I have a little problem. I'm addicted to cookbooks, food writing, recipe collecting, and cooking. I have a lot of recipes waiting for me to try them, and ideas from articles, tv, and restaurants often lead to new dishes. I started losing track of what I've done. So now I'm taking photos and writing about what I've prepared—unless it's terrible in which case I forget it ever happened.
I’ve mentioned my to-try stack of recipes, but there’s actually more than one stack. There’s the physical stack of pages cut from magazines, there’s also a list of links I keep in Evernote, and there’s a board of recipes to try on Pinterest. It’s a little crazy to have to look in three places for ideas I know I put somewhere as a reminder to myself, but I usually eventually find what I’m looking for. A couple of weeks ago, I was searching for new-to-me brownie ideas. We were getting ready to attend an annual party, and more often than not, I take brownies to this party. This time, I wanted to change it up and take brownies with a twist of some kind. I wasn’t finding anything earth-shatteringly unique in my books. That’s when I remembered I had stored the link last year for this Guinness Brownies with Butterscotch Fudge recipe from The Little Epicurean. I admit, it’s the butterscotch fudge that grabbed my attention as butterscotch always does, and the pretzels on top just made me more intrigued. The recipe makes a lot of brownies in a nine- by thirteen-inch pan as opposed to the typical brownie recipe size of baking in an eight- or nine-inch square pan. So, this was perfect for a party.
Making the brownies is an easy process that starts with melting chocolate with butter and then adding granulated and dark brown sugar. That mixture is then transferred to the bowl of a stand mixer, and eggs are added and mixed in one at a time. Flour, cocoa powder, and salt were sifted together and then added to the batter alternating with Guinness. Last, chocolate chips were folded in before pouring the batter into a parchment-lined baking pan. After the brownies baked for about 30 minutes and cooled, the butterscotch fudge frosting was made. Butter was melted with dark brown sugar in a saucepan. It was left to simmer for a couple of minutes, and then salt was added off the heat. With a stand mixer, confectioners’ sugar, cream, and vanilla were mixed, and then the butter and sugar mixture was incorporated and mixed until smooth. The fudge frosting was spread over the cooled brownies, and pretzels were added on top.
Explaining that these brownies were Guinness brownies was all most people needed to hear before grabbing one or two. And, the addition of Guinness did bring about a lovely, tender, cakey brownie. The sweet butterscotch fudge frosting and the salty, crunchy pretzels on top were ideal embellishments. The tray of brownies was empty long before the party ended.
Before jumping into the story of this mustard, I want to share a little bit of local news. Last night we attended a food and wine event for local food bloggers at Whole Foods’ Culinary Center. Thanks to Addie Broyles at Austin360! We had a great time meeting fellow Austin bloggers and sniffing and swirling at the blind tasting. Tyson Cole from Uchi was there for a fun demo of a fried rice ball with trout which was delicious. When asked about the upcoming second location for Uchi, he spilled that it will be on Lamar near 40th street which is closer to my house than the original. I can’t wait for it to open. We had a really nice evening, and when I got home and discovered the fleur de sel caramels in the gift bag, it was icing on the cake.
Speaking of Austin, it’s St. Patrick’s Day, and I’m not sure this town knows that. A few days ago, I popped into Sur la Table in need of a shamrock cookie cutter only to find nada. There was absolutely no recognition of this holiday to be found in the store. No shamrock cutters, no four leaf clovers, no leprechaun-covered serving platters or even simple, green napkins pulled front and center. Therefore, it is their fault that I am not showing shamrock-shaped, pistachio shortbread cookies today. Instead, my one and only measly creation in honor of this fine holiday is this spicy Guinness mustard which is from last month’s Saveur. There were some other great condiment recipes in that issue too. I’ll definitely try the homemade ketchup with some summer tomatoes, and the Worcestershire sauce recipe is filed away as well.
For this spicy mustard, just one bottle of Guinness is needed along with a cup and a half of brown mustard seeds which I found in the bulk section at the grocery store. Those are combined along with a cup of red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, ground cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice, and it was left to sit for two days. The mixture was transferred to a food processor and processed for a few minutes. A note in the recipe states that the flavor will mellow with time, and the mustard can be stored in the refrigerator for six months.
We used some right away on simple turkey sandwiches and experienced the burst of flavor that it packs. It delivers a slight wasabi-sinus-buzz effect that I quite liked. I’m hoping we can use it all before it mellows too much. It has a grainy texture, of course, and the Guinness rounds out the flavor more so than the spices which were not very noticeable. This would be a great mustard for slathering on the some meat for roasting. I’m also toying with some kind of mustard sauce idea for salmon. It’s quick and easy and very worth your time to make a batch for St. Patrick’s Day.
We used some right away on simple turkey sandwiches and experienced the burst of flavor that it packs. It delivers a slight wasabi-sinus-buzz effect that I quite liked. I’m hoping we can use it all before it mellows too much. It has a grainy texture, of course, and the Guinness rounds out the flavor more so than the spices which were not very noticeable. This would be a great mustard for slathering on the some meat for roasting. I’m also toying with some kind of mustard sauce idea for salmon. It’s quick and easy and very worth your time to make a batch for St. Patrick’s Day.