
(Beer, Sugar, Cream and Chocolate)

So I pulled out my ice cream maker (that I don't get to use nearly as much as I would like) and whipped up this recipe in no time at all.

I really loved the taste and texture of this ice cream. You can taste the Guinness more in the ice cream than in the cupcakes, but it is not overly strong or distracting.  It is smooth and light more like store bought ice cream and not as dense as custard based ice cream.

I did have have a problem with the chocolate chips though. Maybe because I bought store brand which may not be as high of quality (though I think store brands are usually comparable) or maybe I did not stir enough, but I had problem incorporating the chocolate into the mixture. The chocolate seemed to cool faster than the mixture and small bits of chocolate came out when it was setting. I did try to strain some of this out when I poured into the ice cream maker but I still had some gritty chocolate in my otherwise perfect creamy ice cream.

I plan to try this again with different chocolate and/or try incorporating the chocolate chips while the mixture is still on the heat. Because it is so easy to make so it will be no problem to try again.

 

I also made the Guinness Cupcakes again this year. Since I was planning ahead I made the whisky ganache that I did not have time to make this year. Not surprisingly these were a big hit. The ganache tasted great and not at all boozy. The Guinness chocolate cake with Irish Cream icing and Whisky chocolate filling is a great combo. Though if you are short on time I still think they are great without the filling as well.

Keeping it fresh

So I have been a little bad with updating with new posts. OK, I have been awful about it. Hopefully I will have some time this week to finish up some late posts and get them on here.

Is back-posting a no-no in the bloggersphere? Oh well, who will know.. :)

In the meantime there is one pin I found working today in the back of my fridge. As I noted before my fridge is the place where vegetables go to die. I have to admit that celery is one of the most common victim. I usually end up buying it for a recipe (or oh a whim), use 10% then the rest wilts and decomposes into a slimy mess in the back corners of the fridge.

Now I can't find the original pin (likely part of one of those list of tips) but it is a quick and easy to explain so here it goes.

1. Trim the bottom of the celery
2. Place in a tall cup with a little bit of water

So far the typical storage advice. I think what makes it work is the next step...

3. Place a plastic bag over the celery
4. Place in fridge

This worked great for me. My celery was in the fridge for over a month (probably more like 6 weeks) and I took it out today and had a piece. It was fresh tasting and crisp (probably better than the day I bought it).

 I would recommend this method for longer time storage.