My cupcakes bring all the boys to the yard: Chocolate Stout Cupcakes

I think there may be a few people waiting for this recipe. It is the one I get asked about most often. Maybe it’s the idea of combining two pretty awesome, yet somewhat unlikely things.

Beer and cake is not a natural match to a lot of people. There are plenty of recipes that use beer in cake out there though. Even Nigella makes a Guinness cake! This recipe is a hybrid version of a few that I came across, and it seems to give consistently good results with a number of different stouts. (I did actually try a different recipe to make Guinness cupcakes on St Patrick's Day, and ended up with a batch of fail-cakes. I'll stick to this recipe from now on!)

Maybe you didn’t think that chocolate cupcakes could get any better? Wrong. Beer makes everything better. Well, the right beer will, such as a stout that is dark and thick. The roasted malts used in the brewing process of stouts can often produce beautiful chocolate and/or coffee flavours. Some breweries take it a step further and will add chocolate or coffee to the beer to give those flavours a bit of oomph. Adding stout to a chocolate cupcake gives a beautiful moist texture with a lovely depth of flavour, as well as the slightest bite of bitterness. If you’re feeling decadent, try making them with an Imperial Stout…although you may get lynched by beer lovers who think it’s a waste of good beer.

This Easter we are lucky enough to have a special limited release chocolate stout from Mildura Brewery. Called 'Choc Hops' , we had a preview of this chocolate infused beer at the March microbreweries showcase. It has now been released in bottle form, as well as being available on tap at several good bars over the Easter long weekend. What better beer could there be to make an extra special Easter treat with?

The goodies...

125g unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/4 cup plain yogurt or sour cream

200ml (just over 3/4 cup) good stout – chocolate stout, coffee stout, oatmeal stout, imperial stout…they all work in slightly different but awesome ways.

1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups plain flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Now hop to it…

First, preheat the oven to 180C degrees and line your cupcake pan with pretty papers. (Note: They must be pretty or the cupcakes won’t taste as good.)

Cream the sugar and softened butter together, until pale. This is easiest done with electric beaters, but you can do it the old school way if you want the exercise.

Add the egg, vanilla and yogurt (or sour cream) and beat to combine. Add the stout, scraping down the sides of the bowl as you mix it in. (The batter may look oddly lumpy and curdled at this point, or maybe that’s just me? Still, it all works out in the end!)

Sift the flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder into a separate bowl and mix well. Add half the dry ingredients to the wet mixture; stir to combine. Don’t use beaters for this part – a wooden spoon is all you need. Add the second half. Stir until smooth, but try not to over mix. (The lumps should disappear into a smooth batter.)

Spoon or pour the batter into the cupcake pan, filling each ¾ full.

Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until the cupcakes spring back when you press the top. (Note: Make sure you lick the bowl clean. The batter is incredibly delicious and should not be wasted.)

…and to top it off…

1 cup icing sugar, sifted
50 g soft butter
2 tablespoons stout
110 g dark chocolate (I use 70%)

Melt the chocolate in a bowl set over hot water, or in a microwave. Set aside.

While the chocolate is cooling slightly, beat the icing sugar and butter together until blended and smooth. Gradually add the stout a little at a time, making sure it is thoroughly mixed in after each addition.

Carefully fold the chocolate into the icing mixture until it has a smooth consistency. Spread or pipe the icing onto cool cupcakes.

These should definitely be enjoyed with more of the same stout, or even a really good porter. Flavoured porters such as Holgate’s chocolate porter, 'Temptress', or the lovely Meantime coffee porter are fantastic matches as well. Basically, any dark style beer with those complimentary chocolate and coffee flavours will work a treat.

Beer for Breakfast: Beery Baked Beans

That’s right – Beer is not just for dinner anymore. There's no reason you can't incorporate beer into every meal of the day, and this is just one way to break the fast with beery-ness. While I don't know the exact nutritional breakdown of this dish, I do know that beans are incredibly good for you - high in protein and fibre. Remember that old ditty that starts 'Beans, beans, good for the heart...'?

I came across the recipe for Blackhook Baked Beans in Stephen Beaumont's Brewpub Cookbook. I was very lucky to be gifted with a copy of this book, which contains recipes from 30 brewpubs in the US. Not all the recipes contain beer, but all have recommended beer matches. I would love to see a similar book put together in Australia. There are now a few breweries, pubs and restaurants out there that do awesome food and beer matching.

