This recipe made a very thin batter, which in turn created very thin pancakes. Which isn’t a problem, though it is different from what I normally make (we’re into thick, fluffy ones). Regardless of our preferred type of pancake, these were delicious. I made a slight change to the original recipe. It called for orange peel, but I couldn’t find the bottle of dried Valencia orange peel I know I have in my spices. Instead, I used the zest of a blood orange, because that’s what I had (and my family adores blood oranges).

One thing that should be noted is that my pancakes turned out a lot darker looking than the picture on the original recipe. Either they used a not quite so dark beer, or they used a generic pancakes picture.

Spiced Dark Craft Beer Pancakes

1 cup sifted all purpose flour
¼ granulated sugar
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup beer
2 tbsp melted butter
½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp orange zest

In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients and spices. Add all the wet ingredients to the dry and whisk until combined. It’s okay if there are lumps – over mixing will make bad pancakes.

Heat skillet or griddle on medium, and coat with butter pan spray. Add batter in ¼ cups and wait for bubbles to form, flip and cook until golden brown.

Serve with some additional orange peel, butter and pure maple syrup.

The first one is Banana Peanut Butter Spent Grain Muffins, based on the Banana Peanut Butter Oatmeal Muffins I found at Eat Me, Delicious. I substituted 1 1/2 cups of spent grains (I believe it was crystal malt) for the 1 cup of quick oats. The muffins are delicious, and extremely moist – almost too moist. Next time, I think I’ll cut the buttermilk back to 1/2 cup.

Banana Peanut Butter Spent Grain Muffins

 
Adapted from Eat Me, Delicious (http://www.eatmedelicious.com/2009/09/banana-peanut-butter-oatmeal-muffins.html)

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups spent grains
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cup mashed banana (about 2 med.)
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
1 cup light buttermilk

Preheat oven to 375F. Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin tin.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, spent grains, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a medium bowl, whisk together vegetable oil, brown sugar, eggs, mashed banana, peanut butter and buttermilk until very smooth, making sure all egg has been well-incorporated. Pour into flour mixture and stir until no streaks of flour remain.

Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin tin, filling each just about up to the top.

Bake for 16-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the top springs back when lightly pressed.

Remove muffins from tin and cool on a wire rack.

Makes 14.

NOTE: The batter tastes absolutely horrid, but when baked it’s wonderful!

The recipe is in metric for the most part, but I’m sure you can figure out the conversions.

Chocolate Guinness Cake

 
Makes one huge cake.

250ml Guinness
250g butter (1 cup)
75g cocoa (a rounded 1/2 cup)
400g caster sugar (2 cups)
140ml sour cream
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
275g all purpose flour (2 1/4 cups)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

for the icing:
300g cream cheese
150g icing sugar (1 cup)
125ml cream

Preheat the oven to 180C, and grease and line (yes! lining is essential – if you don’t line it, you’ll never get it out of the pan in one piece) a 23 centimetre springform tin.

Pour the Guinness into a large saucepan, and add the sliced butter. Heat until the butter is melted, and remove the saucepan from the heat. Whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla, then pour into the saucepan. Finally, beat in the flour and bicarb.

Pour the batter into the greased and lined tin, and bake for 45 mins to an hour. Leave to get completely cool in the tin, as it’s quite a damp cake.

For the icing, beat the icing sugar and cream cheese together. Add the cream, and beat again until it’s a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cake until it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.

You’ll notice that this soup uses beef stock rather than chicken stock, like most other cheese soup recipes do. We’ve found we prefer the depth of flavor that comes from the beef stock, and it holds up better to the stronger flavored beers we like to cook with.

Autumn Beer & Cheese Soup

8 oz maple smoked bacon, chopped
2 tbsp butter
1 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup flour
4 cups beef stock
4 cups apple cider
24 oz beer, pale ale preferred
4 cups shredded sharp cheddar

Put bacon into cold soup pot. Cook bacon over medium high heat until crispy. Add the butter, onions, celery and salt, and cook for five minutes, or until the onions and celery are soft. Sprinkle the flour over the onion mixture and cook, stirring constantly, for three minutes.

Add beef stock, apple cider and beer to the pot. Stir well, scraping up all the bits off the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the cheese, 1 cup at a time, to the soup, stirring until melted.

Serve nice and hot. Garnish with chopped fresh parsley and garlic croutons.

Makes 8 good-sized dinner servings.