Chocolate Guinness Donuts

I am back from Florida.  I have been back for a week now but baby and I both got sick the day after we got back. Ugh.  Sick babies and then sick mommy with sick baby are no fun.  Someone told me once you get sick you shouldn't kiss your baby.  Do you have any idea how hard that is?  Very.  I have been washing and disinfecting my hands every minute to prevent me giving it back to her.  If she had the sore throat I did she would be non stop crying.  It was so painful!  We are both almost back to normal, hopefully maybe just another day or two.

On another note,   Florida was fun.  Samantha was a great plane baby, sleeping practically the entire time both ways.  We did have a few fussy nights but she made it through several outings in the day with flying colours.  She even fell asleep on a beach walk in the snugli.  Love those ocean sounds.  The weather was a bit of a hit and miss, with a few cooler days but still much warmer than home.   We did get two nice walks on the beach and a few days at the pool.  Hopefully now that we are home the warm weather isn't too far away.  I do think I see the light in the 2 week forecast.

With St. Patricks Day just around the corner I decided to make one more festive treat to enjoy.

Chocolate Guinness Donuts
(Makes 10 donuts)

INGREDIENTS:

Doughnut

• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup unbleached all purpose
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup Guinness
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup butter, melted

Glaze

• 1 cup of Guinness Beer
• 1/2 dark chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 - 2 cups icing sugar

INSTRUCTIONS:

1) Preheat oven to 325F. In a medium bowl combine flours, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
2) In a large bowl, add Guinness, egg, both sugars and butter.  Whisk together.
3) Gently whisk in the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined.
4) Spray a doughnut pan with non stick spray.  Fill the holes with the mixture.  Bake for 12 minutes.
5) Make the glaze.  Place the Guinness in a small sauce pan and bring to boil, reduce mixture to 1/3 cup.
6) Place the chocolate chips in a medium bowl.  Pour the reduced Guinness over the chocolate chips. Let sit for a few minutes.  Stir together to melt.
7) Whisk in the confectioners sugar in 2-3 sections. If the mixture doesn't seem thick enough , let it cool in the refrigerator.
8) Dip the top of the donuts in to the glaze and lay on a wire rack about a baking sheet to catch any drips.   If you mixture also is a bit thin, you can dip several times.   I dipped twice.

Chocolate Guinness Cake

My hubby is gone to Ottawa for work this week so I am left to my own devices.  You would think I might be more productive with the house to myself.   But I am not.   I just avoid everything I need to do.  I come from work, get my work out and then curl up in my bed, catch up on my PVR (Personal Video Recorder) and blog. Completely avoiding any house productivity.  I think I can largely blame the PVR for that.   It is a great device but a dangerous device.   How easily can you get trapped, recording everything.  Then what happens... you get interested in more shows, new shows, cooking shows.    Until the warm weather comes back I am allowed to do this.

St. Patrick's Day is coming.  That always means one thing, time to bake with alcohol. It's a bakers rule.   First up...Guinness.  It also happened to be my brother in laws birthday, who likes beer. So I killed two birds with one stone.  Blogging can be so multi-functional.   Sometimes I don't know what I would do with all my baking if I didn't have functions or people to bake for.  You can only indulge in so much yourself.   It's nice to giveaway the goods.

I also just thought of another St. Pat's recipe while I was sitting her typing.  I think I can call that productive.  ;-)

Chocolate Guinness Cake
(Adapted from Nigella Lawson)

INGREDIENTS: 


Cake

• 1 cup Guinness or Stout Beer
• 1 cup unsalted butter, cubed
• 75g cocoa
• 400g granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 275g unbleached all purpose
• 2 1/2 tsp baking soda

Icing

• 1 cup + 2 tbsp light cream cheese
• 150g icing sugar, sifted
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• Green food paste
• Chocolate shavings

INSTRUCTIONS:
1) Preheat the oven to 350F, spray and line with parchment a 10in springform pan.
2) Pour the Guinness and cubed butter into a  large saucepan, heat until the butter's melted.

3) Whisk in the cocoa and sugar and remove from heat.

4) In a a large bowl, Beat/Whisk together the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the beer butter mixture, and whisk to combine. 

5) Whisk in the flour and baking soda
6) Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack.
7) When the cake is completely cool. place on a flat platter or cake stand and make the icing. 

8) In a large bowl or mixer bowl , whip/beat the cream cheese until smooth, add the icing sugar and beat to combine. Add the cream and a few toothpick drops of food colour and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. 

9) Spread the icing on top using an offset spatula in a light airy way.  Sprinkle with chocolate shavings.

This cake is so moist and delicious.  You definitely get the malt beer flavour in the cake, its subtle but nice. The cake has a great balance of sweet and bitter.    As usual all cream cheese icing is the best accompaniment.

MEG's RATING : D-EEEEE-LICOUS!

You might also like these Guinness Chocolate Cookies.