I was attracted to ths recipe because (a) I love beans, (b) it contains no meat and (c) it's very simple (although does take several hours cooking time). Oh, and of course it uses beer! The recipe calls for a porter, but I took it a step further and used an 8wired Big Smoke smoked porter. Most baked bean recipes do use some kind of cured, smoked meat product - bacon or ham hock for example - so to compensate I thought the lovely smoke flavour of this beer might add an extra dimension to the orignal recipe.

What you put in:

750g Dried Cannellini beans

1 medium brown onion, diced

2 tablespoons of mustard powder

2/3 cup of molasses

1/4 cup of Worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup of tomato sauce (or chilli sauce)

350ml porter

How you do it:

This recipe does require you to think quite a bit ahead. To start with, you need to soak your beans overnight. I'd never done this with cannellini beans before, and wow - do they expand! Make sure you do this in a bowl or container that will allow them to at least double in size. In addition to the overnight soaking, you need 7-8 hours for cooking and preparation, so keep this in mind if you want the beans for a specific meal. As I wanted them for breakfast I did all the cooking the day before.

Once you have soaked the beans, drain and rinse them off, then place in a large pot with fresh water and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and simmer the beans for an hour, or until they are tender. Drain the beans, but keep the cooking liquid. Put the beans into an oven proof dish and put your oven on 170 - 180 C.

Mix all your other ingrdients together in a large jug or bowl, then pour over the top of the beans. Stir it all together and then top it up with the reserved liquid that you simmered the beans in, making sure all the beans are covered. Cover with a lid or foil and place in the oven for 5-6 hours. Yes, really, that long.

Check on the beans every hour to hour and a half. If they are looking like they are drying out, add more of the reserved cooking liquid or more beer. Once the beans around the edge start to go all bown and caramelised, they're done.

You can use these beans for breakfast, but also as a side dish for lunch or dinner with sauasages or steak - it's an all round versitile dish. Remember that ditty I mentioned at the start? It does end with the line, '...so lets have beans with every meal!'

Serving suggestion

I do think my beans turned out a little dry. Next time I think I'll use less beans, or buy a bigger baking dish. This recipe does make a hell of a lot of beans - enough to feed a small army. My baking dish was pretty full though, and I don't think I had the space to add enough liquid. Also, I'm not really sure that the smoke flavour from the beer came through. It was definitely not noticeable, but I'd have to make a batch with a normal porter to see if there is a difference. That's okay - the beans are pretty tasty and I'll be more than happy to give this one a go again.

Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit: Hot Cross Beery Buns

A while ago I had this fantastic idea - I decided to make my own Hot Cross Buns for Easter. I’ve never made them before, and to make the task even more adventurous I decided to make them using beer. If you can make bread with beer, it follows that you can make other yeasty baked goods, yes? The obvious beer choice for Easter was a White Rabbit Dark Ale. Rabbits…Easter bunny…too perfect, right? What about the White Rabbit White Ale though? Could it be better for my buns? So I decided to make two batches of buns – a traditional fruity bun with the White Ale, and a decadent chocolate chip bun with the Dark Ale. If nothing else, you can’t deny I can be one ambitious lady.

For those who don’t know, the White Rabbit Brewery is located up in the hills of Healesville. A child company of Little Creatures, they brew just the two styles – the Dark and the White – both using an open fermentation technique. The Dark Ale is just that – dark…but not thick like a porter or stout. It’s quite light, which makes it a bit more sessionable, but still with typically dark beer flavours. The White Ale was inspired by old school brews by the Belgians and includes some spice, citrus and honey in the brew. This makes for a very easy drinking, refreshing beverage.

Notably, both White Rabbit beers recieved Top 100 ratings in the recently released "Critic's Choice - Australia's Best Beers" book. The White Ale came in at #90, whilst the Dark Ale was rated as Australia's 7th best beer by a respected collective of beer critics.

