Guinness Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Holiday cookies at our house have beer in them, well this year anyway.  In case you think you didn't hear me right, yes I did say beer.  I can always count on recipes from Cuisine at Home to be terrific, so when I saw this one I knew I had to try it for Daryl.  Fortunately we had a few bottles of Guinness in the fridge so I gave them a try. 

Daryl was a bit concerned about me using 2 of his 3 remaining bottles of Guinness, but after his first bite he said, "this recipe is a keeper".  I must agree, they are very yummy!

These cookies bake up nice and fluffly, crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. They have a wonderful chocolatey flavor with a hint of the dark Guinness flavor.

It's a traditional cookie recipe, the only thing is adding some Guinness syrup.  You heat 2 bottles of beer with 1/2 cup of brown sugar until it's a bubbly syrup.  You don't want it to cool too much or it gets sticky. 

REDUCE
2 bottles Guinness extra stout (12 oz each)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar

WHISK
2 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all purpose white)
1/3 cup dutch process cocoa powder (or regular unsweetened)
1 tsp. instant espresso powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

CREAM
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar

ADD
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla

STIR
2 cups white chocolate chunks/chips
1 cup dark chocolate (or semi-sweet) chunks/chips

Preheat oven to 350.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Reduce beer with 1/2 cup brown sugar in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat until syrupy and measures 1/3 cup, 30-45 minutes.  Remove syrup from heat; set aside to cool slightly.
Whisk together flour, cocoa, espresso powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
Cream butter, shortening, granulated sugar, and 1/2 cup brown sugar in a large bowl with a mixer on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add beer syrup, eggs, and vanilla; mix to combine.
Stir flour-cocoa mixture into creamed mixture until flour is incorporated.  Fold in white and chocolate chunks/chips until distributed.
Drop dough by 2 or 3 Tbls scooper onto prepared baking sheets.  Bake cookies until edges are set, 12-14 minutes.  Let cookies cool 2 minutes on baking sheets, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Be My Valentine Chocolate Cake

My husband loves chocolate, and I love him!  So, for Valentine's Day I made a chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling and chocolate buttercream frosting.  I topped that with shaved bittersweet chocolate.

In order to be sneaky and have it as a surprise I baked the cakes before he got home on the 13th and then baked cookies to cover the smell.  Valentine's morning before work I made the mousse and when I got home I did the frosting.  Whew!  It was worth it in the end.  So next time you have a craving for something so good you'd want it as dessert for your last meal, give this a try.

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour (I use whole wheat pastry flour instead)
3/4 cup cocoa or dutch processed (I use dutch processed)
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

1. Heat oven to 350, grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.  Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes.  Stir in water.  (Batter will be thin.)  Pour batter evenly into prepared pans.
3. Bake 30-35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks and cool completely.
4. Wrap the cakes in foil or plastic wrap and freeze for a day (frozen cakes are much easier to frost and they thaw out really well). 

Chocolate Mousse
8 ounces dark chocolate chips (or you can use the 1 oz squares of bakers semi sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped)
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup water, divided
3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 cups whipping cream

In a double boiler melt the chips, butter and 1/4 cup water.  If you don't have a double boiler, place a heat safe bowl over a pan with 1" boiling water.  Remove and cool for 10 minutes.  In a saucepan over med-low heat whisk the egg yolks, sugar and remaining water.  Cook about 1 minute, stir into chocolate mixture.  Set over ice and stir frequently until mixture is cool.  Meanwhile, in a stand mixer, beat whipping cream until very stiff.  Go longer than you would for normal whipping cream.  It needs to be an almost whipped butter like consistency.  Fold into the chocolate mixture. 

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
1 cup butter, softened
2-3 cups powdered sugar (more or less to your taste)
3/4 cup dutch processed cocoa powder
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Put butter in mixer bowl, beat on medium to high speed.  Slowly add powdered sugar, cocoa powder and milk alternating between additions until everything is well mixed and the frosting is a nice whipped consistency.  Add more sugar or cocoa, if needed, to your taste.

Remove the cakes from the freezer, put the completely cooled mousse between the layers and frost.  Using the small holes on a grater, shave 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate over the top of the cake.  Refrigerate 6 hours or overnight before serving to let the mousse set up.

Enjoy!