Guinness Stout Brownies

Chocolate and Guinness two ingredients that were just made to be baked together into a dense fudgy dessert for St. Patrick’s Day!

Every year around this time I always try to make at least one recipe that honors my Irish heritage and my father.  We lost my dad unexpectedly almost 3 years ago now.  The holidays and especially St. Patrick’s Day I think of him often.  He loved to be Irish, even though he was part German too he said that the Irish side was the best!  Last year I baked this Bailey’s Irish Cream Cake  to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and my dads memory.  This year I am keeping with the Irish liquor paired with chocolate theme with these amazingly dense and fudgy Guinness Stout Brownies.

Now I am not a big beer drinker at all, but the one beer I do like to have every now and then is Guinness.  It is so smooth, velvety  and mixed with pear cider ohh man hold onto your tastebuds because that is one delicious drink!  I know you are probably thinking beer and chocolate, that combo can’t taste good.  My friends this recipe will change your thought process about combing these two delicious ingredients together FOREVER!!

This is a classic brownie recipe resulting in a thick fudgy bite of deliciousness.  If you are a cakey type of brownie person this recipe will certainly make you a convert.  It is very reminiscent of a Texas Sheet cake in consistency, if you have never had a piece of Texas Sheet Cake well then you are missing out BIG time!!!  We’ll leave that for another post! ; )

One tip that I can not stress enough is that you watch that double boiler while melting the chocolate like a hawk!!!!  If the chocolate gets too hot, it burns obviously but it also clumps up like sludge and you will have to start the process all over again.

So go grab your self some Guinness and make these delicious brownies for your St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.

Cheers!

Ingredients:

Brownies

• 1¼ Cup (one bottle) Guinness Stout
• 1 Bag (12 oz) dark chocolate chips
• 1 and ⅓ sticks butter
• 1 Cup sugar
• 3 Eggs
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
• 1 Cup all-purpose flour
• a pinch of sea salt

Glaze

• 1 Cup Dark chocolate chips
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• ¼ Cup Guinness stout (will be reserved from the initial batter quantity)

Directions:

Bring Guinness stout to a boil in a small saucepan, whisking to get rid of the foam and reduce the heat once boiling.

Cook Guinness Stout for 10 minutes and then remove from heat. Allow to cool. Reserve ¼ cup stout for using it later in the glaze.

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Line a square 9 inch metal baking pan with parchment paper.

In a double boiler, stir the chocolate morsels and butter until smooth and no lumps remain.

In a separate large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs and vanilla extract. Gradually add the melted chocolate and ½ cup stout. Once combined, whisk in the flour and salt.

Pour the batter into prepared baking pan.

Bake brownies until surface begins to crack around 40 minutes. Once the brownies are out of the oven, remove them from the pan and allow to cool for at least 20 minutes on a cooling rack.

While the brownies are cooling prepare the glaze by stirring 1 cup chocolate morsels in a medium bowl set over a sauce pan of simmering water until melted and smooth. Add reserved reduced ¼ cup stout and butter; whisk until well combined.

Pour the warm glaze over brownies. Let stand at room temperature until glaze is set, minimum 40 minutes.

Cut into squares using a long knife, cleaning it with a damp paper towel before cutting the next square. This is imperative to get nice clean cuts in the brownies, otherwise you will have crumbly uneven cuts.

Adapted from Adore Foods