Ridiculously Good Stout Vegan Brownies (with no weird ingredients), just some things you probably already have in your pantry. And these brownies are legit!
It’s not so much that flax-eggs are wierd. Or guar gum. Or agar agar. It’s not the “weirdness” of the ingredients I kept seeing in vegan brownie recipes, but rather the fact that I don’t own them. And outside of an online shopping trip, I have no idea where to procure such things in my neighborhood. I’m more of a vegan food enthusiast rather than an actual vegan.
What I really needed was a brownie recipe using just what I had in my pantry, because there is a good chance you’ll also have the same things in your pantry. They also needed to be actual brownies, not shiny-top cake squares (an issue with some recipes that don’t include eggs and butter).
I have a few rules and requirements when it comes to brownies: the absolute necessity of the crunchy top, they need to be chewy, and only psychopaths put nuts in a brownie. I like a fudgy, dense, chocolatey, chewy, crispy top brownie.
I tested the recipe over and over, making minor tweaks to fix the things I didn’t love, until it came out exactly the way I like my vegan food: shockingly vegan. As in, “serve it to meat eaters and astound them”. Or “Bring them to a dinner party and people ask for the recipe because they have no idea what it does not contain.”
It’s also a great recipe for those of us who always want to bake right before we realize that we are out of everything and don’t want to go to the store.
Want to check and see if your beer is vegan? Branivore can help.
Ridiculously Good Stout Vegan Brownies (with no weird ingredients)
Ingredients
1 cup (200g) sugar
¼ cup (56g) coconut oil (not melted)
2 tablespoons (30mL) vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup (74g) stout beer
½ cup (60g) unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ¼ cup (150g) bread flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons espresso powder
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F
Add the sugar and coconut oil to a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium until well combined. Slowly add the oil and vanilla, beating on high until the mixture resembles frosting.
Add the baking soda and vinegar, beat again until well combined.
Stir in the beer.
In a mixing bowl stir together the cocoa powder, flour, cornstarch, salt, and espresso powder.
Gently stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined, mixture will be thick.
Add in an even layer to a greased 8x8 pan, press flat.
Bake for 22 minutes. Allow to cool before cutting into squares.
I’ve been chasing the light around my new house for the past three months. I haven’t found it, not in any real way. It’s an occupational hazard, really.
Every time I move, I have to find it. I have to find that place in my house where I can set up shop and shoot what I need to photograph. I’m not an artificial light girl, possibly because I can’t really wrap my brain around the nuances of that medium. So I chase the sunlight, hoping each new spot, new time of day, new month of the year, will be when I find it.
I’ve lived in 5 houses since I started this journey with the very strange objective of getting paid for cooking with beer and taking pictures of it. I’ve always found the spot—where the light is just right—in every house that has served as my work-from-home office. The kitchen, the garage, behind the couch in my living room, the bedroom. You never really know where it’ll be.
Every house I move into, I have an idea of where I WANT to shoot, where I want to set up and settle in and start photographing. But the light, just like the rest of this world, doesn’t really bend to your whims the way you want it to.
Today, on round three of testing this recipe, I settled into a new location. Maybe because I shot this photograph there and decided I loved it. Maybe because it was easier to sit down in this spot and polish off a few of these before I cleaned up. Either way, I might just stay a while and see if the light will cooperate if I keep baking things covered in salted caramel frosting.
1 medium tart apple (i.e. Granny Smith), peeled and small diced (about 1 cup)
For the frosting:
¼ cup (57g) softened butter
1 cup (220g) packed light brown sugar
¼ cup (60mL) heavy cream
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ cups (180g) confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon sea salt, plus ¼ teaspoon, divided
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Add the butter and brown sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on high until light and fluffy. Add the egg, oil and vanilla extract, beating until it resembles frosting.
Stir in the beer (it will curdle).
Sprinkle with flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and apples. Stir until just combined. Pour into an 8x8 baking dish that has been greased and floured.
Bake for 45-50 minutes or until the top has puffed and springs back when lightly touched.
Add the powdered sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer (or a mixing bowl, and use an electric hand mixer).
Melt the butter in a pot over high heat. Add the brown sugar, cream and vanilla, stir until just combined. Boil over high heat for two minutes.
Pour the caramel over the powdered sugar, beat until well combined. Pour the frosting over the apple bars in an even layer, sprinkle with remaining ¼ teaspoon salt, allow to cool. Cut into squares.
IPA Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars with Beer Candied Pecans
I know, I get it. You’re already sick of pumpkin things and the season hardly started. I hear you, for me fall is all about hops. Spending last week running around the hop fields of Yakima, my love for hops has never been stronger (I’ll tell you all about that trip soon).
But it occurred to me, as I’m pints deep in hops, that although pumpkin isn’t the reason for the season when it comes to a true craft beer devotee, it’s a flavor that goes remarkably well with hops.
I’ve spent years meh-ing pumpkin beers when really I’m just averse to a boring, overly malted pumpkin ale. Once you brighten it up with hops, clean malts, bright flavors and minus the hell out of the overly cinnamon spice mixtures, you can get yourself a really lovely beer.
I understand if you want to walk out the fall squash door and never look back, but maybe you just want a brighter, cleaner beer. Pumpkin or not, this IPA Pumpkin Cheesecake Bar recipe is great to try your hand at baking with an IPA, a feat much more difficult than it appears. Hops are fussy and aggressive and can be a bit too much at times. But the sugar and dairy give them a nice balance, this is a recipe that can take a punch.
IPA Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars with Beer Candied Pecans
Yield: 24 squares
Ingredients
For the beer candied pecans:
1/2 cup Stone Vengeful Spirit IPA
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon salt, divided
1 tablespoon butter
2 cups pecan pieces
For the cheesecake:
9 standard sized graham crackers
2 tablespoon brown sugar
4 tablespoon melted butter
¾ cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
16 oz cream cheese (softened)
4 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (15oz) can pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup Stone Vengeful Spirit IPA
1/4 cup flour
Instructions
Make the pecans:
Preheat oven to 250F.
