Guinness Stout Brownies

"You're bringing Guinness Brownies!" I was told. Nevermind that I had never made such things before, I was left with no room for argument. Not that I complained, I'm always happy to try something new and actually having the decision made for me left me with a calm sense of contentment, where without such instructions I would have been left waffling over what to make for at least a week.



I did a search and discovered that for the most part there is really only one recipe out in the internet world for Guinness brownies, but it left a bit of room to play with. For one, there was a lot of liquid in the ingredient list, but I couldn't imagine a mere cup of beer showing itself through the dense chocolate flavor. My only contribution to the recipe was to triple the amount of beer and then just reduce it to the called for amount.



They came out so good that one didn't quite make it to the party.



I mean someone had to make sure that they were good before inflicting them upon the masses, right? And who am I to shirk such weighty responsibilities? I dubbed myself "Inspector 27" and left the tell-tale label.



Guinness Stout Brownies
Adapted slightly from here

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into cubes
8 ounces dark bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup white chocolate, chopped
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 bottles Guinness Extra stout beer
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with nonstick foil, or regular foil, lightly greased.
- Pour both bottles of beer into a medium saucepan, and simmer on medium heat until it's reduced down to 1 1/4 cups. If you keep a glass measuring cup nearby, you can check the progress when you think you're close. It should take about 15 minutes. Leave the beer on the side to cool.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, and salt until evenly combined.
- Melt butter, bittersweet chocolate and white chips in a double-boiler over very low heat, stirring constantly until melted. Remove from heat. (You can also do this in the microwave, heating it on high and stirring every 30 seconds).
- In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add melted chocolate mixture, beating until combined.
- Beat reserved flour mixture into melted chocolate mixture. Whisk in the reduced beer mixture and the vanilla. The batter will seem a bit thin, but it will be perfect. Pour into the prepared baking pan and drop semisweet chocolate chips evenly on top of batter.
- Bake 20 to 25 minutes on center rack in the oven, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean. (The original recipe cites a longer time, but I found that mine were ready sooner. It might just be my oven so leave it in a few extra minutes if you think it needs it).
- Let brownies cool, uncovered, to room temperature. Dust with confectioners' sugar if you want before serving.


P.S. Please excuse the antiquated grammar, I'm currently reading "A Journey to the Centre of the Earth" by Jules Verne and I guess the language style is infectious. I can't believe I haven't read this book before though, it's really good and is leaving me with a strong urge to travel to Iceland.

Summer Peach and Sour Cherry Crumble

I do believe my house is cursed. For the second time in the last few weeks a short, but insanely violent storm has caused me (and to be fair, thousands of other people) to lose power for over 24 hours. Every time I fill the fridge, I must empty it all out again. I've started to seriously consider living off of ramen until storm season is over. On the other hand, fresh fruit and veggies barely need refrigeration, so maybe I should just live off of them. Yep, that's a much better plan.



Under normal circumstances, I'm a cake for dessert kind of a girl. I like layers, different fillings, elaborate frostings, and the amazingness that comes when all components play nice with each other. These days though I'm all about "toss it in and leave it alone" school of dessert thought, which is why I'm absolutely nuts over this crumble recipe. I remember looking through a bunch of recipes, but when it came time to bake I just threw some stuff together, shoved it into the oven and went back to "cleaning". Cleaning, by the way, entails pulling everything out of the giant closet in the living room, trying to discard items not used in years but then carefully putting everything back because "I might need it some day". Sigh. Less is more was never my philosophy.



Summer Peach and Sour Cherry Crumble

1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 stick (1/2 cup) cold butter
6 or 7 quartered peaches
1 cup pitted sour cherries

- Preheat oven to 375F
- Combine the first 6 ingredients in a bowl and stir together thoroughly. Take 1/2 a cup of the dry mix and in a separate bowl mix it together with the fruit.
- Dump the fruit into a 9x9 deep glass or ceramic dish and set aside.
- Cut up the butter into small pieces and dump into the bowl with the remaining dry mix. Work it in with your hands to make the crumble. Try to incorporate all the butter and not leave too many floury patches. This will be the yummy butter stuff on top and you will want it to be good. Spread the crumble evenly over the fruit.
- Shove the dish into the oven and bake until the crumble on top is nice and golden. This should take approximately 40 minutes. If you used frozen fruit, no worries, just add 10 minutes to the baking time.
- Scoop into bowls and eat...or top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for an extra special treat.

