Double Chocolate Guinness Muffins #MuffinMonday

The deep flavor of stout enhances the chocolate in these rich double chocolate Guinness muffins baked with cocoa and lots of semi-sweet chocolate chips.

I’ve been on a bit of a savory muffin kick lately but our younger daughter is here to visit so I decided I’d go sweet this month. I bought a 500ml bottle of Guinness Extra Stout for these muffins but also ended up using it for marinated chicken thighs and then the balance in a steak pie at her request. 

All three turned out beautifully and now I need to keep Guinness on hand all the time. You know, just in case. 

Double Chocolate Guinness Muffins

As mentioned above and indicated by the title, I used Guinness Extra Stout for this recipe but you can absolutely substitute your favorite stout. This recipe makes 12 regular sized muffins, chock full of chocolate chips. This recipe is adapted from one on Floating Kitchen.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups or 219g all-purpose flour

3/4 cups or 150g golden caster sugar (Sub white if that's what you have)

1/4 cup or 20g cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 cup or 113g, butter, melted and cooled, plus extra for buttering pan, if needed

1/2 cup or 120ml Guinness stout beer

2 eggs

1 1/4 cups or 300g semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided

Method

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners or brush with melted butter. (Or if you have silicone muffin cups, use them. I love mine which were a gift from my daughter.) Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.

In another mixing bowl, whisk together the melted butter, Guinness and eggs until well combined.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold.

Set aside a generous handful of the chocolate chips to sprinkle on top then fold the rest into the batter. 

Divide the batter evenly between the 12 cups of your prepared muffin pan. Top with the reserved chocolate chips. 

Bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. 

Allow the muffins to cool in their pan for about 10 minutes, then remove and transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy! 

It’s the last Monday of the month which means it’s Muffin Monday time! Check out all the lovely muffins my baker friends are sharing. 

• Banana Oreo Muffins from A Messy Kitchen
• Chunky Monkey Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Coconut Bran Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Double Chocolate Guinness Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Muffins from Jolene's Recipe Journal

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page. 

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Spicy Guinness Marinated Chicken Thighs

Tender, juicy and flavorful, these spicy Guinness marinated chicken thighs tick all the savory boxes for a perfectly delicious prep-ahead main course.

Yes, this is my second chicken thigh recipe in a row. What can I say but right after wings – my favorite part of a chicken – thighs come in a very close second. They are meaty and stay juicy, even if slightly overcooked, something I cannot say for chicken breasts. I'm always afraid of drying those out!

I made this recipe with Guinness stout to celebrate National Drink a Beer Day which I am celebrating with my Sunday FunDay blogger friends. Make sure you scroll down to see links to the recipes everyone else is sharing. 

Spicy Guinness Marinated Chicken Thighs

I used Guinness for this recipe but you can substitute your favorite stout or dark beer. I happened to have a bottle open because I was baking double chocolate Guinness muffins for Muffin Monday. (Check back for that recipe tomorrow!) This recipe is adapted from one on Domestic Fits.

Ingredients  

1 small shallot

3 cloves garlic

1/4 cup or 60ml olive oil, plus extra to oil baking pan

1/2 cup or 120ml Guinness Extra Stout Beer

1/4 cup or 60ml balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons chili powder (spice mix, not cayenne)

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 teaspoon MSG (monosodium glutamate)

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

8 bone-in, skin on chicken thighs

Method

Purée the shallot and garlic with the olive oil in a small food processor.

Add that mixture to a gallon bag along with the dry spices and sugar.

Add in the Guinness, Worcestershire sauce and vinegar. Seal the bag and massage it until the sugar and salt have dissolved and the spices are well mixed. 

 

Add the chicken. Press the air out of the bag and seal so that the chicken is well coated with marinade. 

Marinate for at least 2 hours, or overnight, chilled in the refrigerator. 

When you are ready to cook the chicken, remove the bag from the refrigerator and preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C. Oil a large baking pan with olive oil. 

Remove the chicken from marinade and put it in the baking pan, skin side up. 

Bake for 45 minutes or until golden and cooked through. 