In a large pot (it will bubble up furiously) over high heat add the beer and brown sugar. Stir until the sugar has dissolved.
Clip a candy thermometer on the side of the pan. Bring liquid to 235F degrees, remove from heat.
Add the butter, stir until combined.
Add ½ teaspoon salt and pecans; stir until the pecans have all been coated.
Pour pecans on to a baking sheet that has been covered with a silicon baking mat (or parchment paper that has been sprayed with cooking spray).
Spread pecans evenly over the sheet.
Bake at 250F for 15 minutes, stir and bake for an additional 15 minutes (if the pecans look foamy, stir until the bubbles have dissolved) remove from oven and sprinkle with the remaining salt.
Allow to cool to room temperature, break apart. (Can be made up to 4 days in advance, store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place).
Make the cheesecake:
Lower the oven temp to 300F
In a food processor add the graham crackers and brown sugar, process until only crumbs are left. While the food processor is still running, add the melted butter and process until it resembles wet sand.
Line a 9X13 pan with parchment paper making sure the parchment comes up and over the sides of the pan. Press crust into the bottom until well compacted.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the brown sugar, white sugar and cream cheese. Mix until well combined. One at a time, add the eggs and vanilla, mixing until well combined, scraping the bottom, before adding more.
Add the pumpkin puree, cinnamon nutmeg and salt, mix until very well combined.
Add the beer and stir until combined.
Sprinkle the flour over the bowl, stir on medium speed until just combined.
Pour over the crust.
Bake at 300F for about one hour or until the center no longer sloshes when gently shaken but just slightly jiggles (The secret to a great cheesecake is not to over bake it, it's better to slightly under bake it for a smooth mousse like texture).
Chill until set, about 3 hours.
Remove from pan using the parchment paper. Cut into squares, top with pecans.
One Bowl Chocolate Chip Beer Bread, in your oven in five minutes, in your face in one hour!
Fall baking isn’t as much about the food as it is about the fact that we can turn the oven on again. Just days ago, it seems, we were all googling “no-cook dinners” and hoping the triple-digit heat would pass soon.
Then, as if overnight, the weather calmed, we awoke to rain on a garden that still held the last gasps of summer produce, and we’re again free to wear sweaters and pull on the wellies.
Let us bake again, slow down for a second as out lives orient to the pulse of this part of the year. Just slow down, take a day away from the obligation we force on ourselves and just be.
Just a reminder that the world will still be there when you rejoin, that it’ll be fine without you for a bit, and making something just because you want to has a way of healing the chips that the daily grind works into your soul.
A day in the kitchen, an audiobook and the smell of things baking in the oven has a way of calming a storm inside us, bringing calmer waters and even has the added bonus of warm baked goods to give as a peace offering to those in our lives that love us even when we’re difficult.
Blackberry Sweet Rolls with Beer Dough, like cinnamon rolls just WAY better.
It finally happened. Out of nowhere, and without my consent. I’m not even sure when it started, really. But now, it’s official.
I’m a Pacific Northwesterner, authentic and legitimized and I was finally given proof. I am, after all, a California girl born and raised. Heat seeking, lizard-on-a-rock always looking for a terrarium to spend time in. Summer was always my favorite season, and I need sunshine like I need air. But then, it happened.
After weeks of near triple-digit heat squeezing the breath out of Seattle area, I woke to a light rain, air sweet and soft, and a dew covered garden. “Thank God,” I thought, “It finally rained,” and there it was. A delicate summer rain was welcomed into my life like aloe on a sunburn.
I’m a Pacific Northwesterner. I even found myself aching for the fall, the sweaters, the smell of a fireplace, the color of the leaves as they say goodbye like the finale of a fireworks show.
I won’t be drinking any pumpkin spice lattes any time soon, so don’t get any ideas. I will, however, be picking as many blackberries as I can before they leave for the year. Freezing the excess for winter baking, and take full advantage of these charming weeds that overtake the Seattle area side roads and unkempt lots.
Just about 20-minutes of picking yielded 4 pounds of fruit, so obviously I needed to spend Sunday afternoon baking some Blackberry Sweet Rolls, and settling into the idea that for the first time in my life I’m not really sad to see the summer come to an end.
2 ½ teaspoons (1 envelope) rapid rise dry active yeast
¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon (2g) lemon zest
1 cup (8oz) beer (Hefeweizen, pale ale, pilsner)
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons (10g) vanilla extract
1 teaspoon (6g) salt
For the filling:
½ cup (114g) butter, softened
½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon (6g) salt
1 teaspoon (5mL) fresh lemon juice
1 ½ cup (220g) blackberries
Frosting:
1 tablespoon (15mL) lemon juice
1 teaspoon (6g) lemon zest
1 teaspoon (5g) vanilla extract
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
½ cup (114g)softened butter
2 cups (240g) powdered sugar
½ teaspoon (3g) salt
Instructions
Stir together the flour, yeast, sugar, lemon zest, in a stand mixer.
Heat the beer to 120°F (Always defer to the liquid temperature listed on the package of yeast, regardless of what the recipe says. Your yeast package says 105°F? Heat the liquid to that temperature!)
Add the warmed beer to the stand mixer, mix until incorporated.
Add the butter, vanilla and salt. Continue to beat until the dough is no longer sticky and gathers around the hook, about 8 minutes.
Add dough to a large, lightly oiled bowl. Cover and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Add dough onto a lightly floured surface. Roll into a large rectangle about 9x13 inches in size.
Add all filling ingredients (except the blackberries) to a bowl, mix until well combined.
