In honor of St. Patrick's Day this year, I decided to make Erin McDowell's recipe for "Guinness Brownies" from The New York Times. Since we are not stout drinkers, I wanted to buy just enough Guinness to make the brownies, but I couldn't find single cans or bottles of Guinness or any chocolate stouts. But the beer room at Whole Foods did have single bottles of Milk Stout Nitro from Left Hand Brewing, so that's what I used.
The recipe is written to be baked in a 9-inch square pan, but I multiplied it by one and a half and I baked it in a 9-inch by 13-inch pan. To make the brownie batter, you melt butter and bittersweet chocolate in a double boiler; add sugar; whisk in eggs and vanilla; and alternately incorporate the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, and instant espresso) and stout. You sprinkle milk chocolate chips on top of the batter before baking, and I used Cacao Barry Lactée Supérieure 38% pistoles, which are larger and flatter than regular chocolate chips. The 12 ounces of pistoles covered virtually the entire surface of the brownie batter.
After baking the brownies, I let them cool to room temperature and put them in the refrigerator overnight before cutting them. These brownies were ridiculously rich and had a texture that was no such much fudgy as it was wet. The texture was so damp that it was almost creamy -- you probably could have used a butter knife to spread a brownie.
When I tried a brownie on the first day, I thought it was too rich. But we had some leftover brownies that I stored in a plastic container at room temperature. I thought they were better on day two, and even better on day three. They seemed to dry out a bit with time, which I thought was an improvement -- because they became less like a brownie-shaped block of wet batter and more like a fudgy brownie. There is a lot of stout in these brownies and I could taste a bit of bitterness from the beer, but it wasn't unpleasant. Other than the flavor of the stout, there was nothing subtle about these bars. I thought they were just too much and I wouldn't make them again.
Recipe: "Guinness Brownies" by Erin McDowell, from The New York Times.
Previous Posts:
The recipe is written to be baked in a 9-inch square pan, but I multiplied it by one and a half and I baked it in a 9-inch by 13-inch pan. To make the brownie batter, you melt butter and bittersweet chocolate in a double boiler; add sugar; whisk in eggs and vanilla; and alternately incorporate the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, and instant espresso) and stout. You sprinkle milk chocolate chips on top of the batter before baking, and I used Cacao Barry Lactée Supérieure 38% pistoles, which are larger and flatter than regular chocolate chips. The 12 ounces of pistoles covered virtually the entire surface of the brownie batter.
When I tried a brownie on the first day, I thought it was too rich. But we had some leftover brownies that I stored in a plastic container at room temperature. I thought they were better on day two, and even better on day three. They seemed to dry out a bit with time, which I thought was an improvement -- because they became less like a brownie-shaped block of wet batter and more like a fudgy brownie. There is a lot of stout in these brownies and I could taste a bit of bitterness from the beer, but it wasn't unpleasant. Other than the flavor of the stout, there was nothing subtle about these bars. I thought they were just too much and I wouldn't make them again.
Recipe: "Guinness Brownies" by Erin McDowell, from The New York Times.
Previous Posts:
- "Chocolate without Beginning or End: Chocolate Stout Cake," May 14, 2019.
- "Making Lemons into Lemonade, or Rather, Bundt Cake into Trifles: Ginger Stout Cake Trifles," March 30, 2018.
- "Baked Sunday Mornings: St. Patrick's Day Drunk Bundt Cake," March 13, 2016.
- "Nabisco Should Take Note: Black Chocolate Stout Cake with Salted Caramel Cream Cheese Buttercream," February 27, 2015.
- "The Cake Couldn't Hold It Together: Chocolate Stout Layer Cake with Chocolate Frosting," November 20, 2014.
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