Chocolate Stout Brownies with Irish Cream Frosting
Guinness Chocolate Stout Brownies with Irish Cream Frosting are perfect all year round! Add semi-sweet, milk chocolate, or white chocolate chips.
I promised to make this batch of Guinness Chocolate Stout Brownies with Irish Cream Frosting for a school fundraiser for the school some of the kids on my street go to. I had to keep a couple for photos and let me tell you, I hope someone paid the big bucks for these; they were outstanding!
I know the mention of beer and brownies might still be a shocker for some but trust me, the results are amazing. This is so not a brownie that tastes like beer.
Guinness stout beer has both roast coffee and caramel undertones and when combined with chocolate they make the perfect pair. Altogether they combine for such a rich chocolate flavor with a hint of malt in the background.
I thought that intense flavor would be well matched with the sweetness of Irish Cream and it worked splendidly. Of note, while any alcohol in the beer bakes off while in the oven, the Irish Cream does mean there is a small amount of alcohol present in the icing. Still, not enough that I would worry if a child or pregnant woman was eating one brownie.
With typically 15-20% alcohol by volume, the frosting only uses about 4 Tablespoons and that is added to one cup of butter and almost four cups of frosting so the actual alcohol content of one brownie is minimal.
I was provided with a bottle of Five Farms Irish Cream last year and I was hooked. A local Denver friend mentioned once that he could not find any but a quick search at the Five Farms Irish Cream website produced numerous results for me so it is being stocked all over now.
These were easy to make too, no complicated steps and no mixer required. They are more of the gooey brownie variety, there is no leavening, so they don’t rise like cake. My favorite!
- Melt the butter and chocolate over medium heat til melted
- Combine all the remaining ingredients in the same pan in the order indicated in the recipe and pour into a 9X13″ pan
- Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, cool completely
- Frost with the Irish Cream Frosting and garnish with sprinkles if using
- Devour!
The one thing I think most important? I never bake cakes or brownies any more without using Parchment Paper in the bottom of my pans. Some recipes now mention the use but for me, the security of knowing that nothing will ever stick again has me using it for everything, whether a recipe calls for it or not.
I’ve even got these Round Cake Pan pieces of parchment for cakes. I’m watching Sugar Rush on Netflix and I think it’s high time they include those rounds so baker’s don’t have their cakes stick in the pans! SO easy!
While the dough is chocolate and more chocolate I obviously was not sure that was enough…so I included some chocolate chips. I used semi-sweet but also added some white chocolate chips for contrast. If your family would enjoy a brownie that is not quite so dark, use milk chocolate chips…make it your own version!
I garnished these for this post to match up with St. Patrick’s Day but the sprinkles are optional; don’t limit these to just one day each year. Still, if you want to decorate yours, I have to recommend that you use sanding sugar for cakes and cookies. The grains are much larger and so much prettier I think! A bonus? It’s what I love for rimming cocktail glasses too!
PIN IT! ‘Guinness Chocolate Brownies with Irish Cream Frosting’
Chocolate Stout Brownies with Irish Cream Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
- 1 cup cocoa
- 2 ½ cups sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 large eggs beaten
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ¾ cup stout
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ½ cup white chocolate chips
For the Buttercream
- 1 cup butter 2 sticks, at room temperature
- 3 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 4 Tablespoons Bailey's Irish Cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
To Garnish
- Green and White Sugar Sprinkles optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Spray a 9x13" pan with cooking spray and then cut parchment paper for the bottom. Spray the paper once it's inserted in the pan.
- Combine the butter and unsweetened chocolate in a large saucepan and heat on medium until both are melted. Stir often and watch carefully.
- Remove from the heat and whisk in cocoa, sugar, and salt (mixture will be grainy - keep going). Add the beaten eggs and vanilla; combine well and then beat in the beer.
- Whisk in the flour just until fully incorporated then stir in the chocolate and white chocolate chips.
- Spread the batter into the pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely.
- Once the brownies are cool, make the frosting. Beat the butter until smooth and gradually add in the powdered sugar. Add the Bailey's and vanilla extract and beat to incorporate. Add additional Bailey's or milk if needed if the mixture is too stiff.
- Frost and decorate the brownies and let sit for 30 minutes before cutting.
Hi Barbara, I’m excited to make the divine looking Stout Brownies next week. I don’t see the quantity of white chocolate chips in the ingredients. Thank you in advance.
Shoot, sorry about that. I put in about a half a cup of white chocolate chips. Honestly that’s all I had I might have put in a whole cup!
I’ll get that recipe changed tomorrow but for some reason I can’t modify that recipe card piece when I’m on my phone but thanks so much for the heads up!
Thank you for the quick reply Barbara. I just realized I have another question please. Do you prefer Dutch processed or regular cocoa powder for ‘this recipe? I noticed when looking online the texture of baked goods is different in the different cocoa powders too. My green sparkling sugar crystals are arriving tmw. I can almost taste these they look so good.
I only had Dutch processed so that’s what I used.
I love that you actually bought the green crystals too! They do add such a sparkly festive look to what otherwise would be very plain-looking brownies. Hope you enjoy them as much as we did!
I tried sending you a photo but couldn’t see a way to attach!
Guinness is really good with chocolate. Or carrots, actually — which we’re featuring this week. 🙂 Love Guinness any time, but we always have some at hand at this time of the year. Good recipe — thanks.
I have never been a big beer fan but I went to a beer tasting at an Irish pub in downtown Denver and I absolutely loved Guinness with a beef dish. So if I’m not putting it into a chocolate recipe then I really like it with a hamburger. Not the way the Irish serve it though, nope, I still like my beer ice cold!