Guinness stout chocolate brownies with cocoa powder are moist, super fudgy and incredibly delicious. Everyone needs a good St. Patrick's Day dessert recipe, and what could be better than chocolate brownies and everyone's favorite beer in March!
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I am fan of cooking with Guinness and make a beef pot pie all the time in the winter months. And my mac and cheese with a Guinness cheese sauce is one of my most popular recipes.
Baking with Guinness
Baking with Guinness is something I am on board with whether it is for a St. Patrick's Day dessert or any other day. These beer brownies are chocolatey and super fudgy with almost a coffee-like flavor as well.
Guinness does not taste like a regular old beer. You definitely do not have to be a beer person to like Guinness, I promise you this. Guinness is rich, thick and has a huge coffee undertone to it, making it ideal to pair with chocolate.
Why Guinness is perfect for brownies
Beer brownies, particularly with stout, is a match made in heaven. Stout is a perfect compliment to chocolate. And why it works in this brownie recipe:
- The Guinness is reduced significantly. I really wanted to get the most out of the beer in this Guinness brownies recipe. So we are boiling the Guinness to reduce the liquid amount and concentrate the flavor. We all know, brownies don't really have a big liquid component to them (like a cake would). If you add too much liquid to a brownie recipe, you end up with a cake-like brownie. And while I enjoy cakey brownies, that is not what I wanted in this brownie. I wanted rich and fudgy Guinness brownies.
- The reduced Guinness has an even deeper coffee flavor, which is ideal for a chocolate brownie. Think almost a flourless chocolate cake if you will. Super rich and dense, intensely flavored and not too sweet. All of this being said, I don't necessarily consider this a kid brownie - it is not sweet like a box mix brownie, but my kids enjoyed and never wondered if there was beer in them. And don't worry, reducing an entire can of Guinness to ¼ cup cooks out any alcohol, so nobody will be drunk off of these Guinness brownies.
Should you frost brownies?
I have mixed feelings on this. My grandmother's frosted chocolate brownies are probably the greatest brownie on the entire earth, but outside of those, I am not really a fan of frosting on brownies. IMHO frosting is for cakes and cupcakes, but, if you like, go for it. A good fudgy frosting would be divine on these. Even a milk chocolate ganache with a bit of Baileys, would be awesome and really Irish the hell out of these.
Can I leave the beer out of this recipe?
Sorry folks, I am gonna have to say no on this one. This recipe is specifically developed with Guinness stout beer, and I would not recommend trying to leave it out.
Ingredients
- Butter. I don't think I would even know how to make from scratch fudgy brownies with anything other than butter.
- Semi sweet chocolate. You can always use chocolate chips in a pinch.
- Cocoa powder
- Sugar
- Vanilla
- Guinness stout beer. Take the whole can and reduce it down to a syrupy ¼ cup.
- Salt
- Egg
- Flour
How to make
Once you've reduced the Guinness this brownie recipe comes together like most others.
- Melt the chocolate and butter together over a double boiler.
- Add the sugar, cocoa powder, salt, reduced Guinness and vanilla
- Stir in your eggs one at a time.
- Stir in the flour gently
Ingredient swaps and variations
While the beer is not negotiable, there is a few variations/additions you can make to this if you'd like:
- Use any kind of stout beer. While Guinness is probably the biggest, it certainly isn't the only stout beer you can use for this. Murphy's is also a great option. And Goose Island has a great stout beer too.
- Add nuts. With the rich, coffee flavor stout beer gives to chocolate brownies, a little nuttiness would be excellent in this.
- While I have given my stance on frosting brownies above, you most certainly can add a great frosting or even a Bailey's frosting if you'd like (my Baileys buttercream frosting recipe would be awesome on these).
Top tip
Don't overbake, be sure to pull these out of the oven before the toothpick in the center comes out clean. A brownies stays fudgy and gooey when it is slightly underbaked. Remember this is not a cake, we want these fudgy and full of chocolate, not light airy.
Other brownies
If your not into beer in your chocolate brownies, don't worry, I have plenty of recipes you'll love
Equipment
- 8-inch square pan
Ingredients
- ½ cup semi or bittersweet chocolate chopped or use chocolate chips
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¾ cup sugar
- 4 oz butter room temperature
- ½ tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 can of Guinness boiled and reduced to ¼ cup
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 2 eggs
- ¾ cup flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 - that's right not, 350, these need to cook at a lower temperature than usual. Grease or butter an 8 inch square baking pan.
- Boil water in a saucepan, and place a bowl with the chopped chocolate and butter over it to melt them together.
- Remove from the double boiler and let it cool down for 10 minutes. Add the cocoa powder, melted chocolate, ¼ cup of reduced Guinness, vanilla, salt and sugar and mix well.
- Add the eggs, one at a time and stir with a wooden spoon to incorporate.
- Add the flour last and fold it in, just to combine.
- Do not use a whisk or a stand or hand held mixer for this recipe. By hand and gently only.
- Bake on the middle rack for about 35 minutes. Here is the thing with brownies to achieve max fudginess...they might look not totally done, the center might be a little jiggly. That is ok, they will continue to cook slightly when you take them out.
Tell me whatcha think