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Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

Chocolate Whiskey and Beer Cupcakes

Makes 20 to 24 cupcakes

For the Chocolate Stout Cupcakes

1 cup stout (such as WBC’s Dead Letter Drye Stout or any other quality stout)

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

2/3 cup sour cream

Ganache Filling

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate

2/3 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons butter, room temperature

1 to 2 teaspoons Irish whiskey (optional)

Baileys Frosting (see Recipe Notes)

3 to 4 cups confections sugar

1 stick (1/2 cup or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperatue

3 to 4 tablespoons Baileys (or milk, or heavy cream, or a combination thereof)

Special equipment: 1-inch round cookie cutter or an apple corer and a piping bag (though a plastic bag with the corner snipped off will also work)

Make the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners. Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide batter among cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, rotating them once front to back if your oven bakes unevenly, about 17 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.

Make the filling: Chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then stir until smooth. (If this has not sufficiently melted the chocolate, you can return it to a double-boiler to gently melt what remains. 20 seconds in the microwave, watching carefully, will also work.) Add the butter and whiskey (if you’re using it) and stir until combined.

Fill the cupcakes: Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped (the fridge will speed this along but you must stir it every 10 minutes). Meanwhile, using your 1-inch round cookie cutter or an apple corer, cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes. You want to go most of the way down the cupcake but not cut through the bottom — aim for 2/3 of the way. A slim spoon or grapefruit knife will help you get the center out. Those are your “tasters”. Put the ganache into a piping bag with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top.

Make the frosting: Whip the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, for several minutes. You want to get it very light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, a few tablespoons at a time.

When the frosting looks thick enough to spread, drizzle in the Baileys (or milk) and whip it until combined. If this has made the frosting too thin (it shouldn’t, but just in case) beat in another spoonful or two of powdered sugar.

Ice and decorate the cupcakes.

Recipe Credit to: https://smittenkitchen.com/2009/01/car-bomb-cupcakes/ (opens in new tab)

Rhubarb Crisp With Lavender Honey

Ingredients:

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 3/4 pound rhubarb

1/4 cup butter, cold, cubed

 

Make the filling:

 

Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter a 2-quart shallow baking dish.

In a bowl stir together sugar and flour. Trim rhubarb and cut enough of stalks into 1/2-

inch pieces to measure 2 cups. Add rhubarb to sugar mixture, tossing well, and spread

mixture in baking dish.

 

Make the topping:

 

In a bowl whisk together flour and sugars. Cut butter into 1/2-inch cubes and with your

fingers or a pastry blender blend into flour mixture until mixture resembles coarse meal.

Add oatmeal and toss well.

Squeeze a handful of topping together and coarsely crumble in chunks over filling.

Squeeze and evenly crumble remaining topping over filling in same manner.

Bake crisp in upper third of oven until filling is bubbling and topping is crisp and golden,

about 50 minutes. Drizzle lavender honey over the top of the crisp as it comes out of the oven.

 

For the topping:

 

2 cups steel cut oats

3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter

Lavender honey, as desired

Pairs well with the following beer styles: Belgian Pale Ale, Tripel, IPA, Flower/Fruit Beer

 

Alaskan Pale Paella

Recipe credit goes to: Alaskan Brewing Company

Ingredients

1 bottle Alaskan Pale Ale

10 oz. water

8 slices bacon

3/4 cup chopped onion

5 cloves chopped garlic

1 chopped serano pepper (optional)

1 2/3 cup long grain rice

1/2 tsp saffron

9 oz. chicken broth

16 oz. can chopped tomatoes

1 chopped fresh tomato

1 dozen clams or other shellfish (oysters, crab, mussels)

12 oz. liquid from steamed clams/shellfish

2 Tbsp parsley, chopped

½ Tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp cilantro

1 tsp paprika (or Eritrean chili powder)

1 tsp salt (optional)

 

Methods/steps

Steam the clams and/or other shellfish in 6 oz. Alaskan Pale Ale & 10 oz. water until open. Set aside and reserve liquid.

Cook the diced bacon in paella pan or large pan with lid that is suitable for stove top and oven. Add onion, garlic and pepper to bacon and grease. Cook until soft. Add rice and saffron to pan and cook while stirring for 5 minutes.

Add remaining ingredients and 12 oz. of the reserved steaming liquid and bring to a boil. Arrange clams/shellfish on top of rice mixture. Bake covered 15 – 20 minutes at 350 degrees F. or uncovered 20 minutes at 375 degrees F. Do not stir. Serve with Alaskan Pale Ale.

Combining this spicy Mediterranean hit with the cool, crisp flavor of Alaskan Pale Ale offers the best of two worlds. Viva la difference!