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Jackie Dodd-Mallory
Senior Editor

Jackie Dodd-Mallory

Bourbon Beer and Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies

01.12.2020 9 Comments

Bourbon Beer and Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies

Apparently, the holidays are here. And by "holidays" I mean an excuse to eat all the things and fatten up my neighbors with cookies and beer. It’s festive. Merry Cookies and Beer Every Day season, it’s a nondenominational holiday that we can all get behind. 

We need this right now, we might be divided on a lot of issues after a year like this, but we are all on the same page with cookies, right? RIGHT?! As in, chocolate chips are far superior to raisins which gives me trust issues when I find them in cookies and realize they are not the chocolatey goodness I assume the dark spots in my cookies to be. 

Also, we just need to agree that "cookies and beer" are way better than "cookies and milk". It’s just a fact, unless you’re a child in which case I have no idea how you found me but please, bake your mom some cookies and forget about the beer it’s gross. It’s spicy. Let your mom take a sip to make sure. Or several sips. Now she needs a cookie and some alone time. 

Bourbon Beer and Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies

5 from 2 votes
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Servings 3 dozen

Ingredients
  

  • 13 tablespoons (185g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 cup (200g) brown sugar, packed light or golden
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 large egg at room temperature
  • 2 tablespoons molasses not blackstrap
  • 3 tablespoons bourbon barrel-aged beer
  • 2 ½ cups (317g) bread flour
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
  • Pinch nutmeg
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup chocolate chips
  • Sanding sugar*

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F.
  • Add the butter and brown sugar to a stand mixer, beat on high until well combined, light and fluffy. This should take about 3 to 5 minutes.
  • Add the eggs and vanilla, beat until well combined, and resembles frosting. Add the molasses and beer, beat until well combined.
  • Add the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and salt, stir until just combined.
  • Stir in the chocolate chips.
  • Add the sanding sugar to a bowl.
  • Using a cookie scoop, make balls of dough, roll in the sugar, then add to a cookie sheet covered with parchment.
  • Bake for 12 minutes, pull the parchment paper off the cookie sheet onto a flat surface to rest until cooled.

Notes

Sanding sugar is large grain sugar that won’t melt in the oven. You can also easily use clear/white sprinkles or just plain ol’ sugar.

Beer Butter and Potato Dinner Rolls

24.11.2020 No Comments

Beer Butter and Potato Dinner Rolls, using potato flakes instead of mashed potatoes make these super easy, light and fluff! My favorite dinner rolls! 

THESE! They are new favorite dinner rolls ever. So super soft, melt in your mouth, you HAVE to make these. And this year is the perfect year since it’ll be smaller than normal. Which means more for you, and I promise you’re gonna be glad you don’t have to share too many. 

I have to admit that I resist making potato rolls because I’m kinda lazy. This is a fact. Unless I already have leftover mashed potatoes on hand, I don’t want to take that extra step. So my laziness has brought us all the idea of using potato flakes, which is not only easier, it’s more consistent. Mashed potatoes have varying levels of moisture and dairy, flakes are always consistent (as long as you always buy the same brand). See, look at how good I am at justifying my laziness and finding legitimate reasons to continue to indulge it, if you need any help with this I am at your service. Just don’t expect me to get back to you right away. 

Beer Butter and Potato Dinner Rolls

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Ingredients
  

  • ½ cup (114g) butter
  • ½ cup (114g) whole milk
  • ½ cup (114g) wheat beer
  • 3 cups (360g) all-purpose flour
  • 1 packet 2 ¼ teaspoonsRapid Rise yeast
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • ⅓ cup (40g) potato flakes
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 large egg room temperature
  • Egg wash 1 egg, 1 tablespoon water, beaten
  • Flakey sea salt

Instructions
 

  • Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl. Add the milk and beer. Heat until 120°-130°F (if your yeast packet mentions a different temperature, use that temperature instead).
  • In the bowl of a stand mixer, stir together the flour, yeast, sugar and potato flakes.
  • Add the beer mixture, stirring on medium speed until most of the flour has been moistened. Add the salt and egg, stir until well combined and the dough gathers around the blade.
  • Oil a large bowl. Using wet hands, move the dough to the bowl. The dough will be very soft and sticky.
  • Cover and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 45-60 minutes.
  • Preheat oven to 350°F.
  • On a well-floured surface add the dough. Cut into 12 equal sized pieces.
  • Roll into tight balls, add to a baking pan sprayed with cooking spray.
  • Cover and allow to rest until doubled in size.
  • Brush with egg wash, sprinkle with salt.
  • Bake uncovered until golden brown, about 25 minutes.
  • Serve warm.

 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Stout Fudge

13.11.2020 6 Comments

Peanut Butter Chocolate Stout Fudge

Remember how cute we were in March when quarantine started and we all collectively yelled, "Two weeks?! We are going to be like this for two weeks?!" That was adorable. I’m glad I didn’t know how long we’d be doing this because I don’t know if I could have handled it. We just needed the hope of uncertainty. 

I need to plan stuff to survive these days, even embarrassingly small stuff like going to the dog park with my dog and my friend who has a giant floof. Driveway happy hours with my neighbors. Backyard firepit and too many beers with my husband. It’s survival of the optimistic these days. 

Food plans are happening. Like planning to make a bunch of ridiculous cookies and fudge and leaving them on my favorite human’s porch. Texting from a safe distance to say hello, here are treats, I just wanted to see your big dumb face and you can see mine. 

Plans of any sort are helping me break up the groundhogs day feeling of this very long decade that has been 2020. 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Stout Fudge

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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Servings 16 squares

Ingredients
  

  • ½ cup butter
  • ½ cup heavy cream
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup creamy peanut butter*
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 ½ cups dark chocolate chips
  • ½ cup stout beer
  • 1 cup mini peanut butter cups cut in half

Instructions
 

  • Add the butter, cream, and brown sugar to a pot over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, boil for two minutes.
  • Remove from heat, stir in the peanut butter and vanilla until combined.
  • Add the powdered sugar, stir until combined (if it starts to clump, return to heat until just starting to melt.
  • Line an 8x8 pan with parchment, pour the peanut butter into the pan in an even layer, chill until set, about 1 hour.
  • In a microwave-safe bowl add the chocolate chips and beer (this can also be done in a double boiler), heat for 30 seconds, stir and repeat until melted and well combined.
  • Pour over the peanut butter layer in an even layer. Top with mini peanut butter cups.
  • Chill until set. Cut into cubes to serve.

