Guinness Brownies

Best Brownies ever.

Since I didn’t do posts leading towards St.Patrick’s Day I will do follow up posts. How about that? That way I can present you a couple of nice Irish recipes that you can use next year yourself. For some reason I am not one of those bloggers who will do their baking for holiday X three or four weeks before. Maybe a week before it happens, if you are lucky. (Unless it’s Christmas, that’s different.)

While I was looking for a Paddy’s Day recipe I stumbled across this brownies recipe on Pinterest. A friend posted it and all I thought was “Oh my gosh!” Guinness, in a brownie? Yes please! The pictures were just too inviting, especially since it looked like the brownie I wanted to make. You know, all gooey in the centre. I found the original recipe here.

The main ingredients though is not Guinness, it is black beans. You read that right, it is the substitute for the butter. I mean, even better, no butter means less calories, although, the Guinness will add some to it again. But we all know that baking is not a calorie friendly trade so whatever. Those Guinness Brownies just looked too good not to try them.

Ingredients:

– 15 oz black beans, rinsed and filled with new water (that’s an average can)
– 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour or all purpose
– 2 1/4 cups raw sugar
– 1 1/4 cup dark cocoa powder
– 4 tsp instant coffee powder
– 1 tsp salt
– 1 tsp baking powder
– 1 tsp vanilla
– 1 cup Guinness
– 1 cup nuts or chocolate chips, optional

Take the can of black beans and drain them in a strainer. Let water run over them until that is clear. Then put them back in the can and fill with water. You are suppose to puree them but I would recommend you do that in a bigger bowl or high container. The can will give you not much space to puree. Set aside.

This is obviously a main ingredient.

Tip 1: You might wonder why you have to put the bean back in the can and then add the water. Well, if you don’t you end up with too much water, right? Simply physics. 😉

Take a big bowl and combine all other ingredients then add the black bean puree and mix with a spoon until just combined. You don’t want to over mix. Pour the batter into a baking pan of your choice (recommended is 9×13) or even muffin tins work (lined with paper, greased or silicon ones).

These are the liners I used, made some big but yummy brownies.

Bake at 180°C for about 25 min then take them out and let the pan cool before you cut them up.

Tip 2: I didn’t use all the sugar as I find it too much. I almost always omit sugar from North American recipes. Also, I don’t like coffee so my recipes only got one teaspoon.

Tip 3: I had brownie liners from SweetArt Supplies (separate review will follow) and they worked great with this.

I am in heaven.

These brownies need nothing else, they are gooey and chocolaty and everything you want in a brownie. But I had Whisky ganache left over from the Guinness Cupcakes so I couldn’t resist and spread that on top. *oh my* That just tops it off with deliciousness.

I tried brownies before and although they were good they were not like I wanted them to be. Basically, they were a bit dry. These puppies though are perfect. From now on, this will be THE recipe for brownies. If you exchange the Guinness for water it is even children friendly. (Although I have to say that you couldn’t really taste the Guinness, I think it just made the flavour a bit darker.)

So delicious.

Happy baking!