Pour the marinade in a small pot and gently bring it to the boil. 

Keep it at a low boil for at least 10 minutes, then cook to reduce the liquid by half. 

Use the cooked marinade to baste the chicken regularly as it bakes. 

Remove from the oven and serve warm with any remaining cooked marinade on the side as a sauce. Garnish with chopped green onions, if desired. 

Enjoy! 

It’s Sunday FunDay and as I mentioned above, we are celebrating National Drink a Beer Day. Check out the links below.

• Beer and Garlic Marinated Chicken Breasts from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Beer Batter Fried Shrimp/Prawns with Green Tahini Sauce from Sneha's Recipe
• Michelada from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Spicy Guinness Marinated Chicken Thighs from Food Lust People Love
• Wisconsin Beer Cheese Soup from Amy's Cooking Adventures

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Flakey Guinness Cheddar Scones #BreadBakers

Grated butter and cheese add little pockets of flavor and flakiness to these Guinness Cheddar Scones. They are perfect for breakfast or snack time and go great with soup!

I’ve baked with stout quite a few times and love how much depth and flavor a dark brew adds to any batter or dough. For example, check out my mocha stout brownies, London Porter cake and oatmeal stout loaf, just to name a few. All lovely! 

If there is any product more iconically Irish then Guinness Stout, I don’t know what it would be. Anytime Irish teams are playing in a tournament, ubiquitous Guinness shows up as a sponsor. When our host for this month’s Bread Bakers chose Irish bread as our theme for March, I knew I wanted to use Guinness in the recipe. 

NOTE: Start this recipe far enough in advance of when you've like to serve them to leave plenty of time for freezing the scones before baking. Depending on your freezer, a couple of hours ought to do it. 

Flakey Guinness Cheddar Scones

This recipe is adapted from Coley Cooks. It’s been a while since I saved it so the author has updated the post name and the URL and these are now called biscuits, which I find very odd for an Irish recipe. Back when I found it, they were called, quite rightly, Irish scones with a URL to match.  Whatever you call them, bake these. They got four thumbs up from my family!

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups or 312g flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 cup or 240ml Guinness, cold

1/2 cup or 113g unsalted butter, FROZEN, plus 2 tablespoons (28g), melted

7 oz or 200g mature cheddar or extra sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Method

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl.

Using a box grater, grate the frozen butter, then quickly transfer it to the flour mixture and use a fork to gently mix and coat all the butter pieces with flour. 

Add the grated cheese and mix to combine, being sure to coat all pieces with flour.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the Dijon mustard and Guinness.

Make a well in the center and pour in the beer mixture.

Carefully mix until it forms a shaggy dough.  Do not overmix. 

Dump the mixture out onto a lightly floured surface, then roll out into a long strip about 7x14 in or 18x36cm.

Fold one side half way up, adding in any loose bits.

Then fold the other side over top, like a letter.

 

Rotate the dough 90 degrees, roll out and repeat the two letter folds again. Rotate again and fold for the final two times.

Roll the dough into a rectangle about 1/2 in or 1 cm thick. Cut the scones out with a cutter and place them on a pan lined with baking parchment.  

Roll the dough out again and cut scones until you run out of dough. As you can see, I got 14 scones out of my dough.

Place the baking pan in the freezer. Freeze till solid or overnight. Once frozen, transfer the scones to a sealed bag. For maximum rising and flakiness, the dough needs to be kept very cold. The beauty of this recipe is that once the scones are frozen, you can bake as many or as few as you’d like. 

Preheat your oven to 400° F or 200°C.

When the oven is preheated, remove the number of scones you’d like to bake from the freezer, and put them on a parchment or silicone-lined pan then put it into the oven immediately.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until the scones has risen well and are golden brown, rotating the pan halfway through so they brown evenly.

Brush the tops with the melted butter.

Serve warm with extra butter, if desired. I'll be honest. I only buttered the one you see below. They really don't need it. 

Enjoy! 