Notes

Cheap, store-bought works best. Natural or homemade peanut butters are too oily.

Avocado Tuna Poke with Wasabi & Soy Sauce Flavored Almonds and Coconut IPA Rice

11.11.2020 No Comments

This post is sponsored by Blue diamond but the content and opinions expressed here are my own. Partnerships with The Beeroness and outside companies only occur when the company’s products are ones I use and enjoy myself.

You guys, I finally found it. The snack with the perfect level of wasabi. I have always loved wasabi coated treats, but inevitable, they are just too much. Too much of that eye watering spike of heat that leaves me feeling like I’m in an abusive relationship with my snacks. Then I found these Blue Diamond Wasabi & Soy Sauce Flavored Almonds, and they are perfect. Just enough wasabi to get that taste with a hint of heat, but not so much that you hate yourself a little for eating them in the first place.

They also just so happen to pair perfectly with an IPA. They also sent over the Cheddar Nut-Thins, that go amazingly with a porter, and the Smokehouse Flavored Almonds that you should totally pair with a brown ale.

Obviously, I had to work the Wasabi & Soy Sauce Almonds and an IPA into a meal that I can’t stop eating. I’ve always used macadamia nuts in my poke, but these Wasabi & Soy Sauce Flavored almonds work even better. The flavors, the crunch, the saltiness all work together to elevate my favorite meal to something even better. You’ll also have enough beer and nuts left over the perfect snack.

You’re welcome.

Click here to add all 3 Blue Diamond products into your cart at Kroger and experience Blue Diamond products for yourself!

Avocado Tuna Poke with Wasabi & Soy Sauce Almonds and Coconut IPA Rice

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Ingredients
  

For the poke:

  • 1 lbs. sashimi grade tuna cut into cubes
  • ½ of one avocado diced (pick an avocado on the firm side of ripe)
  • 2 tablespoons minced red onions
  • ¼ cup chopped cilantro
  • 2 tablespoons chopped green onions diced
  • 2 teaspoons sesame oil
  • 3 tablespoons Soy sauce
  • ¼ teaspoon Sesame seeds
  • ¼ cup Blue Diamond flavored Almonds Bold Wasabi & Soy Sauce, crushed
  • ½ teaspoon salt plus additional to taste
  • thin sliced Nori

For the rice:

  • 1 (13.5oz) can full-fat coconut milk
  • ½ cup IPA beer
  • ½ cup water
  • 1 ¼ cups long-grain or jasmine rice
  • ½ teaspoon salt

Instructions
 

  • Cut the tuna into bite sized cubes.
  • Stir together with the avocado, onion, cilantro, green onions, sesame oil, soy sauce, sesame seeds, Blue Diamond Wasabi & Soy Sauce almonds and salt. Chill for 1 hour and up to 24 hours.
  • Stir together the coconut milk, beer, water, rice and salt in a pot over high heat. Bring to a boil, place a lid tightly on the pot, and reduce heat to low.
  • Cook for 18 minutes, remove from heat and allow to steam for 2 more minutes before removing the lid and stirring.
  • Divide the rice between 4 bowls.
  • Top with poke, sprinkle with thin sliced Nori.

 

 

Cranberry Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Upside Down Beer Cake

05.11.2020 5 Comments

Cranberry Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Upside Down Beer Cake, one bowl, super easy, crazy moist. 

This is NOT the week to pretend like you’re on a diet.  It’s a week to stress bake and eat your weight in cake, it’s the patriotic thing to do. Baking does help, it gives you something to do that results in good news in your day and tasty treats in your mouth. Win-win-win. Because it’s hard to be in a bad mood when you can open a beer and eat some cake, it’s just science. 

It’s also time to start baking with cranberries and remember how much we actually like them even though we pretty much forget about them the rest of the year. And I don’t care what you believe in the rest of your life, we all like cake. It’s the reason we use it to celebrate all the things. Cake is a unifying force and I think we all need that right now. 

Cranberry Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Upside Down Beer Cake

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Ingredients
  

  • 2 ½ cups fresh cranberries
  • 2 cups (400g) granulated sugar, plus ¼ cup (50g) divided
  • ½ cups (114g) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • ¼ cup vegetable oil
  • ½ cup (4oz) beer pilsner, pale ale
  • 2 ¾ (340g) cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup crushed hazelnuts
  • ¾ cup chocolate chips

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 325°F.
  • Line the bottom of a 10-inch spring form pan with a round of parchment paper. Spray with cooking spray.
  • Toss the cranberries in ¼ cup sugar, add in an even layer to the prepared pan.
  • Add the butter and remaining 2 cups sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer, beat on high until well combined.
  • One at a time, add the eggs and vanilla, scraping the bottom of the bowl between additions, beat until well combined. Add the sour cream and oil, mix until well combined.
  • Stir in the beer.
  • Stop the mixer, sprinkle with flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
  • Stir until just combined.
  • Stir in the hazelnuts and chocolate chips.
  • Add to the pan over the cranberries.
  • Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly touched. If the cake starts to brown too much before the baking is completed, cover with foil. 
  • Remove from oven, allow to cool completely before removing from pan. 
  • Invert on a serving plate before removing spring form pan so that bottom of the cake is on the top. 

Notes

*If you only have a 9-inch spring for pan, you will likely have too much batter. Fill the pan to about ¾ full and use the remaining batter to make muffins.

Salted Espresso Beer Chocolate Chip Muffins

29.10.2020 1 Comment

Salted Espresso Beer Chocolate Chip Muffins

These days, when time seems to run together, and every day is blursday the 37th of Septober, it just makes sense to have something that tastes like coffee and beer. It’s morning and night and each day seems indistinguishable from the last, beer and coffee should coexist. So also can a breakfast meal, a snack, and a dessert be the same muffin. 

