Guinness Brownies

These decadent fudgy Guinness Brownies are chocolate stout brownies made from scratch with stout beer and topped with an easy chocolate glaze. Whether you make them for St. Patrick’s Day or make them all year round, one thing is for sure – you need to make them ASAP.

I always forget how much I love chocolate and stout beer together until March rolls around.

Someone remind me why I don’t pair chocolate and beer all year long? They go hand in hand like peanut butter and jelly, salt and pepper, cream and sugar.

I’ve been wanting to pair them together in these fudgy Guinness Brownies, but every year I somehow get distracted.

Not this year. This is the year of beer brownies in all its fine fudgy glory.

We are not going to discuss how many stout brownies I ate, but I will say I’m glad I gave them away the next day because it would’ve been too dangerous to keep around.

To make these Guinness Brownies from scratch even better, I topped them with a thin chocolate glaze so they weren’t so naked.

Who wants to eat a naked brownie anyway?

What is stout beer?

Stout beer refers to any dark beer with a smooth body and a heavy, creamy head. Guinness is the most popular stout, especially around St. Patrick’s Day

Guinness is my go-to stout beer, but you can also use local stouts too. I know a few breweries in Pittsburgh that make a great stout beer for baking.

Ingredients For Guinness Brownies

To make beer brownies, you’ll need the following ingredients:

• Butter: Use real butter and not a substitute like margarine
• Unsweetened chocolate: Helps achieve a rich chocolate taste that cocoa powder alone can’t do
• Cocoa powder: Adds another layer of chocolate flavor.
• Sugar: Since you’re using both unsweetened chocolate and cocoa powder, you need the sweetness to make the brownies edible.
• Salt: Makes sure your brownies aren’t bland
• Egg: Use a standard large egg
• Vanilla: Makes chocolate taste even better
• Guinness: The star of your stout brownies!
• Flour: Used to thicken the batter. This brownie recipe has more flour than usual to make up for the extra liquid from the beer.
• Chocolate chips: Even more chocolate flavor plus adds some texture
• Semisweet chocolate: Used for the glaze on top

What can I substitute for Guinness stout in a recipe?

Don’t want to use beer in your recipe? Substitute an equal amount of coffee. The coffee will still enhance the chocolate flavor.

Don’t want to use coffee either? You’re better off making my Small Batch Fudge Brownies or Peanut Butter Brownies instead.

How To Substitute For Unsweetened Chocolate

Unsweetened chocolate is chocolate without any sugar added to it (hence the name). This is most definitely something you don’t want to eat on its own.

However, it’s the perfect base for chocolate desserts because you control the amount of sugar added.

If you don’t have any unsweetened baking chocolate in your pantry, you can easily substitute semisweet chocolate. Reduce the sugar down to 1 cup.

If you don’t have any baking chocolate at all, you can substitute 6 tablespoons cocoa powder + 2 tablespoons vegetable oil.

How To Make Guinness Brownies

Making this Guinness brownies recipe from scratch is SO easy, there’s no need to buy brownie mix.

The batter is made all in one pan on the stovetop, meaning less dishes to wash.

Here’s how to make chocolate stout brownies:

1. Melt your butter and unsweetened chocolate until smooth.
2. Whisk in your sugar, cocoa powder, and salt. It’ll look thick and grainy, but don’t panic.
3. Whisk in your egg and vanilla, which will smooth and moisten your batter.
4. Whisk in your beer. It’ll be really loose but will thicken after you add flour.
5. Stir in your flour using a rubber spatula then stir in your chocolate chips. Transfer to an 8×8 -pan.
6. Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes or until the edges pull away from the sides and the center doesn’t look wet. Be careful you don’t overbake your brownies. Otherwise, they’ll be more cakey than fudgy.
7. Make the glaze by melting together your semisweet chocolate and butter until smooth then spread on top of the brownies. Let harden before cutting.

Store chocolate stout brownies in an airtight container for up to 1 week. You can leave them at room temperature or refrigerate if the glaze gets too soft (such as in the summer heat).

Will I get drunk from baking with beer?

If you’re new to baking with alcohol, don’t worry – a good bit of the alcohol bakes off, leaving behind the flavor and not so much the effects of drinking alcohol.

That means you won’t get drunk from eating these Guinness brownies and can serve them to everyone, including kids.

More Guinness Recipes

Since you’ll more than likely have beer leftover, here are more recipes using Guinness:

• Chocolate Guinness Mousse
• Mini Chocolate Guinness Cake
• Chocolate Stout Cake (8 Inch)
• Guinness Shepherd’s Pie
• Chocolate Guinness Cookies from Confessions of a Baking Queen

First published March 5, 2015