Spread the filling evenly across the dough, sprinkle evenly with blackberries.
Starting with the long end, roll the dough tightly into a long log. Cut into 12 rolls about 1 ½ inches wide.
Add the rolls tightly into a baking dish, cut-side up.
Allow to rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.
Bake at 350°F until golden brown, about 40 minutes.
Beat together the butter and cream cheese until well combined. Add in the remaining ingredients, then beat until light and creamy.
Frost before serving. Serve within 10 hours of making.
Chocolate Stout Cake with Cherries: Fudgy and Flourless!
Chocolate stout cake is the perfect way to get back into your life after getting lost in writing a book. It’s like asking for forgiveness for your comprehensive neglect without actually apologizing for fear of reminding everyone how absent you’ve been as you waded through 30,000 words.
It’s also a reminder that flour is unnecessary in chocolate cake, it’s so much better without. So rich, dense and delicious it doesn’t even need frosting. As if the cake is above frosting, outgrown the need for it.
I would never dissuade you from a frosting related endeavor, live your truth. But if I WAS to frost this magical chocolatey beerified treat, it would be with something just as profanely mature, and wide-eye inducing.
I’ll give you some examples, just in case you are, in fact, contemplating topping this cake with something: salted caramel whipped cream, espresso ganache, bourbon mascarpone frosting.
Or, just get a pint of ice cream (salted caramel? espresso rum? horchata?) and make it a ridiculous sundae. Just make sure to serve it with a stout.
Chocolate Stout Cake with Cherries: Fudgy and Flourless!
Yield: 6-8 servings
Ingredients
6 oz dark chocolate (60%), chopped
1/3 (3oz) cup stout
½ cup (114g) butter, chopped
1 ¼ (250g) cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
3 tablespoons (45g) vegetable oil
¾ cup (88g) cocoa powder
1 teaspoon (6g) salt
2 tablespoons (16g) cornstarch
1 cup (160g) pitted dark cherries
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In the top of a double boiler over a simmering water add the chocolate, beer and the butter. Stir until the butter is almost melted, turn off heat and continue to stir until butter is melted, remove from heat.
In a mixing bowl whisk together the sugar and eggs until well combined. Stir in the oil. Sprinkle with cocoa powder, salt and cornstarch, whisk until well combined.
Stir in the chocolate and the cherries until combined.
Place a round of parchment paper inside a 10-inch spring form pan, rub the inside of the pan and the parchment paper with butter.
Pour the batter inside the prepared pan in an even layer.
Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the top is puffed and no longer looks wet, don’t over bake of cake will be dry. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for 10-20 minutes. Transfer to a serving plate.
Jalapeno Beer Caramel sauce is something you could easily side-eye. I get that. What do you even do with it?! Don’t you worry, I’ve got that covered.
Not only am I hooking you up with a super easy caramel sauce recipe, I’ve also got some really easy ideas of how you’re just dying to use it (you are, trust me).
First: Grilled Pineapple with Jalapeno Beer Caramel Sauce. Didn’t I tell you? You just oohhh-ed to yourself thinking about it. But I have some more, I’ve thought about this for a bit.
Chicken and Waffles with Jalapeno Beer Caramel Sauce
Vanilla Ice Cream with Jalapeno Beer Caramel Sauce
Mini Doughnuts with Jalapeno Beer Caramel Dipping Sauce (right?!)
Sour Apples with Jalapeno Beer Caramel Dipping Sauce
You see what I’m saying? I know that at first sight it might not seem like something you’d want to make due to lack of possible uses, but there you go. Now you not only have a recipe for a quick and memorable caramel sauce, you also have recipe ideas as well as a great reason to open a beer.
You’re welcome.
I used this amazing DIPA from Barrage Brewing Company that I loved before I even opened it because of the name, obviously. (Thanks @InkedBeerLover for sending it my way!)
Add the sugar, and ½ cup beer to a pot over high heat. Stir until the sugar has dissolved, then don’t stir again until the end. Swirl the pan to redistribute the sugar when necessary.
Boil until dark amber in color, about 6 minutes, remove from heat.
Immediately stir in the butter, salt, jalapeno, heavy cream and remaining beer (it’s best to have this all prepped and ready to go prior to this step).
Stir until the butter has dissolved. Allow to steep for ten minutes.
Remove the jalapenos.
Add the sauce to an airtight container, store in the fridge until ready to use.
Drunk Diablo: Chocolate Stout Devils Food Cake with Mexican Hot Chocolate Frosting
When you have a weird job, there are two categories of projects you work on. The first types are the reasons you got into this in the first place. The love projects. The creative soul projects. The goosebumps and fevered excitement projects.
Those are the ones that keep you going. The second type, are the ones that pay the bills. The ones that you still like, the ones you’re grateful for, the ones that you still throw your heart and gypsy soul into, but in your heart of hearts, you know you’re only doing them because you like electricity and groceries and being able to pay those bills affords you such luxuries.
If you’re lucky, there is a huge Venn diagram overlap between the two. Most of what you do is —to one degree or another— both. I very rarely do projects that are just to pay the bills, but I very frequently find myself immersed in a passion project that will probably never result in any type of bill-paying.
I’m ok with this, it’s how I know I’ve chased my career down the right rabbit holes.
Right now I’m trying to turn my number one passion project into something that’s more in the center of that diagram. It’s a website I started about a year ago, a project I’ve been trying to move forward and I’m really in love with it.
It’s Craft Beer Photography, it’s stock photos, it’s prints, it’s “please hire me to photograph your brewery because that sounds really fun and I want to do it.”
It’s also one of my favorite parts of this weird job I’m trying to invent for myself. Because no one has ever really done this and I’m still trying to figure out what it looks like.
For now, let’s eat some cake and drink some beer and figure the rest out later.
