Guinness Brownies

I like to cook when I have time.  Cooking sweets isn't my favorite though since it's only the two of us.  I hate having desserts around since it's unnecessary calories, split between two people, isn't the best decision in the world.

I love dark beer and I love Guinness.  This recipe is great, festive and allows me to bring a treat into work to share with the masses. Pinterest gives me a lot of inspiration and this recipe I found on I've been waiting for St. Patty's Day to come around to try it.

Like many blog recipes, inspiration comes from another blog and they get it from another and so on, this is true with this recipe.  What I followed, for the most part, came from this post by Blondie's Cakes & Things.

While making this of course I had to have festive music playing.  iTunes has two great Irish music stations right now through iTunes Radio.  I personally like the Irish Rock one.  I really wanted to listen to a CD of my favorite Irish rock band, Seven Nations, but couldn't find it. :(  But if you ever get to see them play in person it's a must do!

What is nice about this recipe is you don't need any crazy ingredients and most you probably already have.

Ingredient List:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour (I used wheat flour)
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 8 ounces dark bittersweet chocolate (I bought Ghirardelli chips and measured out 8 oz.)
• 3/4 cup white chocolate (I bought Toll House White Chocolate Chips)
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar (I used the baking Splenda/White sugar mix that I've been trying to use up)
• 2 bottles Guinness Draught Beer
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used a mint and chocolate combo bag I found on sale at Target, looks like it comes out for winter baking)

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees (F).  Spray 9x13 inch baking pan with non-stick spray or lightly grease with butter.
2.  Pour both bottles of Guinness into a medium saucepan and simmer on medium until it is reduced down to 1 1/4 cups.  Set it aside to cool while you work on the rest of the recipe.(This took me awhile, I didn't feel like it was reducing.  I covered it for awhile.  After about 30 minutes I took it off the heat and as it cooled it seemed to reduce.  I measured out 1 1/4 cups of the liquid when I was ready to use it and had very little left over.) 

3.  In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa and salt until evenly combined.

4.  Melt butter, bittersweet chocolate and white chocolate together in microwave.  Melt for 30 seconds, stir, 30 seconds stir and so on until it is melted and mixed together.  (It took me 3 times of 30 seconds then stirring for it to be ready)

5.  In a large mixing bowl beat eggs and sugar with a mixer until it is light and fluffy.  Add melted chocolate mixture to bowl, mixing until combined.

Look how festive I am with my green and orange!

6.  Mix flour mixture into chocolate mixture.  (You might want to stir it in first to get the cocoa 'wet' or the mixer will make it 'dusty')  Mix in reduced beer and vanilla.

7.  Pour into making pan.  Sprinkle mint and chocolate chips on top.

8.  Bake 25 minutes on center rack of oven or until a toothpick comes out clean.
9.  Let brownies cool then eat and enjoy! 

I think these came out pretty good!  The mint chocolate chips are a good addition if you like that type of thing.  It sure did make the apartment smell good.  This recipe makes a dark, dense brownie.  The beer enhances the dark chocolate taste, so if you like dark chocolate you are good to go!  Since these are pretty rich, I was able to get 24 brownies out of one pan.

Here is the nutritional break down based on what I added to MyFitnessPal (24 servings per batch):

• 234 Calories per brownie
• 30 carbs
• 12 fat
• 3 protein
• 46 sodium
• 2 fiber

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Tastes like a thin mint smashed on top of a brownie."

Spent Grain Bars

As home brewers know, making beer is quite a lengthy process.  There is a lot of waiting for the liquid to 'do its thing.'  After the steeping process (which looks like your are making a giant batch of tea) you are left with a ton of byproduct made up of whatever grains were used.  If we make a full batch of beer (5 gallon bucket size) we end up with about a pound and a half of wet grain left over.  Don't throw this grain out!  Try making spent grain bars!

My husband first found this recipe on the blog Flying on Jess Fuel.  She first used their spent grains to make dog biscuits then advanced into making what closely resembles granola bars.  The other nice thing is if you aren't ready to use the spent grain right away you can put it in a Ziploc and freeze the grains until you're ready.

We follow this recipe pretty closely but what is great is you can really add whatever you wish or have around the house!  We usually add almonds, and dried cranberries.  We also don't cook them quite as long as her recipe calls for, which makes ours chewier and not hard.

They sure go fast around our house and the dog knows she always gets the last bite!  On a personal note, these suckers are full of fiber making us (and the dog) very ummm...regular.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Guaranteed to get you movin'!"

Ale and Cheddar Soup

Now that we all survived the 'polar vortex' and are in the heart of winter the idea of soup is really appealing! As an avid Pinterest user, more often than not I pin something but never get around to actually doing it.  This past fall, with the weather turning colder I was in the mood to make soup for dinner.  I mean I love soup!  I have a whole board on Pinterest devoted to it.  So at the end of my work day I went online to find what recipe I wanted to make, made a grocery list and hit the store on the way home.

From Closet Cooking Blog Post

So what did I end up making?  Ale and Cheddar soup of course!  Beer and cheese...how can you go wrong?  This was the perfect choice since I knew we had some beer in the fridge that no one wanted to drink.

Not only was the soup delicious it was a GREAT way to use up some gross beer we didn't really want to drink...we are talking to you Natty Boh Ice!

Lesson Learned: Gross beer is undrinkable but great to cook with!




------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You can make this soup whenever you wish!"