Remember when I made these brown sugar cookies with Mrs. Stoutfire and I said they would be perfect for cookie sandwiches? Well, I made them again but this time I used the special release beer “The Ghost of Jacob Barley” by Noble Ale Works and Beachwood BBQ brewed for the OC Brew Ho Ho that took place this last weekend on Saturday, Dec. 7th. The beer is a Portola coffee infused winter warmer that has terrific spiciness and holiday spirit which is perfect for the brown sugar cookies.

Here is the recipe for the cookies: https://beerandbaking.com/2013/07/16/mrs-stoutfire-cookies-with-beer-brown-sugar/

Just substitute the Mrs. Stoutfire for the Jacob Barley beer instead.

Once your cookies are baked, you can make a wide variety of fillings to make your cookie sandwiches. I made two different kinds of fillings:

1. Jacob Barley Buttercream

To make the buttercream take two sticks of soft unsalted butter and mix in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or in a bowl with a wooden spoon. Add in sifted powdered sugar at about a 1/2 cup at a time until the taste is to your liking. It should take at least 2 cups of powdered sugar in 1/2 cup increments.  Once you like the consistency and taste (not too buttery and not too sweet) add in little tablespoons of the jacob barley syrup that you had reduced earlier. You can also add in vanilla instead of the beer syrup, but the beer syrup makes the complex flavors really pop! Be careful to notice how loose the frosting gets because if you add too much it could curdle and that’s frosting you would have to dump and do over. I would add in teaspoon amounts and stop at about 5 teaspoons. Pipe the buttercream between two room temp cookies and you’re done!

2. Everything But The Stick Ice Cream

Ingredients:

6 egg yolks

2 1/2 cups whipping cream

1/2 cup whole milk

2/3 cups granulated sugar

2 vanilla beans

1/2 cup beer syrup

Directions:

1. Heat the milk and sugar together in a pot until the sugar dissolves or the milk almost boils. Remove from heat. Whisk the egg yolks together and then ladle hot milk into them slowly to temper the eggs and avoid cooking them. Add the tempered eggs into the milk mixture and add back to the heat. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the custard will hold a finger line on the back of your spoon and not run into itself. Take off the heat and strain through a fine mesh strainer.

2. Scrape the inside of the vanilla beans and add to the strained custard mix. Add the whole beans into the mixture and chill in an ice bath. Once chilled for at least 15 minutes then place in the fridge to get really cold for 3 hours or overnight.

3. Using an ice cream machine, pour your mixture without the vanilla beans into the mixer and turn on. The ice cream should take about 15-30 minutes to become hard enough consistency to scoop out and transfer into the freezer to set. Right when you are about ready to transfer to the freezer, add the beer syrup to the mix and allow to set. It should take a few hours to be ready to scoop into the sandwiches or just eat in a bowl. I waited overnight and then let the ice cream thaw for about 30 minutes on the counter before making the ice cream sandwiches.

These cookies are so perfect for ice cream sandwiches because they are sturdy and crunchy and won’t get soggy fast when the ice cream starts to melt. The Everything But The Stick beer is a collaboration between Noble and The Bruery which was made to taste like a creamsicle or orange and cream bar that goes extremely well with vanilla bean ice cream. I don’t taste the orange so much in the ice cream but the vanilla is huge! These are damn good. What’s great is you can make these in advance and they make a great addition to entertaining.