Drunk Diablo: Chocolate Stout Devils Food Cake with Mexican Hot Chocolate Frosting
Yield: 10-12 servings
Ingredients
For cake:
3 ounces bitter sweet chocolate
½ cups (4oz) hot brewed coffee
1 cup (8oz) stout beer
3 large eggs
2 ½ cups (375g) sugar
¾ cup (180mL) vegetable oil
1 ½ cups (360mL) sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 ½ cups (300g) all-purpose flour
1 ¾ cups (168g) unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons (10g) baking soda
1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder
1 teaspoons (6g) salt
For the frosting:
1 ½ cup (342g) butter, softened
2 cups (386g) vegetable shortening*
¼ cup (24g) cocoa powder
3 cups (390g) powdered sugar (plus additional to taste)
¼ teaspoon (0.5g) cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon (4g) cinnamon
½ teaspoon (2g) chili powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the ganache:
10 wt oz dark chocolate (60% cacao)
¾ cup (180mL)heavy cream
¼ cup (60mL) stout beer
Instructions
Preheat oven to 325°F.
Add the chocolate, coffee and beer to a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high for 30 seconds, stir and repeat until melted (this can also be done in a double boiler).
Add the eggs and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer, beat on high until light in color and well combined. Add the vegetable oil, sour cream and vanilla, beat until well combined. Mix in the chocolate mixture.
In a separate bowl stir together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
Sprinkle the dry ingredients over the wet ingredients, stir until just combined.
Divide evenly between three 9-inch cake pans that have been greased and floured.
Bake for 35 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly touched.
Add the butter to the bowl of a stand mixer, beat on high until light and fluffy. Add the shortening, beat until well combined. Add the remaining frosting ingredients, beating until well combined. Frost the cake, with frosting between all the layers. Refrigerate while you prepare the ganache.
Add all the ganache ingredients to the top of a double boiler set over simmering water. Stir until the chocolate is almost all melted. Remove from heat and continue to stir until the chocolate is completely melted.
Pour the ganache over the cake, spread in an even layer, or allow to drip down the sides.
Notes
*Just use the shortening. It’s a texture thing, and it’s totally worth getting over the fact that shortening skeeves you out. It makes the most amazing frosting, trust me, just do it!
Stouts and Scouts: No-Churn Thin Mint Beer Ice Cream. Ten-minute prep!
This is my exception. Really, the only one. I have an aversion to mint that started in a cave in Middle Atlas the day before I almost died in Morocco.
But the thing is, if you are ever in a cave in Middle Atlas and a very nice cave dweller offers to make you tea, YOU DRINK IT! Even if the water is so dirty it looks like mud. Even if the glasses are a little cracked and leaky. Even if you’re fairly certain you’ll end up with dysentery.
Even if your guide through Middle Atlas turns out to be a drug dealer. That last part really had nothing to do with the tea other than it magnified an already strange experience.
After that day, mint was never the same. I wouldn’t take it back if you paid me, it was an amazing (although slightly terrifying at times) experience that happened to change the way I respond to the flavor of mint.
Thin Mints are the exception. Maybe it’s because they taste nothing like the mint leaves that had been muddled into my glass that day.
Or maybe it’s because they remind me of being a kid. Or maybe it’s because I’m such a sucker for those little cracker dealers outside the grocery stores that I can’t help but buy them every time. And since the appropriate place to store your crack, I mean Thin Mints, is in the freezer, making ice cream just made sense.
And if there is a better cookie and beer pairing than Thin Mints and an Imperial Stout I can’t think of it at the moment.
Individual Stout Mousse Cakes with Flambé Bourbon Beer Cherries
This is for you. Or really, it’s for us. Because I decided a long time ago to redefine Valentine’s day to be about more than just romantic love (although I pretty much covered romantic love that time I wrote about blowjobs).
Valentines is about the people you love, all of them. Even the ones who never see you naked. Especially the ones who never see you naked (this leads me to the “how much inappropriateness can I shove into one paragraph?” line of thought).
You’re single? Who cares, you love tons of people! Your mom, your neighbor, your bartender. You have plenty of people to love all over and share a beer with. That’s what’s important. The people we get to love and make a cake for.
I love you, for instance. Mostly because you make it possible for me to do my weird job. Where would I be if you didn’t care that I make food with beer instead of just drinking it like a normal person? I know where I’d be, I’d still be doing this.
Which would be fine, but my weird job is amazing. It’s more than I think I even deserve. So to thank you, I made you a cake. Feel free to share it with your mom, or your neighbor or your bartender.
Or, you know, that person who gets to see you naked. As if seeing you naked wasn’t present enough!
Individual Stout Mousse Cakes with Flambé Bourbon Beer Cherries
Yield: 2 servings
Ingredients
For the cherries:
¼ cup Bourbon
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup barrel aged stout
1 cup Bing cherries, pitted (thawed if frozen)
¼ cup Cointreau
For the cake:
4 tablespoons (57g) butter (plus more for ramekins)
6 oz bittersweet chocolate (62% cocoa content)
¼ cup (60mL) stout
3 eggs separated
¼ tsp cream tartar
¼ cup (50g) sugar
1 tablespoon (7g) cornstarch
1 tablespoon (8g) flour
Instructions
Add the bourbon, sugar, and stout to a saucepan. Simmer until sugar has dissolved.
Add the cherries to a re-sealable jar, pour bourbon/beer mixture over the cherries. Allow to sit at room temperature for one hour. Seal and refrigerate until ready to use, can be made several weeks in advance.
Heat the oven to 375°F.
Place butter, stout and chocolate in the top of a double boiler (or a metal bowl set over a pot of water) over gently simmering water. Stir frequently until melted, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
In the bowl of a stand mixer add the egg whites, salt and cream of tartar, building up speed, beat on high until soft peaks form. While the mixer is running add the sugar a bit at a time, beat until stiff peaks form.