Bun #1: Fruity White Rabbit White Ale Buns

The good stuff (enough for six large buns or 12 mini ones):

2 cups plain flour
1 x 7g sachet dried yeast
1/8 cup caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
1 tablespoon of grated lemon rind
Pinch of salt
3/4 cup mixed dried fruit
20g butter
150ml white rabbit – white ale
1 egg, lightly beaten

For the crosses:

1/4 cup plain flour
3-4 tablespoons white rabbit

And for the Glaze:

1/4 cup white rabbit
1 tablespoon caster sugar

Getting it together:

In a large bowl (or if you are using a mixer with dough hooks, in your mixer bowl) combine the flour, yeast, sugar, mixed spice, salt and dried fruit. Mix on a low speed, or just give a stir with a wooden spoon. Set aside.

Chop your butter and place in a small saucepan over medium heat. Once it is melted, add the beer and turn the heat off. Stir to combine the butter and beer, and to warm the mixture through.

 
If you are using a mixer, have it on low speed while you add the warm beer mixture and the egg to the dry ingredients. As it comes together, turn the speed up a few notches. You will need to scrape down anything that gets left on the side of the bowl and push it towards the clump of dough on the mixers. Or, if you are doing it by hand, use a flat-bladed knife to mix until dough almost comes together. Finish the mixing off with your clean hands to form a soft dough. (I used my mixer for this batch, and found the dough really sticky. I added an extra quarter cup of flour or so and it became much easier to work with.)

The process is very similar to bread at this point, so apologies if this sounds a bit familiar. Turn your dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth. Form into a nice little ball and put into a lightly oiled bowl covered with cling wrap. Put somewhere warm for at least one hour or until dough doubles in size. If you have the time and patience, leave it for two to three hours.

When enough time has passed, prepare your baking tray with non-stick paper. Knock down your dough and turn out onto your floured surface again. Knead again until smooth. Shape into a long sausage, and cut into six pieces of about the same size. Shape each portion into a ball and place onto your tray about one centimetre apart. Cover again with plastic wrap and place back in your warm spot to prove again for another half an hour, or until they double in size.

Preheat oven to 190°C. While you wait for the buns to prove and the oven to heat, make the flour paste. Mix the flour and beer together in a small bowl until smooth. Add more beer if paste is too thick. Spoon the mix into a small piping bag, or if you don’t have one of those, a small plastic snap-lock bag. When the buns have risen enough, snip off the corner of bag and squeeze the flour paste over the tops of your buns to form crosses.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until buns are nicely browned and make a hollow sound when tapped.

When the buns have been in the oven 15 to 20 minutes, make your glaze. Put the beer and sugar into a small saucepan with a low heat. Stir until sugar dissolves. Turn the heat up and bring to the boil. Boil for five minutes to reduce and thicken. Once you take the buns out of the oven, brush the warm glaze over them.

Serve warm with butter, and a glass of beer – more White Ale goes really well with them!

Bun #2: Chocolatey White Rabbit Dark Ale Buns

Mostly the same good stuff, except:

Leave out the lemon rind
Replace the dried fruit with 3/4 cup choc chips
Replace the White Ale with 150ml white rabbit – dark ale

In the paste and the glaze, also replace the White Ale with Dark Ale.

Getting it together and things I learned this time around…

I followed the same process to make these buns as with the White Ale buns, thinking it would be fine. Mostly it is…except that I use the oven on the lowest setting to prove my dough, and this is too hot for the chocolate chips. As soon as I started to knead the proved dough, the chocolate disintegrated (and I got my hands and the bench covered in chocolate – messy!). It became incorporated into the dough in a kind of marbled effect. Not an absolute disaster – they just became "Chocolate Hot Cross Buns" instead of just choc-chip. The chocolate is still in there, just not in chip form.

Looks fine after proving...

...but very different once kneaded. Oops!

What I would do next time is add the chocolate chips after the proving process. Make the dough as normal, without the chocolate in the dry mix. Once you knock the dough down, add the chocolate chips as you knead and work them in. Also, store your chocolate chips in the fridge, so they’re cold when you add them. Once you have the chips in, follow the recipe again and hopefully the chips will stay in chip form.

Good thing they still tasted delicious!

These go well with coffee, or a beer that compliments the chocolate flavours – a porter or stout works well, especially the chocolate flavoured ones. (We were lucky enough to have a bottle of Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel as a special Easter treat…and what a treat it was!)

This turned out to be a learning experience on a couple of levels. I learned from my mistake, but I also learned from my success. I don’t like to toot my own horn, but the White Ale buns were better than any I have bought. This might just be because they were fresh, but they are also light, soft and delicious. So, don’t be afraid to try new things or think that something might be too hard. The worst that might happen is your chocolate chips melt!

