A few years ago, craft beer was a thing only known to real enthusiasts and fanatics. Today, it is a force. People don't drink a domestic brew anymore when they can have the nuanced flavors of a crisp IPA or a dark, malty stout. There are options for all tastes, from the hard-core beer fan (try something serious like a really hoppy IPA) to the newer brew drinker looking for a gateway (a shandy is the perfect mix of sweet summer and beery goodness). But while most people are using beer for its obvious purpose, we're using it for cooking! With all the flavors and varieties, we'd be ignorant not to play around in the kitchen and experiment a little bit. Our first stop was the sweet world. I had a specific vision in my head when I thought of sweets mixed with beer. Cookies made with chocolate stout. And darned if these aren't the best cookies ever to come from my kitchen. The beer - I've used Baltimore's own Full Tilt Brewing's Berger Cookie Chocolate Stout - gives a real richness to the cookies without overpowering them, something that would have been easy considering the heaviness of the beer. There is a real depth of flavor and the cookies themselves are like fluffy pillows. Feel free to play around with your choice of brew here, a milk stout could be an interesting choice. br
Ingredients
¾ cup butter, softened
1 ¼ cup own sugar
1 egg yolk
1/3 cup chocolate stout
2 ¼ cup flour
1 ¼ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cornstarch
1 ½ cups chocolate chips
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Cream butter and sugar in a mixer until fluffy. Add in egg yolk and mix well. Add in beer and mix until combined. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and cornstarch. Mix into the butter mixture slowly until fully combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Place the dough in the fridge for 20 minutes to chill. Scoop out the dough with a cookie scoop and place on the baking sheet. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes until golden. Remove to a baking sheet to cool.
Makes approximately 2 dozen cookies
--Kim Cooper--
