Beef Stew with Beer
This is K's standard beef stew recipe. However, in the past, K always used Guinness. This time, we tried with with a wonderful pine beer from Yard's Brewing Company and it turned out quite nice.
Beer Geek Chocolate Cupcakes with Salted Caramel
All the picky steps involved in making cupcakes drives me crazy, so I've been bugging K to make this recipe for the past year. This beer post seemed the perfect opportunity!
http://thebrooklynkitchen.wordpress.com/2008/05/20/best-in-show-the-prizewinning-cupcakes/
This was fun... K used an ice cream scoop to evenly distribute batter into the liners. She placed the scoop on the lid of the cupcake liner container at one point, and when she picked it up, discovered a happy surprise on the lid! The batter was smiling. No lie.
Frosting
Loved the way that K iced these... the masculine herringbone pattern is a nice touch!
Conclusion: There were a few technical difficulties with these cupcakes... K accidentally poured in the whole bottle of beer instead of the amount that the recipe noted, and ended up trying to balance out the proportions of the other ingredients. We're not quite sure how far the finished product was from the recipe, but the cake was a bit dense/dry. While I am glad that we tried the recipe, I wouldn't necessarily race to eat them again. The flavor was ok, and if memory serves, the salt would have been nicer cooked into the icing (rather than sprinkled on top; the crunch was odd, like when you discover sand that hasn't been washed out of lettuce). K and I later began doctoring them up by adding 60% chocolate chips to the top... the extra flavor and chocolate texture was a very nice addition; if K ever makes these again, K will probably add chocolate chips to the batter. The chocolate stout (Dundee Stout) that we used however, was a very nice selection for a beer/chocolate dessert. We'll definitely keep it in mind for the future!