 

The end!

The Perfect Pair - Beer Pizza

Beer and pizza is a classic pairing, especially when having a quiet night in on the couch. Or when you’re hanging out with friends. Or…well, any occasion really. A good beer cuts through the tasty, oily, carby pizza and cleanses the palate of the strong flavours of garlic, tomato and cheese. They are such a great pairing, you can even put one into the other. Of course, I mean you can put beer into your pizza…not sure if it will work the other way around. You can try if you like.

I found the original basic recipe for pizza dough on Chris Badenoch's 'Cooking With Beer' blog and it's actually the recipe that started me on this whole cooking with beer journey. Don’t let that put you off because you think it might be difficult - I am no Masterchef. I’m proof that even the most amateur cook can make amazing pizza from scratch. So far this recipe has a 100% success rate – even when cooked on the BBQ.


The ‘BASE-ic’ ingredients…

300ml beer  - a good pale ale, malty amber or brown ale
7g dry yeast (one standard sachet)
500 g plain bread flour, plus some for working
A good pinch of sea salt and pepper (If you have small, girly fingers like me, use two pinches.)
3 tablespoons olive oil


How to make the magic happen…


This is quite similar to the beer bread recipe, as you are essentially making another kind of bread. So, just like in the beer bread recipe, you need to make sure the beer is warm and the yeast is awake and ready to get to work. You can do this by standing it in a bowl of warm water while you prepare the other ingredients.


If you have a mixer with dough hooks, you can use that. If you don’t, your hands will do the job just fine. So, in the bowl of your mixer, or just a large bowl, combine the flour, salt and pepper.

Once your beer has warmed up, you mix it with the dry yeast. Yes, there is already yeast in beer, but it needs a little help. Let’s call them…reinforcements. I find the best way is to tip the dry yeast into a mixing bowl or jug large enough to hold the full bottle of beer…plus a little more. When you pour the warmed beer in with the yeast, it might foam up a little, so you need a bit of space. Mix well, until the yeast has dissolved into the beer. It won’t look pretty, but that’s okay – it’s not for looking at.

Beer + yeast = not pretty.

If you are using a mixer, put it on the lowest speed and add the yeasty beer mix to the flour slowly. Follow this straight away with the olive oil. Once it starts to look combined, turn the mixer up to medium.

If you are using the hand method, make a well and pour the beer in with one hand while stirring it in with your other hand. Drizzle the olive oil over and continue to mix with your hand. Either way, the dough should end up smooth and elastic.

On a floured surface, tip the dough out and give it a gentle knead to make sure everything is well combined and work the gluten slightly. Form the dough into a ball and place into a greased bowl before covering with cling film and placing in a warm place to prove. If you’re not sure if your have a warm spot it can sit safely, try turning your oven on to the lowest temperature and placing the bowl inside. You need to leave it for one hour minimum. If you can, leave it for up to three hours.

Ready for proving

As soon as you take the bowl out of the oven (or wherever you put it to prove) turn your oven up as high as it will go. If you use pizza stones, make sure they are in there.

Your dough should have doubled in size by now. Knock it back, tip out onto your floured surface and knead gently. Divide it up depending on the number and size of pizzas you are making. (It should make four medium pizzas.)

...all proved and ready to knock back.

Roll the bases out to the size you want. You may need to dust them with flour to prevent sticking. If you are using pizza trays, transfer the bases onto them and top with whatever you like. The options are pretty much limitless – just try not to overload. The best pizzas have 3 -5 toppings. Put them in the oven once it has reached critical mass – it should only take 10-15 or so minutes until they are done (depending on how good your oven is. Mine is…not so good.)

Mix and match toppings

 

If you use pizza stones…please let me know the easiest way to transfer a topped pizza to the hot stone in the oven. I’m still experimenting with this and it’s still messy and difficult.

Enjoy your fresh pizza. It’s well worth making the effort if you have the time to prepare the dough. I swear you will think twice before heading to your local pizza shop next time.

Herb & garlic pizza.

BBQ baked pizzas - yum!

…and obviously, pair with a good craft beer. That goes without saying…but I’ll say it anyway.

Dough Re Mi - Basic Beer Bread

Let’s start at the very beginning…a very good place to start!

