Guinness Muffins #3: A Culinary Journey

A few weeks ago, I left a comment on Janelle's craft blog "Tchotchke Attack" congratulating her on her awesome loaf of beer bread. In that comment, I vocalized my idea for making Guinness muffins. It seemed pretty innocent at the time, but I should have known better than to throw such an earth-shattering idea around without a recipe to back it up.

Sure enough, Janelle came to NTSC and posted a comment asking for a recipe. A quick search on the internet found only this recipe. Despite it's Irish pedigree, it contained lots of extra junk like sultanas and marmalade. I wanted a recipe that made Guinness muffins, not Guinness-sultana-marmalade muffins. With no formula to provide Janelle, I decided undertake the seemingly impossible mission of creating one.

I turned to AB's second cookbook, I'm Just Here for More Food for my starter recipe. After reading the entire "Muffin Method" section as well as boning up on the science of chemical leaveners, I determined that his "Old School Muffin" (basic) recipe was a good start.

I spent an hour at the local bookstore searching through a stack of cookbooks for the key to adding a liquid flavorant to the muffins, but came up zeros. I found a million ways to incorporate fruit, nuts and the like, but nothing that would lead me to the end result I was after. The big question was how beer would affect the leavening. A quick search of the internet revealed that the PH of beer is the same as that of yogurt - which was common in many muffin recipes I'd found. This allowed me to substitute Guinness for the yogurt at will without significantly tampering with the leavening.

I'll spare you the 3 iterations I went through to get to my final recipe. Suffice to say I made a few changes including:

• Reducing, then eliminating the yogurt and replacing it with Guinness (of course)
• Changing from regular sugar to brown sugar to brown sugar and honey (for sweetness and depth of flavor)
• Reducing the oil and replacing it with unsweetened applesauce (for moistness)
  

The recipe makes a pretty moist batter, although the texture of the finished muffins were perfect. I may add a little flour next time, but for now if it ain't broke don't fix it. The results of this project turned out just like I'd imagined - slightly sweet and with a not-so-subtle Guinness richness and smokiness. Almost like a strong molasses taste, but more complex and with a strong hint of the black stuff.

In closing, I'll humbly add that I'm no expert baker, so if anyone has suggestions for improvement, please let me know. I baked 36 muffins for the benefit of the whole world, not just for myself. Ok...some for myself.

Guinness Muffins #3

300g (2 1/4) cups AP Flour
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 pinch Salt

1 cup Guinness Extra Stout
1/3 cup Light Brown Sugar, packed
1/3 cup Honey
1 Egg
1 Egg Yolk (use the whites for omlettes)
1/4 cup Vegetable Oil
1/4 cup Unsweetened Apple Sauce

Preheat oven to 350°.

Pulse flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a food processor for 15 seconds to sift ingredients and combine. Dump into a large mixing bowl and set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk remaining ingredients together until thoroughly combined.

Spray a regular muffin tin with Baker's Joy (or equivalent). Pour the wet ingredients on top of the dry and whisk for 10 seconds - until there are no large pockets of flour, but not until the batter is smooth. Lumps will cook out. Portion into 12 regular muffin cups.

Place in oven and raise the temperature to 375°. Cook for 16-18 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Don't overcook them!

Recipe makes enough batter for 12+ muffins. The entire batch of batter is 53 points, so as I made them each muffin is 4.5 points.

P.S. - I suppose if you really wanted to, you could invite som raisins to the party. That would probably up the flavor and texture content of the finished product. I'd guess 3/4 cup would do the trick - just soak them in Guinness first, for goodness sake.