Anything you can do these days to make your life happier and simpler, do that thing. Eating muffins all day is that thing. It’s small wins right now, celebrate the small stuff and let the rest go. Write that on a river stone and sell it at Target. Or make some muffins and drink a beer, whatever gets you thought the day.

Salted Espresso Beer Chocolate Chip Muffins

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Servings 12 muffins

Ingredients
  

  • ½ cup (114g) unsalted butter room temperature
  • 1 cup (200g) sugar plus additional for top
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/3 cup (80g) beer pilsner, wheat beer, brown ale, nothing too hoppy
  • ¼ cup (57g) olive oil
  • 2 cups (240g) all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup chocolate chips
  • Flakey sea salt such as maldon

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 375°F.
  • Add the butter to a stand mixer, mix until creamy. Add 1 cup sugar and mix until well combined.
  • Add the vanilla and eggs, mix on high until very creamy.
  • Lower the mixer speed to low, add the beer and oil, mix until combined.
  • Stop the mixer and sprinkle with flour, baking powder, espresso, and ½ teaspoon salt, mix until just combined, scraping the bottom of the bowl to make sure it’s all combined.
  • Stir in the chocolate chips.
  • Line a muffin tin with cupcake papers.
  • Fill the cupcake papers with batter until ¾ full (an ice cream scoop will give you the perfect amount).
  • Sprinkle each with about ¼ teaspoon sugar and then sprinkle with sea salt.
  • Bake for 22-26 minutes, or until the top springs back when lightly touched.

Thai Butternut Squash and Beer Soup

27.10.2020 No Comments

Thai Butternut Squash and Beer Soup, only thirty mintues to a delicious soup! 

There is a very strong likelihood that I will just eat soup until the end of time, or until the end of 2020, whichever comes first. And it seems like at this point, it’s a toss up. For this delightlyful pot of happiness, I just combined two of my favorite food categories: "Thai food" and "things that taste like fall". Yes, that last one is absolutely a culinary designation, just trust me. 

Although I’m fairly certain butternut squash isn’t a common food that you’ll come across in Thailand, you’ll just have to view this as a mashup. A fusion. My "Pacific Northwest stuck on this side of the world" life fusing with my desire to "get on an airplane and travel to exotic destinations once the threat of a deadly virus has been lifted". Someday this will happen, probably before the world ends. Until then, it’s time to make soup and ignore everything else. 

Thai Butternut Squash and Beer Soup

Print Recipe
Servings 6 servings

Ingredients
  

  • 1 medium (1 ½ lbs.) butternut squash, peeled, seeded, diced
  • 2 tablespoon olive oil divided
  • 1 shallot bulb diced
  • 2 cups (16oz)broth vegetable or chicken
  • 3 tablespoons red curry paste
  • 2 teaspoons garlic powder
  • ½ teaspoon cumin
  • ½ teaspoon red chili flakes
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 can (13.5oz) full fat coconut milk
  • 4 oz rice noodles
  • ¼ cup chopped cilantro
  • ¼ cup chopped peanuts
  • Sriracha for serving
  • 1 cup (8oz)beer pilsner, pale ale, lager (nothing too hoppy)

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F.
  • Add the diced squash to a baking sheet, drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil.
  • Roast until fork tender, about 20 minutes.
  • Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium high heat, add the shallots, cook until softened.
  • Stir in the beer, broth, curry paste, garlic, cumin, chili flakes, salt, pepper, and coconut milk, bring to a low simmer.
  • Add the softened squash, remove from heat.
  • Using an immersion blender or stand blender, blend the soup until smooth (if using a stand blender, allow to cool slightly before blending). Return to heat, heat until warmed.
  • Add the rice noodles to a large bowl, cover with boiling water, allow to sit until softened, about 10 minutes.
  • Drain the noodles, add desired amount to a bowl, ladle in the warm soup.
  • Top with desired amount of cilantro, peanuts, drizzle with sriracha.

Wild Mushroom Gruyere Asparagus Beer Casserole With Fried Shallots

21.10.2020 2 Comments

Wild Mushroom Gruyere Asparagus Beer Casserole With Fried Shallots, your new favorite side dish! 

Wild Mushroom Gruyere Asparagus Beer Casserole With Fried Shallots

No offense to turkey, but it’s not the star of Thanksgiving, that honor goes to the side dishes. Fight me. Because if I had to choose between a plate full of turkey and a plate of any one side dish, the turkey would get shoved to the side, especially if I could also include a buttery dinner roll on my side-dish-only plate. 

THESE ARE THE THINGS I THINK OF NOW! Thanks, 2020. But we finally have something to look forward to, right? Thanksgiving is coming up, and even if that means only a few people this year at your table (and a LOT of food), we need it. We need something to look forward to. I will be focusing on a menu plan because it’s better than stress eating spoonfuls of peanut butter and trying to escape the news. 

Wild Mushroom Gruyere Asparagus Beer Casserole With Fried Shallots

This Wild Mushroom Gruyere Asparagus Beer Casserole With Fried Shallots is worth stress eating, though. It’s sort of like that green bean thing with the crispy fake onions, but only vastly superior. You also get an excuse to open a beer, so that brings it to a level above Vastly Superior, whatever that is. And your mom will be happy that you’re eating vegetables, so that’s another win. So drink a beer, eat your veggies and avoid anything that stressed you out, even if just for a day. 

