Making Brownies with BEER & Celebrating 50 Episodes!

Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Nikoli's Kitchen! This week with episode 50 rolling around, I wanted to take the opportunity to celebrate by going back to the very first episode of the show and taking another look at the brownies I made. Instead of making them with red wine syrup and ganache, I made them with an Imperial stout and caramel! The results didn't turn out exactly how I wanted, but they still had great flavor.

Also this week, I answer your questions and continue on the thread from last week's positivity segment, talking about self-awareness and celebrating the little things in life. Thank you all so much for listening and for your amazing support that has taken me to 50 episodes. Here's to the next 50 and beyond! Thank you so much for coming on this journey with me.

The 6th Annual Livestream for the Cure will take place from May 19th - May 21st, as we work with content creators and podcast partners around the world to raise $20,000 for the Cancer Research Institute. This is our sixth year, and over the past five we've raised over $50,000. Please help us add to that total and help us spread the word by sharing promos for the event and information leading up to it. Learn more by visiting livestreamforthecure.com.

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Featured Recipe for this Episode

Brownies:

1 12-oz bottle of Imperial Stout
1/3 cup white sugar
2 sticks butter
10 oz chocolate (good quality chocolate/baking chocolate, get it as dark or semi-sweet as you like, minding the sugar)
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
2 t vanilla
5 large eggs
3/4 c flour
1 t salt

Imperial Stout Caramel:

1 12-oz bottle of Imperial Stout
1 c white sugar
6 T unsalted butter
1/2 c heavy cream
1 t salt

~| Original caramel recipe is from https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/homemade-salted-caramel-recipe/ |~

Brownie Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.
Add beer and white sugar to a large saucepan and cook, over medium heat, until the liquid is mostly gone- you'll notice a distinctive change in the liquid state from a simmer to a foaming or frothing as the liquid evaporates. Stir this and don't let it burn.
Remove from heat and let it cool.
Add two sticks of butter (1 cup) and the chocolate to a large glass or metal bowl.
Fill a saucepan with 2 inches of water.
Place bowl over top of the saucepan and turn it to high; the steam from the boiling water will melt the chocolate and butter. Stir frequently to combine.
Remove from heat once melted and allow to cool (it should just be warm to the touch, then you're ready). Once this is cooled and your beer syrup is cooled, add it into your chocolate mix.
Add brown sugar, salt, and vanilla and stir to combine.
Add one egg at a time, stirring until it is incorporated. Note- if you want to whisk these in quite a bit you're going to add a lot of air that will make your brownies more on the cake-y side. If this is something you like, by all means, whisk each egg as it goes in.
Sift 3/4 c flour into the bowl and stir together just until it is incorporated.
Grease or spray a 9x13" or an 8x8" baking dish. Your brownies will obviously come out thicker in the 8x8" pan and not being as thin you won't get that kind of "crunchy" brownie edge like you do with a thinner 9x13" brownie.
Spread batter out into the baking dish and bake for 25-30 minutes (9x13") or 30-40 minutes (8x8"). This depends largely on what consistency you want. To get them rich and fudge-y in the middle you want a fork/toothpick inserted into the center to come out with brownie on it, but it shouldn't be liquidy or drip off it.
Remove and allow to cool.

Caramel Directions:

Add your beer and sugar to a large saucepan and cook over medium heat until the liquid is mostly gone (you can follow the same process as for the brownies- you can also make both at the same time in the same pot and then split it into the brownies and caramel).
Once your beer syrup is reduce...