Category Archives: Cooking With Beer

March 1, 2013 · 2:38 pm

The Cake is Not a Lie (Chocolate Stout Cake Recipe)

cake

LOOK AT THIS CAKE. Dear lord.

Okay. First, an origin story.

So my friend Danielle M. Friedman, who is Sous Chef at the West & Mill Bistro Bar in Atlanta, Georgia, was pondering dessert ideas one day and I humbly suggested one of my favourites, the Chocolate Stout Cake, but with a frosting that incorporated whiskey in to it as well. Danielle, of course, was inspired and after a time of perfecting came up with two recipes for Chocolate Stout Cake. One with a caramelized white chocolate and whiskey frosting and another one with port and black cherry frosting (pictured above). Both proved to be a smashing success, selling out within two days.

What makes this cake so unique for me is the amount of stout that goes in to it. Most stout cake recipes only use about 1-2 cups, which leaves the stout flavour taking a back seat to the chocolate, but this cake feature 2 bottles of stout and according to Danielle, the flavour of the beer is clearly the star of the show.

Danielle has kindly passed on the recipe for this gorgeous cake along with the port and black cherry icing and I’m posting them below. Try it out and enjoy! I know I intend to try out the recipe and see how it goes at a potluck.

In the meantime, I’m putting West & Mill on my list of places to visit.

For more info on the West & Mill:

West & Mill Bistro Bar
1000 Marietta St. NW Suite 202
Atlanta, GA 30318

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CHOCOLATE STOUT CAKE

2 bottles stout (We use Left Hand Nitro Milk Stout)
1 shot strong espresso
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably *Dutch-process)

4 cups all-purpose flour
4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/3 cups sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter three 8-inch round cake pans with 2-inch-high sides and line with parchment paper. Butter paper.

2. In heavy large saucepan over medium heat, bring stout, coffee and butter to a simmer. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

3. Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in large bowl to blend. In a large bowl, beat eggs, vanilla and sour cream until well mixed.

4. Add stout-chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and beat until just combined, taking care the stout mixture is cool enough that it will not cook the eggs. Add flour mixture and beat on low speed until just combined. Divide batter equally among prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center of cakes comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Transfer cakes to rack; cool 10 minutes. Turn cakes out onto rack and cool completely.

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CAKE2CHERRY PORT ICING

16oz Frozen Black Cherries
2 Cups Port Wine
2 Cups Granulated Sugar
1 Pound Unsalted Butter, Softened 
5 Cups Confectioners Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Kosher Salt

1. Place cherries, port,and granulated sugar in a heavy sauce pot. Simmer them on medium heat until it reaches the consistency of thick preserves.
2. Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature.
3. Puree the cherry port mixture in a blender until smooth.
4. Beat the butter with an electric mixer until smooth.
5. Slowly beat in the confectioners sugar and kosher salt until well blended.
6. Slowly add the cooled cherry mix to the buttercream and mix until it reaches the consistency you desire.
You may need to chill the icing before using it.

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April 5, 2012 · 6:01 pm

My First Beer Pairing Dinner

So March 25th marked a really interesting moment in my beer learning adventures. For the first time in my life I attended a beer pairing dinner.

The dinner, put on by Mirella Amato’s Barley’s Angels, a group dedicated to educating women about the wonderful world of beer and hosted by Guy McClelland of McClelland Premium Imports and “Beer Knight”. The venue was at one of my local places, the Town Crier, which has an AMAZING selection of European beers on tap. Plus I’ve been bugging the owner to get involved with Toronto’s beer geeks, so it was great to see the place involved.

On top of it being my first pairing dinner, it was also my first time going to a meet of the famous Barley’s Angels. It was so great to meet women of all different backgrounds coming together to learn something about a fabulous beverage.

So expectations were pretty high. Mirella is a giant in the Toronto beer scene and Guy has been responsible for bringing some top class Belgian and German beers to this godforsaken province.

So beer/food dishes included…

1. Beet salad with orange goat cheese & Belgian endives with Fruli and Radler dressing with Fruli beer (An interesting, refreshing and sweet start to a meal)

2. Smoked German sausage wrapped in Falian ham with braised green onion & German mustard with Erdinger Dunkel (Dear LORD, what a wonderful dish that was. Went well with the Dunkel, too!)

3. Belgian poutine with miso gravy and cheese curds with Delirium Tremens (The gravy was a bit watery and some of us found that pairing it with Palm Ale proved a better match)

4. Beer braised beef short ribs with Affligem Abbey Ale (This dish just melted in my mouth. And the pairing with the Affligem made for a wonderful experience. I STILL have dreams about this course)

And on top of that we had in-between beers such as Stiegl-Radler (Beer with grapefruit juice!), Stiegl Lager (refreshing!)  Erdinger Weiss (nice crisp taste) and Palm Ale (sweet with a nice bitter finish). And all of this went with an educational talk by Guy McClelland where we learned about “The Perfect Pour”, the importance of drinking your beer from a glass (and the right glass at that) and the effects of light on clear bottles (The beer goes skunky and foul after 30 seconds in the sun). Also learning about the sales statistics in Canada and getting a better idea of craft beer’s emerging role was incredibly useful information.

