Oh boy! These little treats combine my favorites: cupcakes and beer. Rarely does the occasion present itself where the two meet gracefully… until now. Enter the Chocolate Stout Cupcake. These have rich chocolate flavor with notes of creamy coffee from the stout (and a hit of instant coffee grounds). Add local walnuts, and you’ve got one satisfying cupcake!

Beer lovers and cupcake lovers rejoice!

Don’t forget to support your local brewer and select a stout made nearby. You don’t have to travel to Ireland to get good beer.

Locavore note: When it comes to baking supplies, most will likely be traveling some distance. Vanilla and coffee, for instance, come from tropical climates. But compared to shipping cases of beer, spices and coffees come in a smaller mass and last much longer. By sourcing dairy locally, these cupcakes stay fairly “green.” And depending on where you live, you may even be able to find locally-sourced flour.



Chocolate Stout Cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 cup stout beer, such as Sierra Nevada Stout
1 ½ sticks (12 Tablespoons) unsalted butter
1 scant cup Valrona cocoa powder (this type of cocoa has a richer, deeper cocoa flavor)
2 cups organic granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs
½ cup organic buttermilk
1 teaspoon instant coffee grounds
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped walnuts

Farmers’ market fare: eggs, walnuts, butter
Locally sourced from California: buttermilk, stout
Grocery store (non-local) products: cocoa powder, sugar, flour, baking soda, salt, coffee, vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine stout and butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Allow butter to melt, stirring occasionally. When butter has melted, remove pan from heat. Whisk in cocoa powder and set aside.

Lightly grease cupcake pans.

In a large mixing bowl, combine sugar, flour, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine.

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, and instant coffee. Pour this into the cocoa mixture (which should now be cool) and whisk together until combined. Add this to the flour mixture and stir to combine. Mix in the walnuts.

Fill cupcake tins 2/3 full. Do not over-fill them, because the batter will expand outward (not upward) and make sloppy-looking cupcakes. It also helps to allow the filled pans to rest for 10 minutes before baking. This creates a perfect peak on each cupcake.

Bake for 20-23 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out clean. Allow to cool in the cupcake pan for about 5 minutes, and then transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely. When they are cool, frost with chocolate ganache.

Chocolate Ganache Frosting
Ingredients:
1 cup chocolate chips (I use 65% cocoa, or dark chocolate chips)
½ cup hot coffee, or water with 1 Tablespoon instant coffee grounds

Using a microwave-safe bowl, heat the chocolate chips for about 30 seconds. Remove from microwave and stir with a spoon. Return to microwave for another 30 seconds. Remove from microwave and stir.

If some of the chips have begun to melt (they won’t melt into a liquid, which is why you need to stir to determine whether they’re beginning to melt), stir in about 2 Tablespoons of the hot coffee and stir again. If the chips do not melt completely, return to the microwave again for about 15 seconds. Remove and stir. Do not overheat! Chocolate will become hard and impossible to melt if you overheat it. Continue to add hot coffee a few tablespoons at a time, stirring until the chocolate becomes creamy.

You should have a creamy chocolate that can be spooned onto each cupcake. Drop about 2 Tablespoons onto the top of one cupcake. Using the back of a clean spoon, evenly coat the top of the cupcake with the ganache. Repeat until all the cupcakes are topped.

You may want to make the ganache a ½-batch at a time to ensure the chocolate doesn’t harden before you are done.

Labels: beer, beer cupcake, brew inspired recipe, Chocolate Stout Cupcake recipe, cupcake, stout, Valrona chocolate

Thirst-quenching, delicious beer! The beverage of football players and frat parties has finally become refined. Farewell, watery light beer! Hello, American craft ales!

I am a proud beer snob. I’m not ashamed to admit it. Yet, I’ve come a long way in my journey. When I drank my first beer (a tasteless brew from a giant corporation), I doused my cup with Mt. Dew. Yes, I hated it that much. A few years later, I had the good fortune of living in Denmark, where I was introduced to a finer lager. And thus my taste for good ale blossomed.

Today, I stick to microbrews. (No Mt. Dew needed.) Smooth amber ales will win my heart over any time! I’m also quite fond of good pale ales and hoppy IPAs. I like my beer to slap me in the face with bold flavor. Or, on a hot summer day, I’ll grab a lager and throw in a twist of lime to cool the heat. And while others are clinking glasses of wine, I’ll opt instead for a frothy brew any day.

Yes, I shall forever remain a true beer fan. And in celebration of Sacramento Beer Week, which kicks off tomorrow, I’m putting my beverage-of-choice to the ultimate locavore test. Is it green enough?—and I don’t mean adding food coloring as they do on St. Patty’s Day.

All hail my green beer experiment! I have done the research for you so that you might drink in peace. Grab a pint and let’s celebrate!!

Green Beer Tips:
1) Head to the Nearest Pub (on bike!): Beer containers maximize their environmental footprint. All those bottles and cans start to add up. The greenest beer container? The keg! So, pedal on over to your local pub to keep your brew green.

2) Order Local: Now that you’re comfortably seated at your local bar, order the local brew. For those of us here in Sac Town, ordering locally is easy. From Rubicon to Hoppy, we’ve got some wonderful beers to choose from. You can even remain safely within the 100 mile locavore radius by choosing popular Sierra Nevada ales from Chico, CA. Hell, even if you’re feeling really naughty and want to order one of my favorite brews (Arrogant Bastard) out of San Diego, you’re still lightening the carbon load by not ordering that bicyclist’s beer from Colorado or that Irish brew from across the ocean. Cali’s got it going on when it comes to local beers.

