Beer and food pairings part 4: Dessert

July 7, 8:57 PMOklahoma City Craft Beer ExaminerGary Lott

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Desserts: Have your cake and beer too.

Strap yourself in and get ready for a mind blowing experience. This is the final installment of cooking with beer summer recipes, and it covers something we all love – dessert.

When I host a beer dinner, this is my favorite part of the meal. People, in general, are not use to seeing dessert paired with a beer. The looks on faces are priceless, but the reaction of how well the beer and food interweave with each other is the best pay off. Beer, as I hope I’ve shown, is a wonderful beverage to pair with any stage of a meal, including dessert.

With that said, let’s prepare the final course.

Dessert –

Speedy Porter Mocha Freeze
Ingredients:
1 quart coffee ice cream
1 cup Rogue Mocha Porter
1 cup grated dark semisweet chocolate

Soften ice cream in microwave for 15-30 seconds.
Place in bowl of a large stand mixer. Mix in Rogue Porter and grated chocolate.
Mixture will be soft. Pour into one-cup ramekins and freeze until firm—about 4 hours.
Serve with: Young’s Double Chocolate Stout, Sam Smith’s Oatmeal Stout, Ft. Collins Chocolate Stout.

Belgium Cherry Crepes
Ingredients:
1 (21 ounce) can cherry pie filling
7 ounces Lindeman’s Kriek
1/4 cup orange flavor liqueur
1 cup sour cream
1 cup Bisquick
1 cup milk
1 egg
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Blend sour cream and brown sugar, Lindeman’s, pie filling, orange liqueur. Set aside.
Beat Bisquick, egg and milk with rotary beater until smooth.
Spoon 2 tablespoons batter into hot, lightly greased 6 or 7-inch skillet.
Rotate pan until batter covers bottom. Bake until bubbles appear. Gently loosen edge. Turn and bake other side.
Spoon 1 tablespoon sour cream mixture onto one half of each crepe. Roll up.
Place crepes seam side down onto ovenproof platter. Bake about 5 minutes.
Serve with: Sam Smith’s Organic Cherry, Pete’s Strawberry Blonde, Sam Adam’s Cherry Wheat.

Tropical Pineapple Crisp Nachos
Ingredients:
6 ounces Franziskaner Hefeweizen
1/3 cup plus 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour, divided
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons flaked coconut
2 tablespoons margarine, softened
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 (8 ounce) can pineapple tidbits or crushed pineapple, well drained
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 (9-inch) flour tortillas
Vanilla yogurt (optional)

Combine Franziskaner, 1/3 cup flour, brown sugar, coconut, margarine and cinnamon in small bowl until crumbly; set aside.
Stir together pineapple, granulated sugar and remaining 1 teaspoon flour in another small bowl, until evenly coated.
Place tortilla on ungreased baking sheet.
Spread one tortilla with one-half pineapple mixture and sprinkle one-half coconut mixture over pineapple. Repeat with remaining tortilla.
Bake at 375 degrees F for 15 to 18 minutes or until tortillas are crisp.
Cut each tortilla into 6 wedges. Serve warm with vanilla yogurt, if desired.
Makes 4 servings.
Serve with: Abita Purple Haze, St. Bernardus Blance Whitbier, Great Divide Wild Raspberry Ale.

I hope you will try some of these recipes for yourself to see how much fun it is to find a great beer and food combination. Be on the look out for beer dinners in the OKC area, they’re out there and are a great educational experience. Experiment and host your own beer dinner for friends at your house. Just know that pizza and nachos aren’t beer’s only option. Expand your palate and try some great beer.

Cheers!