A friend of mine has been having some drama in her life. I didn’t know about it, and I feel bad about it. So I did the only thing I could do which is to bake something for her. Since my girl really likes stout beers, I wanted to incorporate this as an ingredient. Thanks to The Google, I found a recipe for stout cookies, which goes a little somethin’ like this:

Stout syrup: 24 oz of stout (I used Great Lakes’ Blackout Stout) & 5 T of sugar

Cookies: 1/2 c butter (softened), 2/3 c white sugar, 1/3 c brown sugar, 1 egg, 1 t vanilla, 3/4 c flour, 1/3 c cocoa powder, 1/8 t salt, 1/4 baking soda (unless you are using pre-alkalized cocoa and then you’d want to use baking powder), 1/3 c of the stout syrup

Bring the stout and 5 T of sugar to a boil and then reduce it to a “strong simmer”. Let it boil away until it is the consistency of thin honey…it will, per the recipe, be about 1/3 cup. Here is where I made my first error. I was brewing beer with Jeff and we were brewing outside. So I was running back and forth between the kitchen and the back patio. I didn’t take that much care with it and got impatient with it and eventually just said “fuck it” and dumped it in the mix.

But before that…

…I mixed the dry ingredients in a bowl. In my mixer bowl, I put the butter, sugar and eggs and mixed it up for about 2 minutes. At some point, I realized that the stout mixture wasn’t boiling down and that is when I said “fuck it” and dumped it in. Then I added the dry stuff. Shit. I immediately realized my mistake. The mixture was way too runny and there was no way it could be shaped into cookies, unless you like your cookies to look like stained glass. So I said “fuck it” again and doubled the recipe. I put in additional butter, white sugar, brown sugar, an egg, vanilla, flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda. Then I mixed it up some more but it was still kinda runny. So yet again I said “fuck it” and greased my brownie pan. I dumped in the mixture and put it in the oven for 25 minutes (at 350 degrees). It was still gooey after the time passed so I put it in for 20 more minutes and HOLY SHIT WAS IT GOOD!!!! I ain’t playin’ with ya–it was some stouty chocolately goodness. I don’t even like chocolate that much and I was eating it out of the pan. To be pretty, I sprinkled some confectioners sugar on top. Yum.

I haven’t taken it to my friend’s house yet so I don’t know if she’ll like it or not. But I did and dammit, sometimes you gotta say “what the fuck”, or in my case, “fuck it”.