In a large bowl stir together the egg yolks, cornstarch, and flour. Beat on high until light and slightly fluffy.
Slowly pour the chocolate mixture into the egg yolk mixture, beating until completely combined, scraping the bottom to make sure the mixture is well incorporated.
About 1/3 at a time, gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture using a spatula. Stir until egg whites are well combined with the chocolate mixture.
Grease two large (10oz) ramekins or oven safe bowls with butter until well coated.
Add the batter evenly between the two ramekins.
Bake for thirty minutes or until the top has puffed and looks dry. Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temperature before removing from ramekins.
Add the cherries to a small pot or skillet. Pour the Cointreau over the cherries. Using a kitchen torch or long match, light the liquid on fire. Swirl until to distribute the flame. Allow to flambé for about 2 minutes, then add a lid to extinguish the flame. Pour the liquid and the cherries evenly over the cakes. Serve immediately.
I do this thing every year, and I think you should do it, too. It’s about resolutions. I make one every year, but they aren’t about denying myself things in a way that I will spend the year torturing myself with goals that revolve around fitness or money.
They’re about ways I want to add to my life, things I want to do, things other people call “bucket list” (I hate that term, if you want to do, just do it! Don’t add it to a list!) items.
Find something you’ve always wanted to do and make it your goal. Want to go to Panama? Figure out how. Of course you can, don’t look at me like that. What do you need to do? Take a second job? Save all your money until next November when you’ll go on a Central American holiday?
Whatever it takes, it can be done. Make a goal to do something you’ve always wanted to do, stop making resolutions to hate yourself for a few months then hate yourself for giving up.
A handful of years ago my New Years goal was to get published, 6 months later I had a book deal. The next year it was to get paid to write for magazines, that year I wrote about Homeboy Industries for a magazine and it’s still my favorite thing I’ve ever written.
This year my New Years goal is get work as a travel writer. Sure, I’ve done a few things. I’ve written this, and this, but I want more. I want something big. I’ll let you know how it goes, but for now, I’m hopeful.
Set your goal, tell me what it is, and we can check in on each other through the year. You’ve got this.
Add the cranberries, granulated sugar and beer to a pot over medium high heat. Bring to a boil, boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, drain, add to a small dish and refrigerate until chilled (can be done several days in advance, cover if chilling longer than an hour).
In a mixing bowl add the mascarpone, powdered sugar, and salt, beat on high until well combined. Chill for at least 30 minutes and up to three days (cover if chilling longer than an hour).
Using a melon baller or small spoon, make half a ball of mascarpone, add one or two stout soaked cranberries, then add more mascarpone to make a ball about the size or a large marble. Add to a plate covered with wax paper. Continue until all the mascarpone is used. Add the plate of mascarpone balls to the freezer, freeze for 30 minutes.
Add about 8 oz of the chocolate to the top of a double boiler set over gently simmering water, making sure the water does not boil, keep the heat low. Stir until the chocolate is mostly melted. Remove from heat, add the remaining chocolate and stir until all the chocolate is melted.
One at a time add the balls of mascarpone to the melted chocolate with a fork, cover completely with chocolate, then return to the plate. Allow to dry until set, about 10 minutes. Chill until ready to serve.
It started as a last minute trip to chase down an assignment for a magazine I write for, and it ended up being more of a revelation.
How is it that Bellingham—one of the countries best beer cities—is less than two hours from my door and I had yet to explore it? How is it that it took an assignment from 1889 Magazine to get me up there?
It started at Chuckanut, a brewery so heavily awarded it’s shocking they haven’t been around longer. Although the owners have brewed since the 1980’s, and done so all over the world.
My recommendations: Kolsch, British Brown Ale
I ended up at WanderBrewing next, of my favorite of all the destinations of the weekend. Maybe because the owner, Chad, was more than gracious and welcoming. Carving out time in his hectic beer-making-business-running-brand-new-tiny-baby-at-home schedule to have a pint with me.
Maybe it was because I’ve been in love with the beer since the first time I had it. Either way, this place is a must when you find yourself anywhere close to Whatcom county.
My recommendations: Global Mutt Baltic Porter, Wanderale Belgian Blonde
From there, I needed food and found myself at the Bellingham location of one of my favorite breweries from my last visit to Wyoming, Melvin Brewing. I was delighted to see that not only was the food fantastic, but they are in the process of brewing beer specifically for the Pacific Northwest.
I love what Melvin is doing with Wyoming ingredients and I can’t wait until I can sample what they do with Washington ingredients. Word on the street is that there will be brand new brews made in Washington, for Washington as early as November. Which means I’ll need another visit in a few months.
My recommendations: Asterisk DIPA, Drunken Master Burger, Shishito Peppers
If you’re like me, and you travel with your dog as often as possible, I can’t recommend Home2 Suites in Bellingham more. Not only was this a gorgeous, brand new hotel with a kitchenette in the room and the best complimentary breakfast I’ve had on the road, but I’m pretty sure they were thrilled to see Chowder Jones check in with me. I often feel like hotels put up with my dog, this place adored him.
Although at this point the beers were starting to kick in, I wasn’t nearly close to being done. There are 12 outstanding breweries in Whatcom County, and I was just getting started.
Aslan Brewing was a gorgeous space with fantastic beer.
My Recommendations: Disco Lemonade, Simcoe Slice
Although not a brewery, nearly everyone I spoke to about beer in Bellingham told me about Elizabeth Station. It’s a tap room, it’s a bottle shop, but it’s more. It’s a meeting place, a craft beer community room, a neutral ground for all things beer. It’s more than worth a stop in for a beer or two.
My recommendation: Sit at a communal table and chat with people, order a flight and let the bartender choose your beers for you
Bellingham is very dog friendly
Structure brewing was small in the way you want a tap room to be small. It was friendly and cozy.
