The other day I made some homemade vanilla bourbon ice cream that wouldn’t freeze hard. After freezing overnight, it was still soft so I turned it into this Ginger Beer Float with Vanilla Bourbon Ice Cream! And what a nice treat it was!
While making the ice cream I seem to have gotten perhaps a little heavy-handed with the bourbon! Imagine that? Well, actually, for those of you who know me will probably wonder how that happened since I’m not a huge bourbon drinker. However, I do like it a lot in desserts. Especially Pecan Bars with Chocolate and Bourbon, and ice cream.
Adding alcohol to ice cream or other frozen concoctions is tricky. If you add too much it won’t freeze properly, which I did with this ice cream. I added a half cup, which gave it a good hint of bourbon, but it only freezes to soft serve stage, and melts quickly. If you’re looking for a firmer ice cream you’ll have to cut back the amount to more like 1/4 cup. But the glorious thing about cooking is sometimes when one thing doesn’t turn out exactly as intended, it can be great for something else. Now don’t get me wrong, this ice cream is really good as it is, but since it was pretty soft, I decided to use it in a Ginger Beer float. And it’s perfect for that!
What I love about floats, especially root beer floats, is when the ice cream melts into the root beer. Which is why this ice cream works so well in this float! It melts into the ginger beer and gives it a creamy, softer profile, while still maintaining some “bite” from the ginger beer. If you don’t want to make the homemade ice cream, I still recommend you try making a ginger beer float with store-bought vanilla ice cream. It’s just plain yummy!
The basic recipe of eggs, cream, milk and sugar came from a Ben & Jerry’s cookbook. I added vanilla bean and bourbon to it. I know some people are concerned about consuming raw eggs, but I’ve never had any problem eating this ice cream, unless you consider extra calories a problem!
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- 2 eggs
- ¾ C. sugar
- 2 vanilla bean pods, slit open and scrape seeds (save pods for other use)
- 2 C. heavy cream
- 1 C. milk
- ½ C. bourbon (use ¼ C if you want a firmer ice cream)
- 1 bottle of your favorite Ginger Beer
- To make ice cream, whisk eggs in bowl until thick and frothy. Slowly add sugar, whisking to combine. Continue whisking until sugar is dissolved. Add vanilla bean, and whisk in cream, milk and bourbon. Pour into ice cream freezer and freeze according to manufacturer's directions. Let ice cream freeze in freezer for several hours or overnight.
- To make a ginger beer float, put scoops of ice cream in glass. Top with your favorite ginger beer.
You don’t have to heat them at all?
I’ve made the basic ice cream recipe (eggs, cream, milk, sugar) for years and never have heated the eggs. I figured if it was in my Ben & Jerry’s cookbook it must be okay 😉 But then again, I will eat Caesar’s Salad with real anchovy dressing with the raw egg. If you have objections to eating raw eggs you can leave them out but the eggs make a richer, creamier ice cream that holds up better in the freezer. If you make it without eggs, eat it right away!