Booze in brownies seems to be my thing lately. Honestly booze in anything has been my thing pretty much since March of 2020, but who's judging. I am here today with another boozed up treat for your eating pleasure - Guinness brownies.
That's right, beer in a brownie. Now back in December I gave you all this bourbon fudgy brownie, and it was a dream. Since I just bought a sh-t ton of mostly unnecessary Guinness because you know - St. Patrick's Day next week - I figured I might as well find something interesting to do with it. Enter Guinness in your brownie. And it is pretty awesome if I do say so myself.
I don't really like beer, I don't think I will like these.
I am willing to bet a fair amount of money that you will like this brownie even if you are not a big beer person for a few reasons...
- 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.
- 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.
To frost or not to frost Guinness brownies.
I have mixed feelings on this for brownies in general. 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 Guinness out?
Sorry folks, I am gonna have to say no on this one. This recipe is specifically tested with Guinness, and I would not recommend trying to leave it out. If after reading all of this, I still haven't convinced you to try beer in your brownie, or you prefer a no alcohol brownie, I do have you covered:
My food friend, Paul DeFord has nailed brownie perfection. Something magical happens when you make these and you become a hero. And if you aren't interested in Guinness brownies and want a classic brownie that is impeccable in every way then you need to be making these. Honestly I don't think I will even bother developing a perfect classic brownie recipe ever, because I have these. Get the recipe here (scroll down about ¾ of the way through the post).
Guinness Brownies
Ingredients
- ½ cup semi or bittersweet chocolate chopped or use chocolate chips
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 stick of butter
- ½ tablespoon of vanilla extract
- 1 can of Guinness boiled and reduced to ¼ cup
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 2 eggs
- ¾ cup of 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 over it to melt the chocolate. This method ensures the chocolate melts nicely and doesn't seize up or burn.
- Melt the butter in a good sized sauce pan. Remove from the heat 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.
