Dogfish Indian Brown Ale Beer Scones:

Something odd is happening to me. I was unsure on how to admit it at first. It took me a few weeks to realize, but now I can say for sure: I have a problem, my friends. I have a serious addiction.

I have a fever.

And the only cure for that fever is more baking....baking with booze.

After my successful muffin venture, I decided to up the difficulty level. I wanted to make something unique, something that a more casual beverage like beer would be an innovation, or at least a surprise ingredient too. Something more highbrow than a beer bread. Something more complicated than a muffin.

After spending a good portion of my lunch hour on recipe searches, I decided that I would make beer scones. There are a few beer scone recipes out there, but none that I thought would produce what I wanted. So I improvised on my own. Because I am an adventurous baking risk taking machine.

I selected Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale as my beer to complement the nuts and raisins in my scones.
The trick to baking with beer, I am learning, is to add enough dry ingredients to your batter or dough, creating a product that is not too goopy/dry without losing the beer flavor or compromising the other flavors. I managed to get it right.

Dogfish Indian Brown Beer Scones with Raisins and Pecans:

1 and ¼ cup raisins
1 cup nuts
2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup beer
4 cups self rising flour
3 tbsp sugar
6 tbsp cold butter cut into chunks
¼ cup heavy cream

Glaze:
1 egg
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon honey or brown sugar

after mixing in the dry ingredients, cut in the heavy cream, then lastly, the butter. Do not overmix, or the scones will be little bricks and you will be sad.

Cuttin' in the butter

Form the dough into a large ball. You can add more flour if you think the mixture is too soggy or sticky. Trust your instincts. I think a good consistency is a little bit stickier than a biscuit dough. Flatten the dough into a pizza-shape about ¾ an inch thick. I used a pizza cutter to make triangles. Use more flour on the pizza cutter if the dough gets too clingy.

Glaze the tops of the scones once cut and about and inch and a half on a greased baking sheet; and bake at 425 for 20 minutes or longer, until golden brown and crispy. Remove from the oven and let cool. You can sprinkle with sugar immediately after taking out of oven if you want more sweetness.

These scones have a very nice cinnamon raisin flavor. They are not as flaky as some scones you might purchase at the grocery store, but are still pretty light. I took them to work to test them out, and people that professed they did not even like raisins enjoyed them. I couldn't ask for a better endorsement.

BBC Bourbon Barrel Braised Beef and Sweet and Savory Beer Breads:

A few weeks ago, I tried my hand at braising. I'd seen the word often, and grasped the general gist of it, to cook tougher cuts of meat on high heat for a short amount of time, then place under low heat for a few hours until tender.

I was inspired by this post at the Hungry Mouse. Boil meat in beer for a few hours, you say? Sure. I can do that. I pretty much followed her helpful instructions step by step.

I set out to the store with a vague idea of what I wanted. Short ribs, and a tasty stout to boil the short ribs in for a few hours. When I arrived at the meat counter, I noticed that the bottom round roast looked pretty tasty as well. The solution? To get both.

I picked up some bay leaves,as well as peppers and mushrooms to pan roast in the oven, short ribs, the round roast, and then faced the difficult choice of what beer to assist me in my braising adventure.

Not Guinness, not Stone, or Bells. I briefly contemplated a porter; but when I saw the BBC Bourbon Barrel Jefferson's reserve stout, the decision was made. David and I have said before that it is, in our opinion, the best of BBC. I figured the bourbon infused stout would impart a tasty flavor to my braised beef.

But what about the accompaniments? Other than the peppers and mushrooms, I wanted to make beer bread.

I decided to let my choice in beer dictate my bread direction. We have two loaf pans, giving me the option of making both sweet and savory beer breads. I selected Founder's double trouble and Cerise as my beers or choice, picking up the additional ingredients at the store to compliment the imperial IPA and cherry ale.

For the Cerise loaf:
dried cherries, almonds, white chocolate morsels, a little vanilla extract.

for the Double Trouble loaf:
fresh chives and cheddar.

I used a basic beer bread recipe, which is 3 cups self rising flour, 1 tsp salt, a bottle of beer, 2 tsp sugar. I used more sugar for the sweet loaf, upping it to ¼ cup. Bake for about 45 minutes at 350. The add-ins I did not measure, just trusted my instincts.

The adventure was mostly peril free, other than the short moment of panic when the short ribs glued themselves to the hot bottom of the pan I was using for the super hot part of braising and required some skill to dislodge. The breads were a success as well, though I now recommend you check the IBU's on a bottle of beer for beer bread. Double Trouble's healthy hop dose imparted a little bit of bitterness into the bread.

Banana Butterscotch Matilda Muffins:

This is the first installment of the Nomerati series “Cooking with booze”. Whenever the mood strikes our fancy, David and I will be cooking with beers and various spirits, covering food items from baking to barbecue. We love food. We love booze. It was only a matter of time until we combined the two.

Last night we decided to make beer breads. David went the savory route, with Gruyere cheese, chives, and a saison ale. You'll have to wait to find out about his. This post is about my choice, and how hard I rocked it in the kitchen last night.

It didn't take me long to decide what I wanted to make. I have a thing for banana bread. Our relationship is very serious. I prefer it with nuts, though I will eat it without them. I also wanted to try making muffins, as opposed to David's loaf.

We arrived at the store, and gathered our various baking items. As we were walking past the baking aisle, I picked up a bag of butterscotch chips to add.

When it came to choosing the bananas, I became enamored with the smaller, red bananas that were next to the large ones. I decided to use four of those in lieu of the yellow variety. A quick wikipedia search said they were sweeter, which I though would work nicely.

Last stop was the beer. We had previously seen Well's banana bread beer, and I thought to use that, but upon searching the beer section, it had disappeared. That left me staring at the beer varieties to come up with a contingency plan.

After staring at the selection for about five minutes, I spied the Matilda bottle from Goose Island. It was larger than a regular bottle, but as David pointed out, I could always drink the rest.
My decision was made when I recalled our tasting notes on this year's Matilda batch at the Goose Island Burgers and Beer. David and I both tasted strong banana notes. Perfect!

Basic beer bread recipes vary, but commonly use 3 cups of self rising flour, a bottle of beer, and 3 tablespoons of sugar. I decided to modify this recipe on my own. I am very excited to report that I may have possibly created the best banana beer bread muffins on the entire planet. I'm not kidding. All the ingredients work together to create a shining beacon of banana bread muffin deliciousness.

Here's the final recipe:

Banana Butterscotch Matilda Muffins:

3 cups self rising flour
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon vanilla
4 red mashed bananas
12 fluid ounces of beer
¾ cup sugar
1 cup butterscotch chips
1-1 ½ cups chopped pecans

Notes: a little more beer and flour won't really hurt. Whenever I'm in the kitchen, measurements are never exact.

I had a lot of fun mashing the bananas

I decided that a struesel topping would make it extra tasty, so I whipped that up:

Struesel topping:

1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup of pecans
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
Melt the butter in the microwave and stir well.

I baked the muffins at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, checking on them often.

I made some naked and without struesel for quality control

I also made a small loaf, which I baked on 375 for about 40 minutes.