It’s March my friends.  And that means St. Patrick’s Day.  And that means beer.  And Irish names.

A couple of years ago I shared my favorite chocolate cake recipe.   If you’ve been playing along at home, you’ll recall that its secret ingredient is a can of stout beer.  I’m ashamed to admit it has taken me this long to extrapolate the wonders of dark beer and chocolate to brownies.  That’s right, beer.  And brownies.

The good news is that the lightbulb finally went on, and I have a recipe for you.  Like its cousin, the chocolate stout cake, this brownie recipe also begins with a can of beer.  But here, the stout is reduced to about 1/2 cup.  Wait, allow me to explain myself.  I don’t mean that there is less beer.  I mean that it literally gets reduced down via a strong simmer until all that is left is a deep, dark stouty concentrate.  Pwah…less beer.  As if.

Also playing a starring role in this recipe is over a pound of bittersweet chocolate.  Combined with butter and melted until smooth and velvety.

You won’t taste the beer in the brownie.  But, like vanilla or coffee, dark beer boogies with the chocolate to create a deeper, more sophisticated flavor.

I happen to have it on good authority that leprechauns love beer brownies.  So.  Bake up a batch, find a leprechaun and trade for that pot of gold.  Or, keep the brownies for yourself.  The situation is win-win.

Soundtrack

Still stuck on that 80s channel on Pandora.

Stout Brownies

Ingredients

• 1 can stout (like Guinness or Murphy’s)
• 18 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• .5 lb (16 TBS) unsalted butter
• 1.25 C granulated sugar
• 1.5 tsp kosher salt
• 3 TBS cocoa powder
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2.25 C all-purpose flour
• 1 C roasted walnuts

Directions

1. In a medium heavy-bottom saucepan, bring beer to a simmer.  Simmer gently until beer reduces to about 1/2 C.  Remove from heat and let cool.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 9X13 pan with parchment and butter or oil pan and top of parchment.
3. Using a heavy-bottom saucepan,  melt butter over low heat.  Remove from heat, add chocolate and allow to sit for 3-4 minutes.  Whisk to incorporate chocolate until mixture is completely smooth.  Allow to cool to room tempurature.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, salt and cocoa.
5. Whisk-in eggs one-at-a-time.  Whisk-in vanilla and beer reduction.
6. Whisk-in chocolate and butter mixture.
7. Fold-in flour mixture and then nuts until just incorporated.
8. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 35-45 minutes, until a wooden skewer comes up with moist crumbs when inserted.
9. Allow to cool completely before cutting.