St. Patrick’s Day is a hol­i­day that has been cel­e­brated in my fam­ily since I can remem­ber.  I’m 80% (or more/less – the jury is still out) Irish and I had the red hair & freck­les to prove it.  (Hair turned blonde after I was 4 and the only way it will EVER get red again is if I hit that bot­tle).  My grand­par­ents on my dad’s side always talked about their par­ents com­ing directly from the Emer­ald Isle and I am dying to travel over there and see the sights of  County Cork.

I have been so crazed lately with work, home, the ani­mals, etc. that I haven’t really had time to focus on prop­erly cel­e­brat­ing all things Irish this year.  My apart­ment com­plex holds monthly res­i­dent par­ties and they are a blast.  I decided that since it was St. Patty’s day, a kitchen exper­i­ment was in order, namely Black & Tan Brown­ies from this month’s issue of Cook­ing Light.

I’m a bad Irish lass as I never really appre­ci­ated Guin­ness before.  I don’t hon­estly remem­ber ever try­ing it – until yes­ter­day.  Thanks to my fab neigh­bor Brad who pro­vided expert coun­sel on where to pro­cure a six pack of Guin­ness, this recipe was a win­ner.  Funny thing – Philly doesn’t sell beer in wine/spirit stores.  You buy it in a beer store and the one near me only sells it by the case.  Go fig­ure – big change from Florida where you could buy it in the gro­cery store.   Well the new Whole Pay­chex in Ply­mouth Meet­ing had it ready for me in their pub as they are the only ones that I know of that can sell beer in a gro­cery store here.  The catch is you have to buy your gro­ceries first and then buy your beer.  Small price to pay for a suc­cess­ful recipe, I know.

So, last night I’m in the kitchen mix­ing away, the sous chef­pug is whin­ing because he can’t have choco­late but he can smell the oven work­ing at full throt­tle, and flour was every­where.  A dou­ble batch HAD to be made because if my apart­ment com­plex was going to par­take, why shouldn’t Wiggy’s pet sit­ter and my co-workers, right?  I do have to admit that while it may seem a bit daunt­ing and labor inten­sive, it’s well worth it.  These brown­ies are amaz­ing.   A cou­ple hints – make sure to add a bit of espresso to the choco­late mix to amp up the choco­late fla­vor.  Also, when the recipe says to use a 9 x 13 pan, make sure to use the right pan.  I used one 9 x 13 and then did the other brown­ies in an 8 x 8 square pan and those were a bit more dense.  Some good news – as they are from Cook­ing Light, they are only 162 calo­ries.  Not bad, huh?

This is a recipe that is going in the Tried & True col­umn and will become a St. Patty’s Day sta­ple.   Even bet­ter – if you have some left­over Guin­ness, they are good year round, not just on March 17th.

May The Luck O’ the Irish Be With You!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Black & Tan Brownies

Recipe adapted from Cook­ing­Light
 
Ingre­di­ents
Tan Brown­ies:

• 6  table­spoons  but­ter, softened
• 1 1/2  cups  packed brown sugar
• 2  large eggs
• 1  tea­spoon  vanilla extract
• 4.5  ounces  all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
• 1  tea­spoon  bak­ing powder
• 1/4  tea­spoon  salt
• 1/2  cup  chopped pecans (I omit­ted these)
• Cook­ing spray

Black Brown­ies:

• 3  ounces  unsweet­ened choco­late, finely chopped
• 4  table­spoons  butter
• 1  cup  gran­u­lated sugar
• 2  large eggs
• 1  tea­spoon  vanilla extract
• 1  cup  Guin­ness Stout
• 2 table­spoons cooled espresso (or 1 table­spoon of espresso pow­der dis­solved in a small amt. of hot water).
• 4.5  ounces  all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
• 1/4  tea­spoon  salt

Prepa­ra­tion

1. Place one rack in lower third of oven; place another rack in cen­ter of oven. Pre­heat oven to 350°.
2. To pre­pare Tan Brown­ies, place 6 table­spoons but­ter and brown sugar in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in 2 eggs and 1 tea­spoon vanilla.
4. Weigh or lightly spoon 4.5 ounces (about 1 cup) flour into a dry mea­sur­ing cup; level with a knife.
5. Com­bine 4.5 ounces flour, bak­ing pow­der, and 1/4 tea­spoon salt, stir­ring well.
6. Add flour mix­ture and pecans to sugar mix­ture, beat­ing just until combined.
7. Spoon into a 13 x 9–inch bak­ing pan coated with cook­ing spray, spread­ing evenly with a knife or rub­ber spatula.
8. Bake at 350° in lower third of oven for 15 minutes.
9. To pre­pare Black Brown­ies, melt choco­late and 4 table­spoons but­ter in a large microwave-safe bowl on HIGH for 1 minute or until melted, stir­ring after every 20 sec­onds until smooth.
10. Add gran­u­lated sugar, stir­ring until well combined. 
11. Add cooled espresso.
12. Add 2 eggs, 1 tea­spoon vanilla, and Guin­ness, stir­ring with a whisk until well combined.
13. Weigh or lightly spoon 4.5 ounces (about 1 cup) flour into a dry mea­sur­ing cup; level with a knife.
14. Com­bine 4.5 ounces flour and 1/4 tea­spoon salt, stir­ring well. Add flour mix­ture to choco­late mix­ture, stir­ring to combine.
15. Pour mix­ture evenly over Tan Brownies.
16. Bake on the cen­ter rack at 350° for 25 min­utes or until a wooden pick inserted into cen­ter comes out almost clean.
17. Cool in pan on a wire rack; cut into squares.

Gath­er­ing The Ingredients

The Key Ingre­di­ent – Guinness

The Tan Layer

The Black Layer

Espresso Adds Punch To The Chocolate

The Final Product