Wild Mushroom Gruyere Asparagus Beer Casserole With Fried Shallots

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Ingredients
  

For the topping:

  • ¼ cup (30g) flour
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon pepper
  • 1 large shallot bulb sliced into rings
  • Oil for frying
  • 1 cup panko bread crumbs
  • ¼ cup (23g) shredded gruyere cheese
  • 2 tablespoon melted butter

For the casserole:

  • 2 tablespoons (28g) olive oil plus additional as needed
  • 1 shallot blub chopped (about ¼ cup)
  • 1 lb. wild mushrooms, chopped*
  • ½ lb. asparagus chopped (ends removed)
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • ½ cup (4oz) beer Brown ale, porter
  • ½ cup (45g) shredded gruyere cheese, packed
  • ¼ cup (2oz) cream cheese

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 375°F.
  • In a small bowl stir together the flour, salt, and pepper. Add the shallot rings, toss to coat. Remove the shallots from the flour (a small strainer or slotted spoon works well).
  • Heat 1 inch of oil in a skillet over medium high heat.
  • Add the shallots to the oil, cooking on both sides until golden. Remove from oil, allow to drain, and dry on paper towels.
  • Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chopped shallot and mushrooms, cook until the mushrooms have softened, and let off their water and the shallots have browned. If the pan dries too much, add additional oil a teaspoon at a time. 
  • Add the asparagus, cook until slightly softened (it will soften further in the oven).
  • Stir in the salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
  • Sprinkle with flour, stir until the flour has turned brown. Stir in the beer, simmer until thickened.
  • Add the cream cheese, stirring until it has melted and is well combined.
  • Stir in ½ cup gruyere cheese.
  • Spray an 8x8 baking dish cooking spray. Add the mushroom mixture in an even layer.
  • In a small bowl stir together the panko, ¼ cup gruyere cheese, and melted butter.
  • Add the panko mixture to the top of the pan in an even layer.
  • Bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes or until the panko has browned and the casserole is bubbly.
  • Top with fried shallots, serve warm.

Notes

I used golden chanterelle mushrooms, but feel free to use what's available near you, including a mix of different types of mushrooms. 

Hobo Cookies with Beer Candied Bacon

16.10.2020 2 Comments

Hobo Cookies with Beer Candied Bacon

I know, I KNOW! What does "hobo" cookies even mean?! There are cowboy cookies, and compost cookies, and I needed a word that went in that direction. The runners up were Pirate Cookies and Junk Drawer cookies because I can’t just be a normal person and name them "cookies". I blame 2020 and what it’s done to us. 

All you need to know is they are full of bacon, chocolate, pretzels, and a light dusting of beer, which is basically what we all need right now. And since they contain bacon, you are fully allowed to make them a breakfast food. And if anyone disagrees, send them my way, I’ll let them know the error of their ways.

Hobo Cookies with Beer Candied Bacon

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Ingredients
  

For the bacon:

  • 6 strips thick sliced bacon
  • ¼ cup (50g) brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoon (24g) barrel aged stout or porter

For the cookies:

  • 1 cup (228g) butter, room temperature
  • 1 cups (200g) granulated sugar
  • 1 ½ cups (300g) packed light-brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs, plus one yolk
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • 2 tablespoons stout or porter beer
  • 2 ½ cups (300g) all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups dark chocolate chips
  • 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
  • ½ cup chopped pecans
  • ½ cup lightly crushed mini pretzel twists

Instructions
 

  • Add the bacon to a wire rack over a baking sheet, add to the oven, then heat the oven to 350°F (putting the bacon in the oven while it heats up will render more fat).
  • Once the oven heats up, set a timer for 5 minutes. 
  • Stir together the brown sugar and the beer. Remove the bacon from the oven, brush the top side of the bacon liberally with the mixture. 
    Return to oven, bake for 8 minutes.
  • Flip the bacon, then brush with the mixture. Bake for an additional 8 minutes. Remove from oven, remove the bacon and allow to cool on a sheet of parchment or wax paper (if it cools on the rack, it will stick). Once the bacon is cooled, chop the bacon, set aside.
  • Add the butter and both types of sugar to a stand mixer with a whisk attachment.
  • Beat on high until light and fluffy, this can take several minutes but it’s important to make sure it’s fully whipped.
  • Add the eggs, yolk and vanilla, beat until it resembles frosting. Add the beer, beat until fully incorporated.
  • Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cornstarch and salt, stir until combined.
  • Stir in the remaining ingredients and the chopped bacon until just combined.
  • Add a sheet of parchment paper to a baking sheet. Using a cookie scoop, scoop out balls of dough, placing evenly spaced on the baking sheet.
  • Bake for 12-15 minutes or until edges have started to brown. Remove from oven, pull the parchment off the baking sheet and onto a flat surface to cool.

Beer Caramelized Leeks, Corn and Bacon Chowder

07.10.2020 8 Comments

Beer Caramelized Leeks, Corn and Bacon Chowder

It’s that time of the year again when we need to put beer in our soup. It’s getting darker and colder and I’m not even talking about the political news, I mean it more literally. Since you’re home all day, making a big pot of soup to keep you warm makes sense, especially when it necessitates opening a beer to do so. 

No, honey, I’m opening a beer because cooking! I’m cooking for YOU! I’m opening a beer for your wellbeing and so you don’t have to make dinner! 

See, you look like a thoughtful and loving partner and you can do so while holding an open beer! See the things I bring to your life? A beer soup recipe, and a far-off enabler encouraging your day drinking!

Beer Caramelized Leeks, Corn and Bacon Soup

5 from 1 vote
Print Recipe
Total Time 35 minutes
Servings 4 servings

Ingredients
  

  • 6 strips thick cut bacon chopped
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 6 cleaned and trimmed leeks white and light green parts only, sliced
  • 1/3 cup pilsner pale ale, or wheat beer
  • 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
  • ½ teaspoon chili powder
  • 1 large about ¾ of a lbs russet potato, peeled and cubed
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream
  • 1 cup fire roasted corn divided
  • 2 tablespoons chopped chives

Instructions
 

  • Add the bacon to a large pot over medium heat. Cook until the bacon has crisped, remove with a slotted spoon, set aside (cooking at medium heat rather than high heat will allow the bacon to crisp better and render more fat, high heat will burn the meat before the fat has rendered).
  • Add the olive oil and leeks, cooking over medium heat until starting to caramelize, about 15 minutes.
  • Add the beer, scraping to deglaze the pan.
  • Add the broth, salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, chili powder, and potatoes. Simmer until potatoes are cooked through, about 15 minutes.
  • Remove from heat, stir in the cream and allow to cool slightly.
  • Add to a blender (or use and immersion blender) along with half the bacon, and ½ cup corn. Blend until smooth.
  • Return to the pan along with the remaining corn, simmer until warmed. Ladle into bowls, top with remaining bacon and chopped chives.

