Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Whiskey Buttercream

I know, St. Patrick’s Day has come and gone, but these cupcakes are really great and you could make them anytime. And I used American Honey Whiskey so they aren’t Irish at all! We did make these for St. Patrick’s Day dinner (which we had a not-so-traditional dinner at Red Robin), but I think these would be good for any adult oriented party.

Like the chocolate beer cheesecake I made recently, these taste better after the flavors have had a chance to mingle. I thought that you could taste the stout (oatmeal stout in this case) and the whiskey (American Honey Whiskey) much more the next day. The frosting is very sweet. The cupcake in the photo has a lot of frosting, and honestly I liked eating the cupcake that had less frosting. I’m totally a frosting girl, too, so I’m not sure why this tastes so very sweet. Maybe the type of whiskey I used? 

These cupcakes came from a vegan blog, and I have made some changes, but the cupcakes themselves are still vegan. I wasn’t sure how they would turn out, as they had no egg in the batter. They were really good, but they didn’t rise quite as much as expected. The cupcake itself was light and had great texture, so if you’re looking for a vegan cupcake, this is an excellent choice. I made the buttercream non-vegan, with butter and milk, but you could certainly substitute if needed. I liked that this vegan recipe used common ingredients, as so many specialty blogs use ingredients that might not be readily available. Thanks for the great recipe Chef Chloe!

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Whiskey Buttercream

1 ½ cups flour

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup stout beer

½ cup vegetable oil

2 tablespoon vinegar

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 cup butter

3 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2-5 tablespoons milk

3-4 teaspoons whiskey

Caramel sauce, if desired

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two cupcake pans with 14-16 paper liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together stout, oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Pour the stout mixture into the flour mixture and stir with a spatula to combine. Do not over mix; the batter may be slightly lumpy (and a bit fizzy!).

Fill the cupcake liners about nearly full with batter, as they don’t rise a great deal. Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the cupcake comes out clean. Cool in the pan about 10 minutes and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the frosting: in a large mixer bowl, beat the butter until smooth. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla and 1 tablespoon milk and stir to combine. Add more milk, as needed, until the frosting is a spreadable consistency. Add the whiskey and beat on high until light and fluffy.

Spoon the frosting into a piping bag fitted with a large fluted tip. Pipe the frosting on the cooled cupcakes. (Or just frost the cupcakes with a small metal spatula.) Drizzle with caramel, if desired.

Recipe from Chef Chloe

Chocolate Beer Cheesecake

I thought that this would be a good cheesecake to post in the week running up to St. Patrick’s Day! Who doesn’t love cheesecake? And beer is also a winner, so together they make for a very interesting, grown up dessert. My husband sometimes sends me recipes, some baking things and some dinner ideas. I imagine you are not surprised that this is a recipe my husband found! My husband, also a baker, years ago had made a beer cheesecake that he still talks about. This is a different recipe but I knew that had been such a positive experience that I was excited to try this.

The site where this is from, The Beeroness, explains at length how to select the right beer for this cheesecake. I don’t like bitter beer, so I’m not very familiar with the chocolate stout options for this cheesecake. My husband already knew what beer he wanted to use, and we picked up Young’s Double Chocolate Stout, which is a beer from the UK. My husband said that it was a good drinking beer, but I’ll have to take his word for it as I’m not really a stout fan.

I don’t make cheesecakes very often, but I think this one turned out really well and it cuts beautifully. The crust has a nice saltiness to it from the pretzels. My pan was a little small so I didn’t use all of the batter, and I put it on a baking sheet to catch any potential drips. I’d never baked the sour cream topping on, so that was interesting. I tasted this after about 7 hours of refrigeration and I didn’t really like it. It didn’t have a distinct flavor. The next day, I really liked it. It needed the time for the flavors to come together. This has a good chocolate flavor, a subtle beer flavor, and isn’t too sweet.

Chocolate Beer Cheesecake

4 rectangular graham crackers

1 cup pretzels

2 tablespoons brown sugar

3 tablespoons butter, melted

7 ounces dark chocolate

1 cup chocolate stout

24 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 1/4 cups sugar

3 eggs

2 tablespoon flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/2 salt

1 tablespoon espresso powder

1 cup sour cream

1/4 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons chocolate stout

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9” springform pan.

In a food processor, process the graham crackers, pretzels, and brown sugar and the pretzels until crumbly. Add the melted butter and process the mixture until the mixture looks like wet sand. Press into the bottom of the prepared springform pan. 

In a small saucepan over medium high heat, combine the beer and the chocolate. Stir until melted and remove from heat; allow to cool.

In a large mixer bowl, add the cream cheese and sugar and mix until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing for one minute after each addition. Stir in the chocolate/stout mixer. Add the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and espresso powder, stir on low speed until just combined. Pour the batter over the crust.

Place the cheesecake on the middle rack of the oven. Place a baking dish filled with water on the rack below the cheesecake. (Alternatively, bake the cheesecake in a water bath: wrap the springform pan in foil and place in a large roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with hot water until it comes half way up the side of the spring form pan. I don’t do this as my cheesecake always gets soggy.)

Bake the cheesecake until the center no longer jiggles when you shake the rack, about 45-55 minutes. Remove from oven. 

In a small bowl whisk together the shrimp, powdered sugar, and chocolate stout. Pour over the cheesecake and bake for 8-10 more minutes, until set. Remove the cheesecake from the oven and cool at room temperature for 30 minutes. Refrigerate before serving, at least 3 hours, or longer (to allow the flavors to meld).

Remove the sides of the springform pan and cut the cheesecake with a knife dipped in hot water (and dried).

Recipe from The Beeroness

Cheddar Beer Bread

This is probably the easiest loaf of bread that you will ever make! We’re just home from vacation and I’m not really in the cooking mood yet, so dinner at our home has been pretty simple lately. We have some pantry staples that we are working our way through, and I’ll admit it, sometimes that gets a little dull. One night I knew I would be making some soup, and I wanted to make something to go with it. This bread made the perfect accompaniment.

What first interested me about this recipe was all of the variations. You can use any type of beer, and type of herbs, and even change up what type of cheese you use. I used aged white cheddar since I had some of that left from another recipe. We had Guinness in the fridge so I used that. I have to say that Guinness wouldn’t normally be my first choice, as it’s such a strong flavor. I’d rather used a lager or something, but, again, it’s what I had. I used Italian herbs for my seasoning, as that’s pretty much what I use in everything I cook!

This was so quick to make and it smelled so great when it came out of the oven. You could brush the top of the loaf with egg wash, but that would give it a shinier top. My load looks rustic and that seemed right. I could really taste the Guinness in the bread, but I couldn’t taste the cheese at all. So trying this with another type of beer would yield very different results. It was great paired with the soup and made a kind of plain dinner a little more interesting.

3 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs (or 2 teaspoons dried)
1 cup finely grated sharp cheddar cheese
12 ounces beer

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease an 8-inch loaf pan.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, herbs, and cheddar in a large mixing bowl. Slowly stir in the beer and mix just until combined. The batter will be thick.

Spread in the prepared loaf pan. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes.

Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and cool 10 more minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Recipe from Farmgirl Fare