3) Go Organic: Crops of hops are ubiquitously doused in fungicides. If you want to reduce the amount of pesticide use on our planet, opt for locally-brewed organic ale. Here are a few you might like, conveniently located at a brewer near you: Butte Creek (Chico, CA), Bison Brewing (Berkeley, CA), and Eel River Brewing Company (Fortuna, CA).

4) Go Solar: You can minimize your beer’s carbon footstep even further by buying from a solar-powered brewery. Boont Amber Ale is one such delightful beer, and it’s crafted in Boonville, CA—just a stone’s throw away (well, only three hours—still closer than Colorado!). Sierra Nevada Brewing Company is also solar powered. Now doesn’t that just make your favorite beer taste better!

5) Cool Your Own Beer: Cut down on the amount of energy used to keep your beer cold in the grocery store cooler. Buy room-temperature beer (as they sell it at Trader Joe’s) and throw a few bottles in your frig at home. And for Pete’s sake, don’t run an extra frig just for your cold beverages. Keep only what you need in your kitchen frig. If you’re having a party, buy some ice and throw everything in a tub to save energy.

There you have it: proof that you really can go green while drinking beer! For more reading on the matter, check out this fine article.

All this good news is making me thirsty. I hope to see you at the Colonial Theater opening event for Sacramento Beer Week tomorrow at 6pm! I’d love to raise a glass with you. I’ll also be passing out samples of my tasty Chocolate Stout Cupcakes.

Afterwards, meet me back here throughout the week for brew-inspired recipes like my aforementioned cupcakes and some tasty Purple Potato Wedges marinated in Amber Ale. Cheers!

Labels: Arrogant Bastard, beer, beer environmental footprint, Bison Brewing, Boont Amber Ale, Butte Creek Brewing, Eel River Brewing Company, green beer, Sacramento Beer Week, Sierra Nevada

I hate eating out. When I travel, dining out is always a gamble. Often, I end up settling for artery-clogging fare that I would never considering cooking for myself at home. Such indulgences are fine as a rare treat enjoyed sporadically throughout the year. But when I travel, and good food is hard to find, I end up feeling like I’ve gathered rocks in my gut by the end of the week.

Not so in Seattle! Good food is always easy to find here.

Portage Bay Café
“Grains”—there is an entire section of the menu dedicated to this king-of-the-food-pyramid. Even though the USDA recommends we consume tons of grains in our daily diets, they are often hard to find on breakfast menus, save for the bland, goopy oatmeal served at typical diners. (In fact, I have often had to settle for this. Once, I even paid a whopping $7 for a bowl of the cold, paper-machete-like stuff.)

You can imagine my delight upon discovering multiple varieties of porridge at the Portage Bay Café: chai spiced, fruit-studded, and nut-filled. My stomach growled with anticipation!

Other menu items included hearty grain flap jacks in every variety—including one for vegans. These all came with access to their topping bar, complete with fresh berries and fruits.

The first-rate menu also contained smoked salmon omelets, breakfast scrambles served up with veggies, and oodles of other enticing dishes. White bread was nowhere to be found—only wheat toast prevailed. And every table came adorned not with tiny packets of fruit and corn syrup wrapped in plastic. Instead, we enjoyed heaping containers of homemade preserves with chunks of fruit.

Our party of six waited over an hour to be seated, but some things are well worth the wait. Portage Bay Café is one of them.

Piroshky Piroshky
Speaking of waiting… don’t expect good food to come easy in Seattle. Piroshky Piroshky is no exception. You can smell the fresh flavors around the block as they lure you closer and closer to their source. There’s an air of sweet, spice, and haunting that plays tricks with your nose. But when you find the shop, there’s no denying you’ve come upon something special.

The street-side display case reveals dozens of pillowy pastries, each filled with a different treat. From potato to cardamom, you’ll have a hard time selecting just one. I’ve tried my share over a series of trips to Seattle, and I loved each one in its own special way.

The potato and onion warms the belly and satisfies all needs for pure comfort and savory bliss. The cinnamon, cardamom and raisin twist causes you to lick, lick, lick until every last bit of spice and sweet are removed from your fingers. The rhubarb surprises your mouth with its array of experiences—from the tart of the fruit, to the sweet of the custard-like filling, to the crunch of the sugar topping. And all are surrounded by a golden melting, wispy, buttery dough.

Hale’s Ales
Come hungry!—and thirsty. After an eight-hour hike, I was ready for some serious food. As I ordered a red ale, nachos popped off the menu. Minutes later, a plate of gooey, cheesy tortilla chips piled high with olives and jalapenos appeared along with our beers. The amber ale was smooth and rich with flavor while quenching my thirst. The nachos were pure salt, crunch, and chewy cheese—just like I like them. Slathered in hot sauce, chased by the freshest of ales, this was the perfect post-hike snack.

The most difficult part of the night was not my eight-hour hike. Indeed, it was selecting from the fulfilling menu. Eggplant lasagna, enchiladas, portabella mushroom burgers, classic three-cheese grilled cheese sandwiches, and pizzas studded the menu. This was bar food at its best, yet with the welcome twist of multiple options for vegetarians, including veggie chili.

Always in search of the best pie, I ordered their veggie pesto pizza. It arrived piled high with roasted bell peppers, olives, onion, and tomato atop a gooey cheese and salty, rich pesto sauce. The crust was cracker-crisp—my favorite! Every bite was the perfect combination of chewy cheese, crunchy crust, and tangy vegetables. We left, bellies full (but not sickeningly bursting), and taste buds deeply satisfied.

Labels: beer, breakfast, diners, Hale's Ales, oatmeal, Piroshky Piroshky, pizza, Portage Bay Cafe, restaurant reviews, Seattle