So what did I think of the experience? Well, I definitely had a good time and learned quite a bit more about beers in Germany, Belgium and their influence in Canada. While I must admit that I would have liked to have learned more about the art of pairing beer with food rather than just the beer, I still learned quite a lot and got some experience with my taste buds that I’ll be storing away for future consideration.

And I really have to give credit to Guy and Mirella for being amazing hosts at the event. It was great to meet them both. Guy clearly knew his stuff and had a great passion for it and Mirella was a pleasure to talk with.

I was really pleased with this night. I felt it lived up to my expectations and didn’t let me down.  I definitely would not say no to another oppurtunity to go to one again because if anything you’re learning more about how complex and wonderful beer is and turning the experience of drinking a beer in to the experience of having it be a part of a perfect meal. It’s a good thing to learn.

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June 6, 2011 · 2:51 pm

Cooking With Beer: Beer Pizza Dough

So when I first heard that beer can be used for pizza dough I got a little excited.  The source that first told me said that it could be used as a substitute for yeast and water.

Since then, a few have mentioned that only unfiltered beer (beer that still has active yeasts in the bottles) can be used to substitute the yeast while others have said it works just fine without.  Me, I don’t really care.  I just want to make a good pizza.

So with that, I submit to you this recipe found on Restless Chipotle that is both simple and covers the base by essentially saying “go with whatever beer you want, just in case we’re still adding yeast to it”.   It looks easy to make and, judging by how she describes the end product (“One thing I noticed with this is that the dough bubbled up soon after kneading. The baked dough had a lot of air bubbles in it, too. “), makes it sound like a tasty one.

This has me wondering what some nice Belgian ales would taste like.  Or an IPA.  I’ll give it a try hopefully in the next couple of weeks.

And here it is: BEER PIZZA DOUGH

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April 26, 2011 · 1:45 pm

Cooking With Beer: Ale-Braised Short Rib Sandwich With Horseradish & Pickled Vegetables

Isn’t the very TITLE of this post making you drool?

Reader and all around New York artist babe Caroline sent this my way along with the text “Oh my god“.  And I have to say, that about sums this recipe up.  Figures that I read this recipe JUST as I start The Dieting to get ready for summer. Ah, screw it.  This sounds delicious and my slow cooker has been looking at me like I’ve been neglecting it lately.

Here is the intro to the recipe and here is the recipe itself.   All via sippitysup.com.

The beer this recipe recommends, New Belgium Brewery’s Fat Tire Amber Ale,  is a brew that isn’t available here.  Judging by the description, I’m going to see how it would turn out if I replaced it with the Harviestoun Bitter & Twisted from last post.  The citrus tones and the hoppiness would blend perfectly with the meat.

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April 10, 2011 · 2:26 pm

Cooking With Beer: Beer Sausages Inna Bun

One of the things I’m going to be doing over the next little while is finding some recipes and coming up with a few of my own that involve beer.  This will involve anything from sauces, batters, cakes…whatever I can find.  Just to see what I can make with the wonderful drink.

The following recipe is kind of a classic that has served me well over time.  I have cooked it at parties, as a thank you dinner for NYC friends who have offered a couch to sleep on, and of course for myself when I want a food that warms me up, sticks to my bones and brings forth what we all know as The Burp Of Satisfaction.

I’ve included some suggestions for specific beers to try out in this recipe, as they have worked out for me.  But really, as long as it is a stout, porter or even a nice dark ale that you enjoy drinking I guarantee it will work out.  The key of this is that it should be a dark beer.  Suggested drink to go along with it would be the beer that you used for the recipe (What, like you’re going to buy ONE bottle? …jeez).

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Beer Sausages Inna Bun
Ingredients:
- Sausages (Brats are a good kind, but if you dream of something bigger I suggest you follow that dream. 2-5 is a good number if it fits in your pan)
- Beer (SUGGESTED BRANDS: Leffe Brune, Hobgoblin Ale, Dragon Stout or Black Creek Porter)
- Half an onion (chopped in to rings)
- Buns (Not yours (sicko), but the kind in the bakery section of your local grocery store)
- Olive oil (just about two tablespoons.  If you don’t have olive oil, safflower of grape seed oil will do.)

Instructions:

1. put oil in frying pan, crank that stove up to high. Then add sausages and fry up until browned.

2. Once the sausages are browned, decrease the stove to medium heat, remove the sausages and throw in the onions.

3. Cook those onions in the sausage juices until rubbery and transparent.  You may need to use some extra oil.

4. Put the sausages back in the pan and pour your beer in. Half a bottle is good.  As long as the sausages are covered about half way you’re golden. And look at that, you now have something to drink while you’re cooking!

5. Turn those sausages in your wonderful beer-onion concoction until the beer has reduced into a somewhat thick sauce. Your entire kitchen will start to smell amazing.

6. Remove the sausages and place in the buns.

7. spoon in the beer and onion sauce in to the buns on the sausages.  If you’ve got a lot of the sauce, go freakin’ wild.  More is DEFINITELY better in this case.

8. Eat and enjoy. If you feel like moaning in a way that makes those around you a tad uncomfortable, don’t hesitate.  Let the food take you somewhere magical

Bonus Feature:

Throw a bit of grated cheese on top.  This adds to more flavour and a HELL of a lot more guilt afterwards, but my god, it’s worth it.

Got a recipe?  E-mail me at robin@therobinleblanc.com and tell me about it!

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