I was in the mood to make something for Oktoberfest. Not particularly excited about sausage or sauerkraut I landed on pretzels and beer. But how to make that more exciting? Butterbeer ice cream! The recipe comes from my go-to ice cream book, Humphry Slocombe. To pair with that, I selected a pretzel crunch topping from the Momofuku Milk Bar book from Pastry Chef, Christina Tosi.
The pretzel crunch was very easy to make. For fun I decided to use the waffle-cut pretzels over the traditional shape. The sugar mixture to bind the pretzels does have a couple of ingredients that may not be in your pantry. Milk powder and malt powder. I found both at Safeway. Combined with butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and salt, the pretzel crunch is baked in the oven till crisp.
The addicting topping, over the course of 24 hours dwindled to almost nothing. It was impossible to stay away from it while waiting for my ice cream base to chill overnight and then freeze.
Of all the ice cream bases I’ve done, butter beer by far has the most intoxicating, delicious aroma. It started with making a brown butter (my all time favorite aroma), that was combined with brown sugar. Once the molasses and beer went in, the wheaty, sugary combination was heavenly. I used Trader Joe’s Stockyard Oatmeal Stout. After the beer mixture reduced by half (shown bottom left) the milk, cream and salt were added. Then the pretzel crunch eating happened as the base cooled and chilled overnight.
Time for a scoop!
The beer flavor is very strong so make sure to pick a beer you like to drink, as you would with wine when you cook with it. The saltiness from the pretzel worked really well with the ice cream and the overall combination of sweet and salty was perfect.
Pretzel Crunch Recipe from epicurious.com
Momofuku Milk Bar
251 E 13th St (other locations as well, I just normally go to this one)
New York, NY 10003
SHOP the book
Humphry Slocombe
2790 Harrison St
San Francisco, CA 94110
SHOP the book
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