I thought it was time I started doing some more desserts matched with beer. I don’t have a super sweet tooth, but I do think  desserts are a great match with beer. I decided to make beer malt panna cotta’s.

Kris : We first tried matching the dessert with Murphy’s Irish Stout. It’s a lighter style cream stout compared to Guinness. It’s  creamy, without much carbonation, and has subtle caramel and coffee flavours.

Simple Panna Cotta Recipe

1 1/2 cups Cream

1 1/2 cups Milk

1 vanilla bean

1/2 cup sugar

2 1/2 tsp Gelatine

2 Tbs hot water

Method

Split the vanilla bean and add it to the cream and milk

Bring this to a boil on a low to medium heat

set aside for 10 minutes to infuse the vanilla

Remove the vanilla bean, add the sugar and bring back to a gentle boil

Stir so that the sugar dissolves

Take off the heat and let it cool a little

Dissolve the gelatine in the boiling water and stir through the mixture

Pour into 6 dariole moulds

Refrigerate overnight

To serve 

Mix 3 Tbs of Beer Malt extract with some boiling water

(I use a malty English Pale Ale malt extract, the type you use for home brewing)

Use a knife to cut around the edge of the moulds

Turn out onto a plate and drizzle the malt syrup over the panna cotta’s

Kris :  I love Murphy’s Stout on its own, but when we tasted it with the panna cotta, it highlighted the underlying, slightly metallic bitterness in the beer.

Round 2. We tried it with Young’s Double Chocolate Stout. It was a match made in heaven. The chocolate character of the beer worked really well with the sweet malt and the vanilla in the panna cotta. The extra carbonation also cut through the creaminess of the dessert. A great Australian craft beer that would work well too is Holgate’s Temptress (a chocolate and vanilla bean porter) from Victoria.

Caroline: I loved this dessert. The caramel/ coffee taste of the malt matches the sweetness of the panna cotta perfectly and the Chocolate stout managed to make it taste even better.
A successful experiment Kris!