My recommendations: No Sleep Stout, Group Think
Boundary Bay is Bellingham’s oldest brewery still in operation. The staff is friendly and the place is huge. Plenty of events in summer on the expansive outdoor patio, it’s both kid and dog-friendly and there is plenty of beer and food.
My recommendations: Galaxy Single Hop, Dry Irish Stout
Clearly I need another trip. Not just because I need more Wander beer, and I need to see what Melvin does, but I also need to spend more time at Kulshan, Gruff brewing and Stones Thrown. One trip isn’t enough.
For now, I’m leaving you with a recipe you need to make before blackberry season ends. It’s also my favorite tart crust ever. It’s a little soft and can be difficult to work with, but once it’s baked it’s the most tender crust I’ve ever made. Worth the hassle.
3 tablespoons (28g) unsalted butter, chilled, cut into small cubes
¼ cup (58g) Belgian ale beer (or pale ale, pilsner, or wheat beer)
Filling:
4 ½ cups (590g) fresh, ripe blackberries
2 tablespoons (28g) sugar, plus 1 tablespoon, divided
1 tablespoon (8g) cornstarch
1 tablespoon (2g) lemon zest
1 tablespoon (12g) fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon (14g) melted butter
375F 35-40 minutes
Instructions
Add flour, salt, sugar and softened butter to a food processor, process until combined. Add the cold butter, pulse until just combined, you will still be able to see some larger pieces of butter, this will create flakey layers.
Pulse in the beer until completely incorporated into the dough. Dough will be very soft.
Lay a long sheet of plastic wrap on a flat surface, add the dough to the center.
Form into a flat disk. Wrap disk tightly in plastic wrap. Chill until firm, about 3 hours and up to three days.
In a large bowl add the blackberries sprinkle with 2 tablespoons sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest, lemon juice. Toss to coat. Allow to sit while you prepare the dough.
Knead the dough lightly in hands until dough comes together and warms slightly. Roll out on a lightly floured pieces of parchment paper to form a large circle, about ¼ inch thick. Transfer the dough circle and the parchment paper to a baking sheet.
Pour off any liquid that has accumulated in the blackberry bowl.
Add blackberries to the center of the galette.
Fold the bare edges of the dough up over the filling, using the parchment paper if necessary.
Preheat oven to 400.
Transfer the baking sheet to the freezer, freeze for 15 minutes. Alternately you can chill in the fridge for 30-45 minutes (or overnight). This will help the galette stay together when baking and help the crust to be lighter and flakier.
Brush the crust with melted butter, sprinkle with remaining sugar.
Bake at 400 for 30-35 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Allow to cool prior to serving.
My phone rang Tuesday morning, 4th of July, at 6:30 am. Seriously? Who died? Why would anyone call me (late sleeper, night person that I am) at 6:30 am? The area code triggers a memory in the fog of my early morning brain. Then it hits me, then I realize that I’d committed to a radio interview in Chicago during drive time, live on air. Damn it. I forget to set an alarm, Monday night had been hideous, and I’d fallen asleep before I was able to wake myself up in time for coffee and the requisite half hour to clear the sleep from my brain.
I answer, using the voice I know you’ve used before, too. That one that is so pathetically trying to pretend that it isn’t still dreaming. You try, as hard as you can, with all that you are able to muster, and it’s nowhere close. It’s still so shockingly obvious that you’ve answered the phone still tangled in sheets, your words still as pillow-creased as the side of your face.
This was me. On air. Live. Luckily I’ve been given a gift that has served me well over the years: an unparalleled ability to bullshit my way through just about any situation. I once faked an entire presentation in college. I’d forgotten about it and was called up with three minutes to prep. I grabbed my folders and strutted to the front of the class. The presentation (I decide on the ten steps up to the front of the class) was on the psychological impact of confidence, that pretending that you know what you are doing convinces people that you actually do. I had statistics (faked), terms (I made up on the spot), and real-world scenarios. I ended the presentation with, “And for the most convincing evidence of this: I just made that all up. And you believed me because I acted as if it was all entirely true.” Because although I’m great at navigating my way through conversations in which I know little to nothing, I’m not a liar. I got an A. Which only further reinforced the use of this skill set.
Tuesday morning this came in handy. The part of my brain that’s good at talking me through just about anything took over, and I went on autopilot. To be clear, I didn’t make anything up, I spoke truthfully about a topic I know quite a bit about. I just did so while nearly asleep at dawn.
It seemed to work out, the host sent me an email saying he loved the segment. Thank God. I hate letting people down, and I love talking about beer. SO I decided that a celebratory dessert was in order, no bullshit, just great beer.
I used Inspired Belgian Wit from War Horse Brewing out of New York. The orange and coriander flavors are beautiful in this tart, and the beer was brewed to support the Women’s Hall of Fame, which is probably full of quite a few women who are able to think quickly on their feet. Or in their bed at 6:30 am.
I used this Kitchen torch, because it’s amazing, easily one of my favorite kitchen tools. (affiliate link)
9 full sized chocolate graham crackers (1 full sleeve)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
¼ cup melted butter
Filling:
1 large naval orange, juiced
3 large limes, juiced
4 egg yolks (reserve whites)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons cornstarch
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup Belgian wit beer
Topping:
2 reserved egg whites (from the filling)
1 cup granulated sugar
¼ cup Belgian Wit beer
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
pinch salt
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350F.
Add the graham crackers and sugar to a food processor and process until just crumbs. While the food processor is running add the melted butter and process until well combined. Add to a 9-inch tart pan. Starting with the sides, press into shape. Press the crust very well until even and compacted.
Bake at 350 for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
In a saucepan off heat combine the orange juice, lime juice, egg yolks, 1 cup sugar, heavy cream, cornstarch, salt and beer, whisk until well combined.