As I mentioned above, it’s time for Bread Bakers, always the second Tuesday of the month, and Irish bread is our theme. Check out all the great recipes we are sharing ahead of St. Patrick’s Day below! Many thanks to our host, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm. 

• Barmbrack by Magical Ingredients
• Boxty by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Belfast Baps by Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Flakey Cheddar Guinness Scones by Food Lust People Love
• Irish Bread Rolls by Sneha’s Recipe
• Irish Soda Farls by Palatable Pastime
• Waterford Blaas by A Messy Kitchen
• Irish Oat Flapjacks by Cook with Renu
• Sourdough Irish Soda Bread by What Smells So Good?

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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Slow Cooker Beef and Guinness Stew - or Pie

When weather turns chilly, my thoughts turn to my slow cooker and a nice beefy stew with Guinness. Serve the warming bowls of deliciousness as is or top the stew with puff pastry and bake for a beautiful beef and Guinness pie.

 

Whenever we are traveling and have the chance to eat a pub lunch, my husband almost invariably orders the beef and Guinness pie, if there is one on the menu. He loves the filling and the flaky puff pastry top. When decent pub grub is not available, I make my own. For stew beef to become tender, slow cooking is the way to go, so I like to use my crockpot to make the filling. After browning the meat, everything goes in the pot and I can get on with other projects like baking his favorite apple rhubarb strawberry pie. Pie for dinner and pie for dessert and he’s a happy man.

Ingredients
For the stew:
5 slices streaky smoked bacon
2 lbs or 900g braising or stew meat
1.1 lb or 500g marrow bones (optional)
1 1/2 tablespoons or 15g flour
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
1⁄4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 large onion (about 7 oz or 200g)
1 large carrot (about 5 1/2 oz or 155g)
1 large parsnip (about 5 1/2 oz or 155g)
1 can (14 oz or 400g) chopped tomatoes with their juice
1 can (12 oz or 355 ml) Guinness stout
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
Salt
Freshly ground pepper

For the pie:
1 sheet puff pastry (8 oz or 230g)

Method
Cut your meat into bite-sized pieces, removing any gristle you can see.

Lay it out in a single layer on your cutting board and season it with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Sprinkle it with the tablespoon and a half of plain flour and toss it around with your clean hands until well mixed.

Peel and cut the parsnip and carrot into pieces. Cover the parsnip with water in a small bowl until ready to use, to stop it from turning brown. Chop your onion roughly.

Cut the bacon into small pieces and fry until crispy in a non-stick pan. Remove the crispy bits from the rendered bacon fat and set aside.

Fry the meat in the bacon fat until browned on all sides, in two or three lots so that the pan doesn’t get crowded.

If you put too many pieces in at once, it will just steam instead of browning. As the batches get browned, remove them to a bowl.

Now you are ready to put everything in the slow cooker.

Start with the meat, then add the onion, parsnip and carrot. Top with the bacon, thyme and bay leaf. Pour the canned tomatoes in and then the can of Guinness.

Tuck the marrow bones down into the vegetables, if using.

Cook on high for three to four hours or until the beef is tender. Check the seasoning and add more salt and pepper to taste.

This can be served exactly as is or it can be baked as pie topped with puff pastry.

If you cooked your stew with the optional marrow bones, these can be put under the broiler or grill in the oven to brown. They are lovely served as an appetizer with toast on which to spread the marrow.

To make the pie, preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C.

Spoon your beef and Guinness stew into a baking pan and allow it to cool a little while your oven preheats. I like to use a small pan that holds the beef and vegetables with a good amount of the broth that is created while the stew slow cooks. Then I thicken the rest of the broth with a little flour and serve it as extra gravy with the pie.

Slice the outside edges off of your puff pastry sheet and cut a few slits in the middle.

When your oven is up to temperature, cover the filled baking pan with your puff pastry. Fold the sides up so they don't hang over the edges. Press down all around the edges to seal the crust to the pan. You can use the trimmed pieces to decorate the top, if you want.

Pop it in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the puff pastry is golden.

To serve, cut a piece of the puff pastry off the top and fold it back. Scoop the stew into your bowl and top with the puff pastry.

Enjoy!