Everywhere I look food bloggers are preparing celebratory dishes for St. Patrick's day in the same way, with Guinness!While I claim to love everything, (it's a growing problem) I have to say that extra dark stout beers are not high on the list. The last dark beer I tried was on the aforementioned (previous post) Scotland trip, and I didn't even drink half of what was given to me. It was good, but so filling! Afterward, I felt like I had eaten a large, yeasty piece of bread. My husband on the other hand, likes them just fine. When I saw this recipe for chocolate pudding made with Guinness I knew it would be something we both could appreciate.
The recipe comes from epicurious.com. There's a nice little write-up from the chef who concocted it and dubbed it "Chocolate Guinness Goodness". You'll find it here under "editor's note".
The finished dessert mimics a frothy pint of stout. Using a 70-ish% dark chocolate will yield the nicest dark stout appearance. I'm not quite sure if my chocolate had the right percentage of cacao. I had several unmarked blocks in my stash so I just used what looked darkest.
I like the ease and simplicity of this recipe. The main players are the usual: egg yolks, sugar and cream.
The cream and stout are cooked together in a sauce pan until slightly bubbly, but not boiling.
The chopped dark chocolate is then added to the hot cream and stout mixture. I added a little dark cocoa powder for extra color and also because I wasn't sure if my chocolate was dark enough. I think both color and flavor turned out really nice!One thing that I altered slightly was the topping (or "froth") that consists of freshly whipped cream and a Guinness reduction. For me, leaving this component unsweetened was really off-putting. It had a yeasty, flat taste that I just couldn't get off my tongue. I added 3 tablespoons of sugar and it became much more harmonious with the sweetened chocolate pudding. The topping is definitely the most Guinness-like tasting portion of this dessert. If you are serving this to little ones, you may want to make a plain vanilla topping and forgo the Guinness reduction completely.
The Guinness reduction is really quite beautiful to look at. After about 20 minutes of simmering, the stout becomes a rich amber color and a little syrupy in consistency.
To me, the chocolate pudding portion tastes much like a brownie. It's strange, the Guinness adds a certain something.... something I cannot adequately explain. I would never know I was having stout with my pudding, if it were not for the cream topping.
This recipe is certainly a keeper. My picky husband likes it and I'm sure that those passionate about stouts will love it too.Before I close, there are a couple fun things going on that may interest you:
Shelly, author of Cookies and Cups is hosting a great giveaway. You can find specifics HERE. LeCreuset bakeware? Yes please!
Heidi at The DeCoursey Project has a Mystery Box giveaway HERE! How fun is that? And how intriguing!
I think Guinness just got a little higher on my "love" list. However, at the top of the list is my favorite Black-and-Tan...
...who couldn't be bothered to lift his head for a photograph! He had this comment: "zzzzzzzzzzzzz".
Your Pal,
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Guinness Chocolate Pudding?!?! I swear who ever makes this for me, I'll marry them. No question ask.
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