Miniature Dutch Baby Oven Beer Pancakes with Nutella Whipped Cream

29.09.2020 1 Comment

Miniature Dutch Baby Oven Beer Pancakes with Nutella Whipped Cream

I’m not sure what I miss more, travel, or alone time. Both of these have been scarce this year, and I miss both fiercely. This is what I miss: airplanes. Being on a plane, headphones in, looking out the window from somewhere in the middle of coach. I think I might be the only person in the world that actually misses the airplane and airport portion of travel. Don’t hate me, I love it. I love the energy, the people watching, the fury of it all. 

And I see people traveling, the social distance and masks version, and I’m jealous. I’m a little too skittish is take it on and actually enjoy it. Sure, I’ve road tripped and vacayed close to home, but it’s not the same. I want a non-pandemic-no-masks-no-deadly-virus plane flight to anywhere. 

In the meantime, I’m baking. A lot. SO much in fact, that I bought a treadmill to compensate. This is an actual fact. If you need me, I’ll be eating things with Nutella whipped cream at 5 miles per hour in my garage. 


Miniature Dutch Baby Oven Beer Pancakes with Nutella Whipped Cream

5 from 1 vote
Print Recipe
Servings 12 mini pancakes

Ingredients
  

For the Dutch Babies:

  • ¾ cup (95g) all-purpose flour
  • ¾ cup (170g) beer pale ale, pale lager, wheat beer
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter cut into cubes
  • Fresh berries optional

For the whipped cream:

  • 1 cup (226g) heavy cream
  • 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
  • 2 tablespoons Nutella room temperature or slightly warmed

Instructions
 

  • Add the flour, beer, eggs, vanilla, sugar, and salt to a blender, blend until well combined.
  • Add a muffin tin to the oven and preheat to 425° allowing the batter to rest while the oven preheats.
  • In the last 3 minutes of preheating, add the butter cubes to the muffin tin. If the butter is in the oven too long the butter may burn.
  • Once the muffin tins are heated and the butter is melted, add the batter evenly between the 12 muffin wells.
  • Close the oven and allow to cook until puffed and golden brown, about 14-16 minutes.
  • Add all the whipped cream ingredients to a large bowl or a stand mixer. Beat on high until soft peaks form.
  • Serve the pancakes topped with whipped cream and berries.

Southern Style Barbecue Beer Shrimp and Grits

23.09.2020 3 Comments

Southern Style Barbecue Beer Shrimp and Grits

I’m gonna let you in on something. People send me recipes all the time, and I ignore them. Beer bread! Yes, I’m well aware. Beer can chicken! Done it. Rissotto but with beer! Mucho familiar. This goes on and on until the end of time. 

When you spend more hours than your basic levels of sanity will allow creating compelling recipes that include beer, you’ve explored all the far reaches of cooking with your favorite fermented beverages. But every once in awhile, someone will send me something that I feel an overwhelming need to make.

A good friend sent me a link to this recipe from Seattle chef Matt Lewis with the message, "This was the best thing I ate in college." And obviously this is a glowing review, but what makes it even more so is that she’s Southern. When a Southerner sends you another Southerns recipe for shrimp and grits, YOU MAKE IT. 

And it was fantastic. So obviously, now it’s your turn to make it. 

Southern Style Barbecue Beer Shrimp and Grits

Adapted from Chef Matt Lewis' Shrimp and Grits whereyaatmatt.com
5 from 1 vote
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Servings 4 servings

Ingredients
  

For the grits:

  • ¼ cup (57g) unsalted butter
  • ½ cup (25g) diced white onion
  • 2 cups (312g) dry corn grits
  • 6 cups (48oz) chicken broth or stock
  • 1 ½ cups (342g) half-and-half
  • 1 cup (130g) shredded cheddar
  • 1 tablespoon hot sauce
  • 1 teaspoon salt plus additional to taste this will depend on how salty your broth is

For the shrimp:

  • 1 teaspoon cornstarch
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • ½ teaspoon chili powder
  • ½ teaspoon onion powder
  • ½ teaspoon dried basil
  • ½ teaspoon dried oregano
  • ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • ¼ teaspoon black pepper
  • ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
  • ¼ teaspoon sweet paprika
  • 3 tablespoons (42g) butter
  • 1 lbs raw shrimp peeled and deveined (strongly recommend red shrimp*)
  • 1 shallot blub minced
  • 3 cloves garlic minced
  • 1/3 cup (65g) beer (light lager, wheat beer, pilsner)
  • 1 teaspoon hot sauce
  • 3 tablespoons (42g) lemon juice
  • 2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 tablespoons fresh parsley chopped
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
 

  • In a large sauce pan melt the butter. Add the onions, cooking until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the grits, cooking until coated in butter and starting to smell slightly like popcorn.
  • Stir in the broth, reduce heat to a low simmer. Cook for 10 minutes, stir in the cream and continue to cook until grits have softened, about an additional 10 minutes.
  • Stir in the cheese, hot sauce and salt.
  • In a small bowl stir together the cornstarch and spices (first 10 ingredients in the shrimp list), set aside.
  • Melt the butter in a large sauce pan. Add the shallots, cook until starting to soften, add the shrimp, toss until starting to cook. Stir in the garlic. Sprinkle with the spice mixture, stir to combine. Add the beer, hot sauce, lemon juice, and Worcestershire sauce, simmer until thickened.
  • Ladle the grits into 4 bowls, top with shrimp and sauce, sprinkle with parsley.