Bread is one of those basic items of food that are universal…the staff of life and all that. I recently learned that the production of bread and beer was intertwined in ancient Egypt. Early forms of beer may have been made using bread as an ingredient, so it seems fitting to reverse that and make bread from beer. I have to confess that I’ve never made non-beer bread before. I’d heard many-a-horror story about bread making attempts ending in brick-like loaves that would be better put to use as a building material or weapon. It kind of put me off – all that work for nothing? Crazy. However, after making some incredible pizza dough with beer as an ingredient, I decided to give beer bread a bash.

Turns out, it’s not actually that hard, and is not a lot of work either. It does take time though, so you do need to plan ahead. Also, it’s not like perfect bakery bread…it might be better!

What you need, if you want to knead…

500g of flour. That’s 450g for the bread and 50g for working, I always use bread-making flour for this, as it contains a higher percentage of gluten. Use white, wholemeal, multigrain, rye – whatever you fancy.

1 x 330ml bottle of beer – let’s start with a pale ale. Later you can experiment with darker beers or hoppier beers to see how it changes the end product.

1 teaspoon salt

1 sachet of dry yeast

There's a beer in there.

What to do, to make your dough…

Make sure your beer is warm. Definitely don’t use one straight out of the fridge. Even if you have one at room temperature, it could probably do with a little warming to wake the yeasties up…those lazy bastards! Much like me, they like to hibernate if it’s too cold. You can do this pretty easily by sitting the bottle in a jug or bowl of warm water for a few minutes.

Combine the flour, salt and yeast together in a large mixing bowl. Give it a quick stir to make sure everything is evenly distributed and make a well in the centre. Pour the beer in and begin mixing with your hand until it is well combined.

(Note: If you have a mixer with a dough hook, you can use this instead. It doesn’t make a whole lot of difference to the end product. Using a ‘hands on’ approach will give you a better feel for when the dough is ready for kneading, but is messy. Not everyone will be a fan of dough-fingers.) 

Once combined, tip your dough onto a floured surface and knead until it begins to feel smooth and elastic. If you’ve never kneaded before, what you trying to do is work the protein molecules and create the bonds that become gluten. So, begin by pushing the dough out in one direction with the heals of your hands. When it is stretched out, fold in half and then turn the dough 45 degrees anti-clockwise and repeat the action. Keep working it this way until it feels silky and elastic. (Elastic means when you stretch it out, it springs back...much like elastic.) It’s the gluten that creates the elasticity, so when the dough has this feeling, you know that the protein has bonded.

When you are happy with your kneaded dough, form it into a ball, place it in an oiled bowl, cover and place into a warm place to let rise for at least one hour. This is called proving. It gives time for the yeast to work and make the dough swell up, which makes the bread fluffy. It should double in size in this time. Once it has proved, punch down mixture the mixture, give a quick, gentle knead to redistribute the ‘air’ in it evenly. Put it back in the bowl, recover and put it back to bed.  Let rise again for at least 2 hours.

Wholemeal dough, ready to prove.

 

When you are ready to bake, pre-heat oven to 230C.

Form the dough into a rough loaf shape – depending on what your idea of a loaf shape is. I usually go with a kind of elongated oval…kind of like a football with a puncture. You could probably do a round loaf too. Or smaller loves. Or try something fancy (but if it doesn’t work, don’t blame me). Slash the top (you can do a few diagonal cuts, or one long on down the middle), and dust lightly with flour. Place in the oven. Also throw in a couple of ice cubes in an oven-proof dish, or spray the sides of the oven with water. Something about steam makes your crust…crustier.

White loaf, ready for the oven.

 

Bake for 25-30min or until the crust is golden brown.  The loaf should sound hollow when you knock on it. Let stand for at least 15 minutes before slicing.

A lot of non-beer drinkers would probably find it hard to come to terms with the thought of adding beer to bread, however a good quality craft pale ale (such as the Kooinda Pale Ale or Beechworth Pale Ale from Bridge Road Brewers) will add subtle hop flavours that won't overpower the overall taste, but add an extra dimension that is really quite tasty.

 

Once you feel happy with your product and confident in your bread-making skills, start experimenting. Use different beers. Add herbs, cheese, seeds, fruit or berries. Make different shapes, and smaller loaves or rolls. 

The finished product - wholemeal.

The finished product - white.