Vin de Noix or Green Walnut Wine Cordial

It might be a bit too late to post this, green walnuts in their proper stage of tender vulnerability are probably pretty hard to come by now, but I urge you to join me in this experiment or at the very least bookmark this for next year. I don't remember how I stumbled onto a recipe for Nocino, but once I did I was intrigued. I scoured the web for everything even remotely having to do with Green Walnuts, which incidentally are not an exotic breed or a rare variety, but simply regular walnuts picked before they mature, just before they start to develop their hard shell. I have never seen them in stores or markets so I went on a hunt, finally finding Local Harvest, a site that allows small farms across the US to sell their products in one spot without the extra overhead of hosting a website and trying to generate traffic to it. Kind of genius actually. One of the farms associated with them is Clary Ridge Ranch, and that's where I ordered from. They came super fast, lovingly packaged with an ice pack and a few walnut branches:



After doing some research I learned that June 24, also known as St. John's Day, is the day when people in Calabria and throughout Italy collect walnuts, sometimes going as late as Bastille Day (July 14th), but the general tradition specifies that the green walnuts must be picked on this day to make the best liquor.



I unpacked the box, snapped a few shots, counted out the walnuts and got to work. I have a double batch of Nocino going as well as a batch of Vin de Noix. They won't be ready to drink until sometime around Christmas, but sharing with you then what I'm making now seems mean and braggy. I made Nocino exactly as it's listed here, changing nothing except doubling the recipe, and quite frankly, the infamous David Lebovitz has never steered me wrong with a recipe. The Vin de Noix on the other hand, I couldn't help but mess with. I merged several recipes that I found, so what I'm sharing with you here is sort of my own take on it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed hoping I didn't mess anything up.



One thing that everyone agreed on was that you absolutely must wear gloves and cover your entire work area while you're cutting up the walnuts. They may look innocent and green, but given a little time their juice turns dark brown and stains everything that hasn't been wiped down in time. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Here it is on Day 1, and I'll be occasionally posting updates on how it's doing:



Vin de Noix

50 green walnuts, rinsed and quartered
750 mL bottle of brandy, or vodka. The cheap stuff will do just fine.
5 liters red wine, this is a "commoner" recipe, so a nice but cheap red will do.
1 kg sugar (2 pounds)
12 walnut leaves, add these if you have them, but I have a feeling they're non-essential
Peel of 1 lemon, make sure to get just the yellow part, the white pith is bitter.
6 whole cloves
2 sticks cinnamon
1 vanilla bean, split

1. Stir together all of the ingredients in a 5 gallon glass jar with a tight fitting lid. You want it to be non-reactive because the alcohol could eat away or react badly with metals or plastic. Store in a cool dark place for 6 to 8 weeks, shaking occasionally. Don't forget to put a label on the jar with the date so that you know when to check it for readiness.
2. Strain through a few layers of cheesecloth into a bowl or another large container. Taste, and adjust the sugar if you want it sweeter. Bottle and store in a cool dark place letting the flavors mellow and develop for a month or three. It should be ready to drink/share around the holidays.

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed hoping that everything comes out good. I've been sniffing both jars and so far the smells are promising.

Beer Spiked Pulled Pork Tacos and a Winner

First things first, in my last post I had a giveaway for some recipe cards and the winner is the fabulous Beth of Delicious Inspiration. To be fair, the first number Random.org spat out was 3, but I know Mr. Stoutmaster and I can just give him a few recipe cards if he wants, so I pushed the button again and got 2. It's all very fair around here. Anyways, Beth, congratulations and I'll be emailing you about where to send the cards.



Next order of business: dinner. This is always a question on my mind, especially since lately every day brings new surprises. For example last night a huge storm blew through the greater Chicago area and now I, and almost a hundred thousand other people, are left without power. Last update said that we may be waiting for a few more days before the power is back so when I get home tonight I'll have the sad duty of throwing out half the contents of my freezer and fridge. Luckily, before the power went out last night I ate the last of the beer pork in some yummy tacos, so at least one item was saved. As for tonight, I'll be valiantly trying to save a few things so my dinner will most definitely go undocumented. But I'm pretty sure the beer will still be good.



Beer Spiked Pork Shoulder
I kinda winged it, so the recipe is mine

1 (~4-5 pounds) bone-in fresh pork shoulder
2 garlic cloves, cut into slivers
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 or 4 large onions, sliced
2 medium apples, sliced
1 bottle of your favorite beer, I used New Belgium's Somersault Ale

Preheat oven to 325°F.

I've read somewhere that you're supposed to score fat and any skin on pork in a crosshatch pattern, but I don't keep the fat after the cooking is done, so I skip this step. Feel free to do that if you want though.

Make several stabs all over meat with a small sharp knife and insert a garlic sliver in each hole. Pat pork dry and season with salt and pepper.