Notes

*Red shrimp, or Argentine red shrimp, is sweeter, milder and have a taste closer to lobster. They don’t turn rubbery when fully cooked, they stay soft and tender. The flavor and texture are far superior to other varieties and makes it well worth the time it takes to seek them out. Because they often come from South America, they are often found in the frozen section. 

Chewy Gingerbread Cookies with Maple Stout Cream Cheese Filling

17.09.2020 5 Comments

Chewy Gingerbread Cookies with Maple Stout Cream Cheese Filling

Chewy Gingerbread Cookies with Maple Stout Cream Cheese Filling

When you were a kid, was there a thing you loved in a way that was almost embarrassing? Not pizza, or ice cream, or cake, because there is nothing embarrassing about loving the classics. I’m talking about something that you were pretty sure you’d get side-eyed for mentioning. For me, it was those little cream-filled oatmeal pie cookies that came in a cardboard box. 

I once snuck an entire box into the movies when my friends were sneaking in more normal treats like candy bars, or their boyfriends. I just sat there with an entire box of little oatmeal cream pies and ate all of them, not even offering to share. No, Lacy, you have a boyfriend and I have cream-filled cookies, if you aren’t going to share than neither am I!

Chewy Gingerbread Cookies with Maple Stout Cream Cheese Filling

These taste like those, but, you know, with beer. Something I was not sneaking into movies when I was a kid. Although I can’t make any promise about that anymore. Because, let’s be honest, watching a movie at a theater right now with beer and these cookies sounds like magic. 

Chewy Gingerbread Cookies with Maple Stout Cream Cheese Filling

Chewy Gingerbread Cookies with Maple Stout Cream Cheese Filling

4.34 from 3 votes
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Servings 18 sandwich cookies

Ingredients
  

Cookies:

  • ¾ cup (171g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
  • ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cups (100g) light brown sugar, packed
  • ¾ cup (150g) granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 large egg at room temperature
  • ¼ cup molasses not blackstrap
  • 2 tablespoons barrel-aged stout
  • 2 ¾ cups (330g) all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • Sanding sugar for rolling

Filling:

  • 1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened
  • ¼ cup (57g) room temperature butter
  • 2 tablespoons stout beer
  • ¼ cup real maple syrup
  • 2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Instructions
 

  • Add the butter, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and salt to a stand mixer with a whisk attachment. Whisk until well combined.
  • Add both kinds of sugar, beat on high until well combined.
  • Add the egg and sugar, beat until the mixture resembles frosting, about 3 minutes.
  • Stir in the molasses and beer.
  • Stop the mixer, add the flour and baking soda, stir until well combined.
  • Add the sanding sugar to a small bowl.
  • Using a cookie scoop, scoop out balls just smaller than golf balls and roll in the sanding sugar. Add to a baking sheet that has been covered with parchment.
  • Make sure the cookies are well spaces, no more than 9 at a time on a standard cookie sheet.
  • Freeze for 15 minutes.
  • Heat the oven to 350°F.
  • Bake for 13-15 minutes. Pull the parchment on the counter and allow to cool.
  • Add the cream cheese and butter to a stand mixer, beat on high until well combined.
  • Add the remaining ingredients, beat until well combined.
  • Spread (or pipe) filling between two cookies, repeat for all cookies.

Notes

These cookies spread thin in order to make them ideal for sandwich cookies. If you are looking for a stand alone cookie, this probably isn't the right recipe for you. 

Beer Brined Lamb Chops with Herb Sauce over Fried Goat Cheese

11.09.2020 No Comments

 Beer Brined Lamb Chops with Herb Sauce over Fried Goat Cheese

Let’s say you made a playlist, but for food. Except I’m going to call it a mixed tape because it makes me happy. On my Mixed Tape of Food I would have to include goat cheese. You can’t have complete dishes on your Mixed Tape, because I make the rules and I said so, just ingredients. It’s a list of foods that make you happy and you always seem to get just a little more excited about a meal when it includes said food. Those hit words you read on a menu that makes you realize that you don’t just want to order the dish, you need to. 

 I’d add in some fresh English shelling peas, Bing cherries, yellowtail, and potatoes because Papas Rellenas and gnocchi, this gives us 5 tracks and I’m pretty sure we need to stop at 12. This is when it gets harder, it’s down to the last few spots. Salted caramel makes the list, and so does burrata and capicola. This leads us to short ribs and lamb. 

So now, anytime you’re at a restaurant and you look at the menu, you will probably be able to guess what I’d order. Just don’t forget to order me a beer, you know I want one of those, too. 

Beer Brined Lamb Chops with Herb Sauce over Fried Goat Cheese

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Servings 4 servings

Ingredients
  

Lamb chops:

  • 12 ounces beer pale ale, pale lager, wheat beer
  • 4 lamb loin chops
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 8 cups mixed greens

Goat Cheese:

  • 4- ounces goat cheese
  • ½ cup panko bread crumbs
  • 1/3 cup flour
  • 1 egg
  • 3 tablespoons milk
  • Oil for frying

Herb sauce:

  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • 1 small bunch chives
  • Several sprigs parsley
  • 5-6 large leaves fresh mint
  • 5-6 large leaves fresh basil
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Instructions
 

  • Add the lamb to a baking dish or bowl, sprinkle with salt, and minced garlic. Pour the beer over the lamb, cover and refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours.
  • Slice the goat cheese into 1-inch thick slices. Add to a plate, and freeze for 20-30 minutes.
  • Add the panko to one bowl, flour to another, and whisk together the milk and egg in another.
  • Heat about ½ inch of oil in a wide skillet over medium-high heat.
  • One at a time, dredge the cheese in flour, then in the egg wash, then coat completely with panko.
  • Add to the oil, frying on each side until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Allow to drain and dry on a stack of paper towels.
  • Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat.
  • Remove the lamb from the marinade, dry completely with paper towels.
  • Add to the hot oil, cooking on both sides until seared on both sides and cooked to 140°F in the center, about 3 minutes per side.
  • Add all the sauce ingredients to a small blender or food processor, blend on high until well combined.
  • Divide the mixed greens between 4 plates. Top with goat cheese and lamb, drizzle with sauce.

