Do I really need to convince you that this dessert tastes great? I mean, you probably figured it out just by reading the title, right? If you love root beer, you’ll love this ice cream. It’s basically vanilla ice cream flavored with root beer extract instead of the vanilla bean. And boy oh boy is it delicious! And it certainly does not last long in our house!
My husband’s favorite drink is Henry Weinhard’s Root Beer. It’s sold in a glass bottle somewhere tucked away in your grocery store. Go search for it. Try it chilled. Love every sip of it. It’s the best root beer ever. Every year, Brant asks for cases of Weinhard’s Root Beer for his birthday. Friends usually give him enough to hold him out until the next birthday. Sometimes he even shares his root beer with me. It’s fabulous. 
If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you should seriously consider buying one. Ice cream isn’t all that difficult to make and when you have your own ice cream maker, you can make whatever flavors you want whenever you want them! There are books full of suggestions! I had no idea just how many crazy ice cream flavors there were until I picked up The Perfect Scoop last year and used it as the base for my birthday party plans: an ice cream tasting party. We made 14 kinds of ice cream, from plain ol’ vanilla to lemon-basil. Some were hits. Others were too strange. Either way, the taste testing generated a lot of *great* conversation. Not only that, it was wildly fun to have an excuse to eat more ice cream in one day than any one person should ever consume in a month!
root beer float ice cream
adapted from The Perfect Scoop recipe for vanilla ice cream
2 cups whipping cream, divided
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
pinch salt
6 egg yolks
2 tsp root beer extract (you can get this on-line or if you’re local you can buy it at Harvest House)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Place one cup of cream in a large bowl with a strainer over the top.
In a medium sauce pan, combine the remaining one cup of cream, milk, sugar, and salt and heat until sugar is dissolved. Do not boil.
Place the egg yolks in a medium bowl. Slowly add the warm milk mixture to the eggs while whisking continuously. Once all the milk mixture has been added to the eggs, pour the egg mixture back into the sauce pan. Heat over medium heat until the egg mixture thickens and coats a spatula. Do not boil.
Pour the egg mixture through the strainer (this catches any scrambled eggs that may have mistakenly formed!) and whisk into the cream. Add the extracts and mix well. Cool in the fridge for at least 4 hours (although 8 hours is preferred).
Pour into your ice cream maker and churn for 20 minutes. While you can eat the ice cream at this point, it will be very soft. It’s best after another few hours in the freezer.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Melissa @ Melissa Bakes // Jun 25, 2011 at 5:13 am
Happy anniversary! Enjoy your vacation!
2 Nicole@HeatOvenTo350 // Jun 27, 2011 at 10:24 am
I am so happy you posted this! I love root beer anything, and my ice cream maker has been lonely for the past couple weeks. Thank you for sharing it, and hope you have a great trip.
3 natalie (the sweets life) // Jun 27, 2011 at 1:55 pm
my mom JUST asked me if i could make root beer float ice cream—now i can!