Cooking with Beer

Now that cooler weather is here, I've been searching through recipes to see what I can make that will require heating up the oven.  Friday night I did a book singing at a local restaurant and bar, The Empire House, in Glibertsville, NY.  The bar features some of our local brews from Butternuts Beer and Ale Brewery down the road from me.  I decided to make muffins for the evening, and I've included the recipe below.  These tasty little morsels are made with stout.  I used Moo Thunder Stout, the great brew from Butternuts Beer and Ale, but you can use any stout you like.  If you don't like muffins, I've included a way you can convert the recipe to a cake.



                               Butternut Valley Ginger Stout Mini-Muffins




2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 tablespoon candied ginger (finely chopped) or 1 teaspoon ground ginger or 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger

1 cup granulated sugar

½ cup packed light brown sugar

3 large eggs

12 ounces stout (I recommend Moo Thunder from Butternuts Beer and Ale)

½ cup molasses

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Grease mini-muffin cups. Combine flour, ground
ginger, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and cloves; set aside.

2. Beat butter and candied ginger with electric mixer on medium speed until
combined. Add sugars; beat to combine. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after
each addition.

3. Mix stout and molasses to combine. Alternately add dry ingredients in 3 additons, with the beer mixture; beating until combined and scraping down side of bowl as needed.

4. Pour into the mini-muffin pans. Bake 12-15 minutes. Makes over 60 muffins.


Note: You may make this batter into a cake. Grease a 13x 9 inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.


The muffins turned out so well, I wondered if any of you have tried cooking with beer?  Would you share a favorite beer recipe with me?  I'd like to add them to the next Hera book or complile them into a down- loadable booklet that all of Hera's fans could get by contacting me.  Of course, I would give each one of you credit for the recipe you contributed and your name might find its way into my next Hera book.
 
Send your recipe(s) to me at LesDieh60@aol.com .  I'll continue to put together the recipes throughout the fall months until I get enough to use in the book or to put together in booklet form.
 
Try the muffins with a dollop of whipped cream.  Yummy!