Beer Caramelized Apple Tarte Tatin with Maple Whipped Cream

02.09.2020 1 Comment

Beer Caramelized Apple Tarte Tatin

I wish I could tell you what apples I used for this, but I can’t. And by CAN’T I don’t mean WON’T, because I’d tell you anything, especially after a few beers. 

But these apples came from my backyard apple tree of unknown origin. The Apple Tree of Resentment, as I call it. It’s huge (obviously, it’s an apple tree) and it spits apples all over my backyard all day long for months creating a squirrels buffet all over the ground. I hope you’re not a squirrel enthusiast, I am not. They are rodents, they are rats with better branding, they are horrible and I hate them. Because of said tree, they love my yard and while they are here for a visit and a quick chat with their friends, they also eat all the other plats in my yard. Hence the resentment. Obviously, I needed to turn my feelings for this tree around before I went full Kill Bill on it. 

It turns out, Resentment Tree has some pretty great baking apples. They are average eating apples, but they bake up really well. Baking apples need to stay firm after a long soak in a hot oven, not all apples can do this. Anything that ends in "delicious" should never be baked, they will fall apart and you will now have a Mush Apple Sauce Tart. Great for all of you who lack teeth, but not exactly what I had in mind. 

If you don’t have an Apple Tree of Resentment in your yard, congrats. Pick an apple, like a Granny Smith, that has a nice tartness and will hold shape once baking. And tell the squirrels to pick up after their parties, it’s getting really annoying. 

Beer Caramelized Apple Tarte Tatin with Maple Whipped Cream

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Servings 6 servings

Ingredients
  

For the tart:

  • ½ cup (100g) white sugar
  • ½ cup (100g) brown sugar
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ cup (2oz) beer
  • ¼ cup (56g) unsalted butter, cut into cubes
  • 3 pounds Honeycrisp or Granny Smith apples peeled cored, quartered
  • 1 frozen puff pastry sheet

For the whipped cream:

  • 1 cup whipping cream
  • 3 tablespoons real maple syrup

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 425°F
  • In a pot over high heat add the white and brown sugars, salt, and beer, stir until the sugar has dissolved, stop stirring.
  • Allow boiling until the mixture turns golden amber-colored. Turn off heat, stir in the butter.
  • Add the apples, rounded side down to a 9-inch skillet or deep-dish pie plate in overlapping concentric circles.
  • Pour the caramel over the apples.
  • Roll the puff pastry out on a lightly floured surface, cut a circle the size of the skillet.
  • Place the pastry circle over the apples, tucking the edges between the apples and the edge of the skillet.
  • Bake for 25 minutes or until the puff pastry is golden brown.
  • Remove from oven and allow to cool for 1 hour before inverting onto a serving plate.
  • Add all the whipped cream ingredients to a bowl, mix with a hand mixer on high until soft peaks form. Top the tart with whipped cream before serving.

Beer and Berry Cobbler Bars

18.08.2020 No Comments

Beer and Berry Cobbler Bars

Cobbler doesn’t make sense to me. It’s delicious, obviously, but it looks like a mistake. Like an upside-down pie that fell into a pan someone just pretended it was supposed to be that way and we all just went along with it because we still wanted to eat it. 

Which is understandable, it’s still dessert, I’m not gonna kick it outta bed. But it feels unfinished, halfway to being really done. So I made it a bottom crust, because let’s be honest, crust is always the best part. 

You can still scoop it into a bowl, heat it up, and top it with a big 'ole scoop of ice cream. It’s still great that way. But it’s also a cobbler you can eat with one hand (or no hands if you’re brave enough), and it has beer in it. So, what I’m trying to say, is that it’s not really cobbler at all. It’s a cookie bar inspired by my cobbler induced confusion that’s made with beer. Because nothing makes sense anymore and we all need more excuses to open a beer. 

Beer and Berry Cobbler Bars

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Servings 9 bars

Ingredients
  

Crust:

  • 1 cup (228 grams) butter at room temperature
  • ½ cup (60g) powdered sugar
  • 1/3 cup (75g) granulated sugar
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups (240g) all-purpose flour

Filling:

  • 2 ½ cups (475g) fresh berries (I used half blueberries, half blackberries)
  • 1/3 cup (66g) sugar
  • 3 tablespoons cornstarch
  • ¼ cup (57g) beer wheat beer, pale ale, pilsner

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F.
  • Add the butter, powdered sugar, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract to the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on high until well combined.
  • Stir in the flour until just combined.
  • Line an 8X8 pan with parchment paper.
  • Press about ¾ of the mixture into the bottom of the pan in an even layer.
  • In a separate bowl stir together the berries, sugar, cornstarch, and beer.
  • Add the berry mixture in an even layer to the pan.
  • Crumble the remaining crust on top of the berry layer.
  • Bake until the top is golden brown, 55-65 minutes.
  • Allow to cool completely before cutting, the filling will set as it cools.

Overnight Yeasted Beer Waffles with Blueberry Syrup

10.08.2020 3 Comments

Overnight Yeasted Beer Waffles with Blueberry Syrup

This is really because I love you. And waffles, obviously. My favorite waffles of all time are the Sourdough Beer Waffles, they are gorgeous and amazing but do require the wild-fermented magic of a sourdough starter that takes at least a week to coax into existence. 

And when you don’t have one, or you neglect it and it refuses to magic for you, you can’t have the waffles. This is FINE. Sourdough starters are not actual pets, it’s totally fine to neglect them until they stop working and then flush them down the sink. It’s also totally fine to not have them at all, it’s not everyone’s bag. But this should not impede your ability to make a batch of the best waffles in existence, and those waffles have to include yeast, this is a non-negotiable. 

Yeasted waffles are just better than all other waffles and this is a fact. The crispy outside, light yet chewy insides, it’s just pure breakfast gold. You do have to be aware and functional enough the night before the waffle consumption to throw it all together, but that’s easy. You will ALWAYS want waffles in the morning so just do it, you’ll thank yourself. 