Add to medium heat, whisking until thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, allow to cool slightly.
Pour the filling into the crust, refrigerate until chilled, about 3 hours.
Place a small sauce pan with a few inches of water over medium heat. Add a large metal or glass bowl over the top, check to make sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water.
Add 2 egg whites, 1 cup sugar, ¼ cup beer, cream of tartar and salt, beat continuously with a hand mixer until the mixture has thickened and tripled in size. Adjust the heat to maintain a simmer. The mixture should be thick and marshmallow like but still spreadable.
Pour evenly over the top of the tart, refrigerate until chilled.
Brulee the topping with a kitchen torch if desired.
I never really know where my day will take me. One day I’m trying to figure out how to make a bacon rimmed cocktail, the next day I’m trying to find sour cream in Panama (by the way, it’s hard to do). Somedays I want to make you something easy, something you’ll want to make for dinner. And some days I want to eviscerate a stone fruit and fill it with hot cream as if George R. R. Martin is writing my recipes.
This is falls in the “sounds super fancy and hard but its really easy,” which is my all time favorite recipe category. Ever made duck confit? Or rum whipped cream? Then you know these tricks too.
These hollowed out peaches aren’t a one trick pony, that can do many, many delicious things. Grill ’em and fill ’em with ice cream. Poach a few and fill with whipped cream. Whatever you do, tell me about it. I can’t get enough peaches this time of year.
I used this Kitchen torch, because it’s amazing, easily one of my favorite kitchen tools. (affiliate link)
½ cup beer (Lambic, fruit Gose, Saison, or wheat beer)
5 large egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
3 large ripe peaches
sugar for brûlée
Instructions
In a saucepan off heat whisk together the cornstarch, salt and cream. Add the vanilla bean pod and the scrapings from the inside. Add to medium heat until bubbles start to appear on the outside, remove from heat.
In a medium sized bowl whisk together the egg yolks, and sugar. Slowly whisk in the warm cream.
Return the mixture to the pot, add the beer, simmer until thickened, stirring frequently.
Cut the peaches in half, remove the seed. Scoop out the center with a melon baller, leaving about ½ inch of peach intact on all sides.
Place the peaches in serving bowls to keep them stable. Pour the mixture into the center of each peach. Refrigerate until set, about 3 hours.
Sprinkle with a thin layer of sugar, Brulee with a kitchen torch until golden brown. Serve immediately.
Chocolate Stout Mousse Tart with Bourbon Stout Cherries.
Just a few ingredients and 20 minutes! So good, and so easy!
Growing up poor in America has its advantages. They are obviously less sparkly, with a much lower marquee value than growing up rich, but bear with me. You learn things you’d never learn if you had options to do otherwise. You earn a masters level education in problem-solving.
You learn that there are almost no limits to what you can do with needle nose pliers and duct tape. Your first instinct isn’t “I need help,” it’s almost always, “I can figure this out.” Like when you’re a teenager, stuck in Ireland without a ticket home and you’re so sick that you’ve resorted to throwing up in trash cans in the airport terminal and find yourself suddenly alone (that’s a story for another day), you go to your default mode of “how can I fix this?”
The same goes for cooking. You look around your kitchen and think, “what can I make with this?” rather than “I need to go to the store, or order pizza.” You become a master of a slim pantry. Which, more or less, is where this recipe came from. What do I have and what can I do with it? This is a skill everyone needs to hone, a conservation of resources that draws out creativity.
I believe everyone should also know how to make a dessert in under 20-minutes without a recipe. Something that leans towards the homemade side.
So here it is, this Chocolate Stout Mousse Tart in cooker terms: “Make a graham cracker crust. Then slowly pour some melted chocolate into whipped cream. I like to melt the chocolate with some stout, and I add powdered sugar to the whipped cream because it’s a stabilizer. Add it tot he crust. Then just chill it for an hour or so and you’re all good”
But if you’re the type that needs a bit more than that, the full normal-person recipe is below.
Chocolate Stout Mousse Tart with Bourbon Stout Cherries
Yield: 8-10 servings
Ingredients
1 sleeve (9 full sized) chocolate graham crackers
3 tablespoons brown sugar
4 tablespoons butter, melted
10 wt oz dark chocolate
½ cup stout beer
2 cups heavy cream
¼ cup powdered sugar
1 cup Bourbon Stout Cherries (recipe link above)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350F.
Add the graham crackers and sugar to a food processor and process until just crumbs. While the food processor is running add the melted butter and process until well combined. Add to a 9.5 inch tart pan. Starting with the sides, press into shape. Press the crust very well until even and compacted.
Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
Add the chocolate and beer to the top of a double boiler set over gently simmering water. Stir until the chocolate has melted. Remove from heat, allow to cool slightly.
In the bowl of a stand mixer add the cream and powdered sugar, building up speed beat on high until medium peaks form. While the mixer is running slowly drizzle the chocolate into the mixer. Once all the chocolate has been added, stop the mixer and remove the bowl. Using a wooden spoon or spatula gently fold until the chocolate and cream have been well combined.
Add the mousse to the tart pan in an even layer, refrigerate until set, about 3 hours.
Chocolate Stout Fudge Sauce. Three ingredients and SO good. Win at ice cream.
This is because I know you, and I know you need this.
You’re like me, I imagine. You like to give things to people, and when you do give the things, you want them to be interesting. You want to go visit your friend on the other coast and you want to bring something, something different. You want to bring something to the party, and you want to make it unique. Me too.
This is great for your own Netflix and Chilled Dairy Products consumption, but it’s also good to give away. A way to one-up that Mother’s Day present, or add something a little special to a hostess gift, or just a way to use what you already have to make yourself look like the Super Star that we both know you are.