Heat oil in a 4 to 5 quart dutch oven or ovenproof heavy pot over and brown the pork on all sides, turning occasionally with tongs. Try not to swear too much because the sucker is heavy. Once it's evenly browned, remove the pork to a plate.

Add onions and apples to the pot pot and sauté over high heat, stirring occasionally, until softened and starting to turn golden, about 5 minutes. Add 3/4 teaspoon salt and sauté, stirring occasionally, until onions are golden and caramelized, 8 to 10 minutes more.

Carefully add in the beer. It will foam up, so you may want to add it slowly. Let everything simmer for a bit, scraping up the caramelized bits off the bottom and then carefully put the pork back into the pot. Cover pot with a tight-fitting lid (I also put a sheet of foil between the lid and the pot for an extra sealed fit) and braise pork in middle of oven until very tender, 2 1/2 to 3 hours, turning every half hour or so to keep things even.

Remove from the oven and allow to rest for a bit. Take out the bones and shred the meat right into the onions and juices, mixing everything up. If you want you could also add some BBQ sauce to the mix, but I liked it with all the original flavors. Simmer on the stove for a few minutes until the liquid is reduced and you have a pot full of moist meaty goodness.

Stuff into tortillas with avocado and other toppings, scoop into a bun of Hawaiian bread, or serve over steamed rice and devour.

Homemade Energy Bars and a Giveaway

I don't know about you, but when it's 100F outside I have absolutely no desire to crank up the oven, and it's been right around that for the last few days. I much prefer to shut myself up in my little home, crank up the AC and catch up on Studio 60 on Netflix. Yes, I do realize that "catch up" may not be the right term when referring to the only season of a show that was on the air 5 years ago, but hey, I'm slow when it comes to pop culture. Dinner has consisted of popsicles for the last few days, and while we're on this subject, does anyone know if it's possible to eat a popsicle without getting it all over yourself? No matter how careful I try to be, something always drips or falls. My parents knew what they were doing when we were little. We were only allowed things like popsicles and watermelon if we were in our undies, that way they could just toss us in the tub or hose us down at the end.

The other side effect of this heat is my complete inability to retain even the shortest thread of thought. I'll have lists and lists building in my head of things I need to do and then...wait, where was I going with this? See what I'm talking about? I'm useless when it's this hot. Oh yeah, I've been meaning to tell you about a class I took this spring. It has nothing to do with food, but I found a way to connect the dots. I took an introductory letterpress class at Evanston Print and Paper, an adorable little shop that offers a variety of different paper craft type classes. It was really cool learning about the different machinery and techniques, and one of the many things I designed were recipe cards, so that's what I'm giving away:



What do you think? Cute, right? Yes, yes, I'm fishing for compliments here. I'm slightly considering selling these on Etsy, but first I thought I'd share them with someone, so leave a comment below making sure to leave some kind of contact information before Wednesday June 15th midnight and if you win, I'll send you 10 of these hot off the press recipe cards. Good luck!



Anyways, onto today's recipe! I was looking for a quick and portable breakfast when I stumbled onto these energy bars. They're like the granola bars I see people eating on the train, but better. They're chock full of nuts and dates and cocoa, taste fantastic, and don't require me to crank up the oven or the stove to make. I did tweak the recipe a teeny tiny bit, but otherwise left it alone and I've been eating these for breakfast almost every day this week with an ice cold glass of milk. Yum!.



Energy Bars
Adapted slightly from Sea salt with Food; mine aren't entirely raw

2 Cups (300g) moist Medjool dates, pitted and chopped*
2 Cups (280g) raw cashews
1/2 Cup (60g) roasted almonds
3/4 Cup (75g) Cocoa Powder
A Pinch Of Sea Salt
1/2 Cup (40g) Unsweetened Shredded Coconut
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
2 to 3 Tbsp apple juice

* Don't forget to pit the dates. I did and almost broke my food processor then spent a few messy minutes picking the seeds back out, which was not fun. So do as the instructions say and don't be dumb like me.

Line an 8"x8" square pan with aluminum foil or Seran wrap, or parchment. Basically anything that will make it easier to pull the mess out of the pan later.

Combine chopped dates, cashews, almonds, cocoa powder, cinnamon and sea salt in a food processor. Pulse and process all the ingredients together until the texture is coarse. Then add the shredded coconut, a quick pulse, and add the vanilla extract, a little juice at a time until it reaches a dry but moist dough consistency. Scrape the dough mixture into the lined pan, press evenly with a rubber spatula, your fingers or the bottom of a glass (I used all three) and chill for about an hour before cutting. Cut into squares, wrap each one individually and keep on a tray by the door so that you can grab one on your way out.