The Night of Beer - Part 1: Brownies

I have a bunch of leftover beer from a barbecue I had a few months ago.  It was one of those fluke beautiful days in March and I spur-of-the-moment invited some people over and it all came together really well.  This post isn't about the barbecue though, it's about the beer.

So, I have a bunch of beer leftover and I was thinking today that I wanted to make brownies.  Originally, I thought I'd make whiskey brownies, but then I realized I didn't have any whiskey and the idea of buying some just to cook with seemed silly, so I thought of what I did have and again, came up with beer.  I found a lot of recipes for stout brownies, but not having any stout, I thought I could work with it. 

I used this recipe, but naturally made plenty of changes along the way.   As a tangent, I am always slightly disappointed by how my recipes come out (except for that chocolate peanut butter cake, that thing was absurd), maybe I should actually follow the recipes that other people have tried before.  What a concept.

I used a wide variety of chocolates.  There were Nestles chocolate chips, Hershey's 60% dark, some Lake Champlain milk chocolate square, a milk-chocolate Hershey's Easter bunny and a random Hershey's nugget.  (Next time I quit the frugal and just buy the Scharffen Berger)

 And in case that wasn't enough chocolate, there was also a cup of cocoa powder as well.

Two thirds of the chocolate and a bunch of butter in a double boiler waiting to melt.  By the way, I can't imagine how people live without double boilers.  Or Mix-Masters.  It is enthralling to me.

This is the beer I used - Xingu Black Beer.  I had never had it before, but it seemed like the darkest brew in the crisper drawer.  I did drink the last sip and it reminded me somewhat of the Manischewitz of the beer world.  I don't think that's necessarily a good thing, but it's not that bad...

Ready to go in the oven.

Just out of the oven.








Completely unrelated to beer, Star Market was having a sale on berries, so I bought a bunch.  I made a lovely strawberry, blackberry, blueberry fruit salad and ate it with my warm, gooey brownie.  It was de-light-ful.