And "night you" needs to do something to make amends to the "morning you". Since "night you" gets all the beer and "morning you" gets all the hangovers and the "what did I drunk buy on Amazon last night" buyer’s remorse. These waffles will go along way to make reparation for all that "night you" has done. 

 

Overnight Yeasted Beer Waffles with Blueberry Syrup

5 from 2 votes
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Ingredients
  

For the waffles (night before):

  • ½ cup (114g) butter
  • 2 cups (228g) whole milk
  • ¾ cup (171g) beer, room temperature pilsner, wheat beer, brown ale
  • 2 ¼ teaspoons (1 packet, or ¼ ounce) dry active yeast
  • ¼ cup (50g) brown sugar
  • 3 cups (380g) all-purpose flour

For the waffles (day of):

  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 large eggs
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda

For the syrup:

  • 1/3 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 tablespoons water or beer
  • 1 ½ cups blueberries
  • Splash vanilla extract

Instructions
 

  • Heat the butter until almost boiling*, remove from heat stir in the milk and beer. If the mixture is at room temperature or just above, continue with the rest of the recipe. If it’s too cool, heat it for a few seconds, if it’s too warm, let it cool for a few minutes. You want to trigger the yeast (if it’s too cold, this won’t happen) but not fully activate it or the rise will happen too quickly.
  • Stir in the yeast, brown sugar, and flour until well combined. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for about ten minutes (you will start to see just a few bubbles form).
  • Refrigerate for 8-18 hours.
  • Remove from fridge add the salt, eggs and baking soda, stir until combined.
  • Cook in a waffle iron according to manufactures specifications.

To make the syrup:

  • Add all ingredients to a pot over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring frequently until thickened, 10-15 minutes. For a smoother sauce, puree in a blender once the sauce has cooled to room temperature.

Notes

*You can melt the butter on the stove in a pan or in the microwave. Just be aware that butter will pop in the microwave if microwaved too long. Stop and stir every 20-30 seconds if using a microwave.

Lemon Ginger Éclairs with Beer Caramel Topping

03.08.2020 3 Comments

Lemon Ginger Éclairs with Beer Caramel Topping. Easier than they look, and no frying makes these a simple and gorgeous way to make dessert. 

You need to prepare yourself for what I’m going to say, take a seat. These are not that hard. I’m serious. I’m grab-you-by-the-face-and-look-into-your-eyes serious. I know, you don’t believe me, and that’s fine. The hardest part is the caramel, and you can even skip that and smear on some melted chocolate and I will totally let that slide. 

But the eclair dough comes together in a few minutes, and then it’s baked. Not in the "we baked the fries instead of frying them for a far inferior taste experience but it was acceptable because we were too ugggghh to fry them" sort of way. They are meant to be baked. The cream filling is basically: whisk, whisk, stovetop, whisk and you’re done.

They also have the added bonus of a "you MADE those?" reaction from your people, which is always what I want to go for.  I can promise you a layer cake is far more difficult and much less "whuuuut?" inducing than these. Just try it, and if you run into trouble I am always here for you, but I don’t think you’ll need it. 

Lemon Ginger Éclairs with Beer Caramel Topping

Makes 12 Éclairs
5 from 1 vote
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Ingredients
  

For the Lemon Ginger filling:

  • 2 large lemons
  • ½ teaspoon fresh grated ginger grated using a Microplane
  • 4 large egg yolks
  • ½ cup (100g) sugar
  • ¼ cup (32g) flour
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 ½ cups (342g) heavy cream

For the Éclair*:

  • 1 cup (228g) pale ale beer
  • ½ cup (114g) butter, room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 ¼ cups (175g) flour
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 4 large eggs

For the Beer Caramel:

  • 2 cups (400g) sugar
  • ½ cup (114g) beer

Instructions
 

  • Zest the lemons, juice half of one. Add the zest, juice, ginger, egg yolks, and sugar to a pan off heat. Whisk until really well combined, light and ribbony.
  • Add the flour, salt, vanilla, and cream, whisk until well combined.
  • Add to medium heat, whisking constantly until starting to thicken. Remove from heat and continue to whisk until starting to cool and the mixture is thick. Add to a piping bag, chill until cooled. If your mixture breaks (this can happen if the heat is too high), just use an immersion blender to bring it back together. Can be made 3 days in advance.
  • Add the beer and butter to a saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the butter is melted and just starting to boil.
  • Remove from heat, add the salt, flour, and sugar.
  •  Add back to medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon constantly until mixture becomes one large ball and clings to the spoon (this should only take a minute and the pan may be hot enough that you don’t need to reintroduce heat).
  • Add to a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, allow to cool for ten minutes.
  • Preheat the oven the 450° F.
  • Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until the dough starts to come back together (after looking as if it may be breaking) before adding another egg. 
  • Mix for at least 2 minutes after the last egg until the mixture looks creamy, and when you pull the mixer paddle up, it leaves a trail that looks like a bird's beak where the dough slides back down but still clings to the paddle. 
  • The dough should be smooth and sticky. Add to a piping bag with a star tip.
  • Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. Pipe long lines of dough onto the parchment, about 1 ½ inches thick and 6 inches long.
  • Bake for 5 minutes and then reduce heat to 350°F without opening the oven. Bake for an additional 20-25 minutes or until the eclairs are golden brown, allow to cool.
  • Use a bread knife to slice the top off the eclairs.
  • Add the sugar and beer to a pot over high heat, stir until sugar has melted, then stop stirring.
  • Allow to boil until dark amber (swirl the pan if needed, but do not stir).
  • Grab a pair of tongs and a pastry brush (a clean paintbrush works great as well).
  • Hold the éclair tops with the tongs, and brush the caramel on the top, work quickly before the caramel cools too much to spread. Be very careful, sugar burns are incredibly painful, use tongs and keep your hands away from the hot sugar.
  • Pipe the filling into the middle of the eclairs before replacing the top.
  • Chill until ready to serve

Notes

*Adapted from the Bouchon Bakery Cookbook by Thomas Keller and Sebastien Rouxel