Tonight I finally got around to baking this small-batch brownie recipe I pinned mumble-mumble years ago from Dessert for Two. I used a local chocolate stout because it’s what I had on hand and omitted the baking chocolate because I didn’t have any on hand. I also used store-bought icing.
They look delicious. 
did you enjoy them?
That’s an interesting recipe! How strong is the beer flavour?
Yum! They look and sound delicious.
Yes*. They are very rich, though. The recipe author compares them to fudge, and I’m finding that to be accurate. And that’s without the optional baking chocolate. I don’t really register the flavor as “beer,” but there is a different note from the standard brownie.
*I will say I’m not sure mine turned out exactly as they’re supposed to. There’s sort of a…crust? on the bottom that’s difficult to eat. Almost like the whole bottom caramelized or something in a way that sticks in your teeth, and somehow I don’t think that’s supposed to happen. I used a glass pan, and I’m wondering whether that affected it (the photos in the recipe appear to be of a metal pan). Google tells me that glass pans cook faster and perhaps require temperature adjustments to a recipe, so I may play around with it. The things we subject ourselves to for science…
I love brownies and stout! I have to try this.
I think the glass pan probably was the culprit to the bottom “crust”
Because of this answer, I dared to bake chocolate stout cake for Mr Imma’s birthday yesterday! He’s a big craft beer fan but dislikes stout, and I don’t like beer at all. I used the recipe from this year’s Good Housekeeping Christmas issue, not yours. That recipe is slightly different.
But they were delicious! Nice and moist with a deep flavour and not overly sweet like regular chocolate cake. Mr Imma took them into work (in hospitality, so no work from home unfortunately) and the cook asked the recipe! I boiled the stout with the butter, then stirred in cacao powder, then a mixture of eggs, vanilla and yoghurt, then sugar, then flour. The batter is really thin and the end result is slightly spongey.
Hooray! I’m so glad you took the leap (and that it was successful).
