About this feature
New cookbooks flood the market every week. This feature will help you make sense of what’s new and what’s worth trying out. Email your questions and ideas to connie.post@coxinc.com
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ONLINE: Love to cook and entertain? Check out all my cooking tips and articles on our new Food & Dining channel at MyDaytonDailyNews.com
History’s full of failed inventions.
The automatic spaghetti twirler and square watermelons didn’t work out; neither did Betamax and the flying military tank. Thank goodness we don’t wear tiny umbrellas on the tops of our shoes when it rains; and who among us remembers the Apple Newton?
Some things we can live without. Others enhance the human condition, and some of the best haven’t changed much over time — cardboard boxes, shoelaces, steering wheels, spoons and rubber bands, for example.
Simple and brilliant.
Many people would also put beer in the simple-and-brilliant category. The tasty, fermented beverage made out of grains, yeast and sugar has been around for at least 7,000 years. Some archaeologists regard beer as a cornerstone of civilization.
Beer is big business in the United States, and it looks like the craft beer sector of the industry will only continue to grow. In 2014, craft beer grew 17.6 percent, accounting for 11 percent of the total U.S. beer market, boasts the Brewers Association.
But humanity cannot live by beer alone, which is why Jacquelyn Dodd has provided the world with recipes that incorporate beer. Dodd’s “The Craft Beer Cookbook” came out in 2013, and the Beeroness, as she calls herself, has a new book out: “The Craft Beer Bites Cookbook: 100 Recipes for Sliders, Skewers, Mini Desserts, and More — All Made with Beer.” The recipes range from Beer Poached Lobster Sliders and Maple Porter-glazed Bacon-wrapped Dates to Seven-layer Jalapeno IPA Hummus Dip and Beer-battered Avocado Fries.
There’s also a chapter on desserts. I’ve looked them all over, and think this one will definitely stand the test of time:
CHOCOLATE STOUT WHOOPIE PIES WITH CHOCOLATE CREAM CHEESE FILLING (Page 192)
For the cake
2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 large egg
2/3 cup chocolate stout
For the filling
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 to 4 tablespoons chocolate stout
In a medium-sized bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda and baking powder; set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the butter, brown sugar and white sugar and beat on high until well combined. Add the egg and beat until well combined, scraping the bottom of the bowl to ensure all the ingredients are well combined. Stir in the stout.
Add the dry ingredients and stir until just combined, scraping the bottom of the bowl to ensure that all the ingredients are well combined. Refrigerate the dough until chilled, about 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Using a cookie scoop, scoop mounds of dough onto 2 greased cookie sheets. Bake until cakes spring back when lightly touched, about 12 minutes. Allow to cool completely.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the softened cream cheese and butter. Beat on high until well combined and free of any lumps. Add the powdered sugar and cocoa powder; starting on low speed and building up to medium speed, beat until well combined.
Our assessment: I took a plate of these whoopie pies to work and days later several of my colleagues were still raving about them. The stout adds dimension to the flavor of the chocolate, and the filling is absolutely divine. I used Young's Double Chocolate Stout, which has an alcohol content of 5.2 percent (if you're worried about the alcohol content, consider this: vanilla extract is at least 35 percent alcohol).
I will let you know that I initially suffered a failure trying to make these whoopie pies. My first batch of cookies flopped because I was in a hurry and tried to soften the butter in the microwave. The cookies turned out flat as a pancake rather than pretty mounds (but they were still quite tasty). For the second batch, I let the sticks of butter soften at room temperature for about 45 minutes, then made sure I didn’t overmix the ingredients. Melting or oversoftening the butter reduces little air pockets from forming in the batter while it’s baking. Little air pockets cause steam that helps make the batter rise.
Also, while making this recipe, I broke my cookie scoop so I simply rolled the batter in my palms to make balls.
In this case, persistence paid off.
From the book: The Craft Beer Bites Cookbook: 100 Recipes for Sliders, Skewers, Mini Desserts and More — All Made with Beer" by Jacquelyn Dodd; 222 pages, $19.99. Published by Adams Media, 2015.
In her own words: "Use the recipes as an excuse to try a beer you've never had or as a way to showcase the flavors of a beer you're in love with. Use it as a way to throw a party, celebrate beer, and grow a community of your own. Long live beer, and beer people." — Jacquelyn Dodd
And in case you didn't know: The Apple Newton was a personal digital assistant (PDA) with handwriting recognition. Apple Computers released the device in 1995, then discontinued it in 1998. Its handwriting recognition software was prone to errors.
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