It’s also a way to feel less creepy about opening a stout when you’re alone. Because you’re not creepy, you’re awesome. Because you give away boozy chocolate sauce, and everyone likes that.
Vanilla Orange Hefe Pound Cake with Espresso Stout Ganache
I come to this place every few years.
The what do I want? phase. The place I seem to end up after I absentmindedly allow the people-pleaser in my heart to overtake the independent gypsy in my soul. Remember my fuck stupid food manifesto? The place I was in when I found this Ira Glass quote and decided that I needed to figure out how to have more faith in myself and my journey.
I’m back there, in a way, asking myself two questions this time: what do you want? and how long with you doubt yourself before you learn the lesson?
A tremendous amount of growth has happened in my life, personally and professionally sine I wrote that first post. I do this crazy job full time now, including weird jobs like this one and this one. I’ve realized that I wanted growth more than I wanted blog traffic. That loving what I do is more important than a huge paycheck. That reality TV isn’t for me. I’ve learned a few more things about how to wade through what feels like staggering blindness as I try to move towards a goal that often feels like a moving target.
-Don’t confuse what other people want with what you want. They aren’t the same thing.
-Know what “success” means to you, ignore other people’s definitions, they don’t apply to you.
-Doing something for money doesn’t make you a sellout, it makes you a person who can pay the bills. But know your limits. And stick to them.
-Failure isn’t bad, it’s necessary. If you’ve never failed it just means you’ve never swung for the fences. Just fail forward, closer to your goal than you were before. If you’re a step closer, it’s a win.
-Strive for “better than yesterday” not for “perfect”
-Comparison is the thief of joy. If you’re going to engage in comparison battles, compare down, not up. Compare to achieve gratitude for your situation not envy of someone else’s.
-Celebrate even the small wins, with cake and beer.
Vanilla Orange Hefe Pound Cake with Espresso Stout Ganache
Yield: 6-8 servings
Ingredients
For the cake:
1 tablespoon (5g) orange zest
1 cup (226g) sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
¼ cup (56g) butter, melted and slightly cooled
2 teaspoons (12g) vanilla extract
¼ cup (58g) orange juice (about ½ of a large orange)
1/3 cup (74g) wheat beer
¼ cup (60g) heavy cream
1 ¾ cups (210g) all purpose flour
1 teaspoons (2g) baking powder
½ teaspoons (3g) salt
For the ganache:
10 wt oz dark chocolate (60% cacao)
¾ cup (180mL)heavy cream
¼ cup (60mL) stout beer
1 teaspoon (1g) espresso powder
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Add the orange zest and sugar to a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix for two minutes on medium-low speed to mix the zest with sugar to help release the oils from the orange rind.
One at a time add the eggs, mixing well between additions until the eggs are very well combined with the sugar.
Slowly add the melted butter.
In a medium bowl stir together the vanilla extract, orange juice, beer and heavy cream.
In a separate bowl stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
A bit at a time add the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients, alternating between the two until everything has been added and gently combined.
Grease and flour a 9X5 loaf pan, pour the batter in an even layer.
Add the pan to the oven, lower the temp to 325F.
Bake for 45-50 minutes or until the top springs back lightly when touched.
Remove from oven, allow to cool before removing from pan.
In the top of a double boiler over gently simmering water add the ganache ingredients. Stir frequently until just before the chocolate chips have completely melted and combined. Remove from heat, continue to stir until smooth and well combined. Pour in an even layer over the cake.
10-minute Beer Bread Cinnamon Rolls: Takes ten minutes to get these in your oven!
It started years ago, when, for a brief moment, I was trying to be less weird and figure out if “normal” was my bag. For some reason, cinnamon rolls seems like something normal people did on Christmas. I grew up with a weird family, I had a weird job before I started my current weird job that necessitates that I do things like this.
It was during a conversation with my older sister (the one I was with when I almost died in Morocco), in the midst of a life crisis. For some reason, the answer seemed to be cinnamon rolls. It seemed to me, at the time, that normal-people traditions would mend a part of me that I figured was broken. She, being the type of person to love others more than she has ever found a way to love herself, sent me a cinnamon roll pan in the mail along with a “secret ingredient” which turned out to be dry milk powder. The pan broke during a move when I was living in Los Angeles, but the milk powder still finds its way in my traditional yearly cinnamon rolls. In fact, that conversation was the basis for the first recipe in my first cookbook (affiliate link).
I’ve mixed up the recipe for cinnamon rolls a few dozen times, mostly because Christmas and cinnamon rolls feel like home to me. This recipe doesn’t use the milk powder that I reserve for the versions that use a yeast dough, but it doesn’t matter. It’s a quick and easy way to get that fix that brings me an odd comfort. Even though there is no longer a part of me that seeks to change any of my abnormal qualities, I seek out the odd in other people. But it doesn’t matter who you are: cinnamon rolls and beer are just good.
In a large bowl stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, salt, and beer until a ball of dough forms. Add to a lightly floured surface, (if the dough is excessively sticky, cover with a generous amount of flour, kneading until it's no longer sticky, adding more flour when needed) knead lightly until the ball comes together. Gently roll into a large rectangle.
In a small bowl stir together the butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown and white sugar until a paste forms.
Spread the paste in an even layer on top of the dough rectangle. Roll along the long edge to form a long log.
Cut into 10-12 rings. Place cut side up in a baking dish that has been lightly greased.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
In a small bowl beat together the butter and cream cheese until well combined. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla and milk, beat until well combined.
Pour the icing over the cinnamon rolls in an even layer, serve immediately.
Notes
*To make ahead: make the cinnamon rolls, place in the pan, cover and refrigerate until ready to bake, up to two days. Do not bake until ready to serve, cinnamon rolls do not keep well. The icing can be made up to three days in advance, keep refrigerated until ready to use.
