“Rochefort 10” Ice Cream and Strawberry Ice Cream

This Rochefort 10 ice cream is based on a recipe I found on the Belgian food blog Hot Cuisine de Pierre. It’s a very nice beer, and the idea of making ice cream with it is sheer genius…

Rochefort is a Belgian brewery associated with the Notre-Dame de Saint-Rémy Abbey near Rochefort. Monks have been brewing beer since 1595, providing much of the income for the monastery. Rochefort 10 is one of three “trappist” beers, and this intense dark brown beer is also their heaviest at 11.3% ABV.

What worked and what didn’t:
I used the strawberry ice cream recipe from my Solis Ice Cream machine’s instruction manual, and we also tried some extra molecular elements: chocolate and fruit spaghetti. However, they took ages to make and the result – the stuff hiding under the blueberries and mango bits – frankly was rather underwhelming so I won’t bother you with those.

The HCP recipe itself already really worked as it called for 2 bottles of Rochefort 10 to only discover halfway that one of those is meant to quench the cook’s thirst! And again to find out at the end that the cook wasn’t supposed to drink that entire beer as you needed to put in a couple of tablespoons of beer when the ice was almost finished churning. Fun stuff and a great excuse to open another bottle….

The ice creams were delicious: The Rochefort 10 was nice and creamy and had a subtle flavor that still conveyed all the characteristics of the beer, so a job well is done. What didn’t work was the decision not to eat all the Rochefort 10 ice cream in one go. I put some back in the freezer only to find out a couple of weeks later that the ice cream actually had turned stale!! 😲 That was a real bummer…

The Strawberry ice was nice too. A bit sweet, but the added lemon juice did give it a slight lift. Straining strawberry pulp sounds easier than it is as all the seeds kept clogged the sieve. So only sieve small quantities at the time and scrape out the seeds every go!

Recipe accuracy:
The recipes are accurate and you’ll get about 1 liter / 2 quarts of ice cream each.

Suggested tweaks:
As sugar is an essential factor of the consistency of ice cream (especially when adding other liquids), don’t cut back on the sugar in the custard mix. You could cut down a bit on the sugar added to the fruit if the ice cream turned out too sweet for your liking.

If you don’t prefer a smooth strawberry ice cream, just blitz and sieve half of the strawberries, sugar and lemon juice and mash the remaining strawberries with a fork and let it infuse overnight with the remaining sugar and lemon juice. When mixing the sieved strawberries with the custard, also add the excess liquid from the mashed strawberries. You can then mix in the mashed bits of strawberry close to the end of the churning cycle.

Verdict: 9/10; Will definitely be made again

The recipes:

“Rochefort 10” ice cream

600ml / 20¼ oz cream
100ml / 3¼ oz milk (semi-skimmed or full fat)
2 vanilla pods, split lengthwise and marrow scraped out or 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
150g / 6oz fine granulated sugar
7 egg yolks
2 bottles of Rochefort 10 beer
2 tbsp of Demerara sugar

Fill and preheat the sous-vide water oven to 85℃/ 185℉.
Mix the milk, sugar, egg yolks and vanilla into a food processor and blend for a few minutes, just until well combined. Add the cream and pulse to combine.
Divide the custard mixture between two small (1 liter / quart) zip-lock cooking pouches and submerge the pouches in the water oven for 1 hour.
Remove the custard from the water oven and quick chill the pouches, submerged in ice water for an hour.
Transfer to the refrigerator to chill for 8 hours or overnight.
Take a frying pan, add 1 bottle of Rochefort 10 and the demerara sugar and bring to the boil.
Reduce to 1/3rd of the original volume (approx. 100ml / 3¼ oz) then take the pan from the heat and let it cool completely.
Once the custard has chilled overnight, strain it through a sieve into a large bowl and mix in the cooled Rochefort 10 reduction.
Pour the custard mix into an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Just before the end of the cycle add some fresh Rochefort 10. About 4 to 6 tablespoons (and drink the rest of the beer yourself).

Fresh strawberry ice cream

240 ml / 1 cup milk
240 ml / 1 cup cream
100g / 3¼ oz fine granulated sugar (for the custard)
6 egg yolks
1 vanilla pod, split lengthwise and marrow scraped out or 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
450g / 1 pound fresh strawberries
100g / 3¼ oz sugar (for the strawberries)
2 tsp fresh lemon juice

Follow steps 1 through 5 from the above recipe.
In the meantime blitz the strawberries with the sugar and lemon juice and put the mix through a sieve and refrigerate until you are ready to use it.
Once the custard has chilled overnight, strain it through a sieve into a large bowl and mix in the strawberry sauce.
Pour the custard mix into an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions.