Each bite is a perfect combination of sweet, salty, and satisfying. These rich Guinness brownies with luscious butterscotch topping are great for game days, St. Patrick’s Day, or any celebratory occasion!
Think beer is just for drinking? Think again! Beer is a versatile ingredient in both sweet and savory dishes.
These brownies are made with stout beer. Stout is a rich, dark, and flavorful beer known for its full-bodied flavor and creamy texture. There are several different types of stout beer. Dry stout also known as Irish stout is by the most well known type.
In the United States, Guinness is synonymous with dry stout. It’s also the most widely available stout throughout the country.
Stout beers pair will with hearty meat dishes as well as sweet chocolate desserts. Use stout to make stout bread, perfect for grilled cheese sandwiches! Satisfy your sweet tooth with a few scoops of homemade stout ice cream topped with hot chocolate fudge.
For the ultimate game day sweet snack, you have to make these Guinness brownies! These beer brownies are perfect for St. Patrick’s day celebrations, Easter parties, and other springtime gatherings.
Ingredients
For best results, measure ingredients by weight using a kitchen scale. Otherwise, if you prefer volume measurements (cups), use the spoon and level method to properly measure flour.
These Guinness brownies use your standard brownie ingredients with the exception of one ingredient- beer! You will need butter, sugar, eggs, flour, and salt. In addition, gather:
- Dark Chocolate: Use high-quality dark chocolate (meaning at least 55% cocoa). Highly recommend Ghirardelli intense dark chocolate bars, Lindt excellent bar, and Trader Joe’s dark chocolate bars. If the cocoa percent isn’t listed, it’s not worth using and will likely be too sweet for this recipe.
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder: Plain cocoa powder often labeled as natural cocoa powder. Dutch-processed cocoa powder also works. Stay away from cacao powder. That’s a completely different product.
- Brown Sugar: Dark brown sugar has a bit more molasses than light brown sugar. Either sugar may be used. Dark brown sugar does provide a slightly richer, warmer flavor.
- Stout Beer: Guinness stout beer is the most commonly available brand. You may use any stout beer. The beer is heat and cooked down to intensify its flavors.
- Chocolate Chips: The semi-sweet chocolate chips are folded into the batter before baking. Mini chocolate chips work best. You may sub in standard chocolate chips or chocolate chunks. However, it may be a bit more difficult to achieve clean slices with larger chocolate pieces.
Recipe Frosting Variations
These Guinness brownies or chocolate stout brownies are topped with sweet and creamy butterscotch fudge frosting. Sweet butterscotch pairs well with the slightly bitter dark chocolate brownies.
Butterscotch is simply made by melting together brown sugar and butter. Turn butterscotch sauce into fudge by mixing it with powdered sugar (confectioners’ sugar or icing sugar) with cream. The creamy fudge will harden and set over time.
Baileys Irish Cream Frosting: Simply whip together 1 cup softened butter with 2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar. Add in 2 tablespoons Baileys, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt. Beat until smooth and creamy.
Whipped Chocolate Ganache: Use the whipped ganache topping from these ultimate chocolate cupcakes.
Thick or Thin Brownies
These Guinness brownies are dense and fudge-like in texture. The rich, luscious butterscotch fudge topping adds sweetness to the dark chocolate brownies. And, the salty pretzel adds that much needed crunch!
You may bake the batter in either one 8-inch square baking pan to achieve thick brownies as shown in the image above. Or, use a 9×13-inch baking pan to produce thin brownies. Two 8-inch square pans may also be used to make thin brownies.
These brownies are perfectly portioned for a quick bite-sized treat. Each brownie bite is topped with one mini pretzel!
See the three distinct layers? It’s everything you could want in a dessert. Sweet, salty, crunchy, and just slightly bitter.
Reduce Stout Beer
Stout beer is a necessary ingredient! The Guinness flavor is not overpowering. For best results, heat and reduce the beer to concentrate its flavors.
Pour the stout beer into a sauce pot. Bring to a boil. Continue to boil over high heat for about 5 minutes. Water will evaporate from the beer during this heating process. You will start with 12 fluid ounces (about 1 1/2 cups ) of liquid and end up with about 6 fluid ounces (3/4 cup).
The chocolate batter and sweet butterscotch topping mellows out any bitterness from the stout beer.
No need to use Guinness. Use any stout beer you happen to have. Depending on the season, there is a stout for every occasion! There are cocoa-infused imperial stouts during Valentine’s Day, gingerbread stouts during the holiday season, and even bourbel barrel aged stouts around Father’s Day. Take your pick and experiment!
Mixing Brownie Batter
- Cook and reduce stout beer. Set aside.
- Melt the butter and chopped chocolate stovetop. Alternatively, you may gently melt the ingredients in the microwave in intervals at half power.
- Add granulated sugar and brown sugar to melted mixture. Some of the sugar will dissolve.
- Transfer mixture to a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or use an electric hand mixer and a large mixing bowl.
- Slowly incorporate eggs to batter, one at a time.
- Whisk dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Alternate adding dry ingredients and Guinness to batter. Start and end with the dry mixture.
- Fold in the chocolate chips. Then, transfer to prepared baking pan.
Storage and Leftovers
These Guinness brownies with butterscotch fudge are best served the same day they are assembled.
The exposed pretzels will stale overtime. If you plan of making these ahead of time (or want brownies that are better for leftovers), use chocolate covered pretzels.
Related Recipes
Guinness Brownies with Butterscotch Fudge
Ingredients
Guiness Brownies
- 1½ cup Guinness stout beer, (12 fl oz bottle), or any stout beer of choice
- ½ cup unsalted butter, (113 g)
- 1 ½ cup dark chocolate, (226 g) at least 55% cocoa content*, chopped
- ½ cup granulated sugar, (100 g)
- ½ cup dark brown sugar, (100 g), packed
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, (130 g)
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, (42 g)
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt, or fine sea salt
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips, (180 g)
Butterscotch Fudge
- ½ cup unsalted butter, (113 g)
- 1 cup brown sugar, (200 g) packed
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar, (227 g)
- 3 Tablespoons heavy cream, (43 g)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla paste, or pure vanilla extract
- salted pretzels, as needed to garnish
Instructions
Guiness Brownies
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 9×13-inch baking pan* with parchment paper.Grease and set aside.
- Pour Guinness into a heavy bottom sauce pot. Bring a boil. Continue to boil over high heat for about 5 minutes until liquid has reduced to 6 oz (¾ cup).
- In a large saucepan, melt butter and chocolate over medium-low heat. Once melted, add sugar and brown sugar. Stir to combine. Transfer to bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Let sit for 5 minutes to cool down.
- With the mixer running on medium speed, add eggs one at a time, making sure each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next.
- Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Alternate adding dry mixture and reduced Guinness to the batter. Starting and ending with the dry mixture. Fold in chocolate chips.
- Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 25-28 minutes until toothpick inserted in the center of the brownie comes out clean. Let cool on rack.
Butterscotch Fudge
- In a medium sauce pan, melt together butter, brown sugar, and salt. Heat over medium heat until sugar mixture starts to boil. Let simmer for one minute. Then remove from heat.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, mix confectioners sugar, cream, and vanilla. Once mixture is paste like, slowly add the slightly cooled butter-sugar mix. Beat at low-medium speed until thoroughly combined.
- Immediately pour over cooled brownies and level with an offset spatula. If desired, place pretzels on top of fudge. Let fudge set before cutting. Serve same day.
Notes
- Any kind of high quality dark chocolate (meaning at least 55% cocoa) works. Highly recommend Ghirardelli intense dark chocolate bars, Lindt excellent bar, and Trader Joe’s dark chocolate bars. I used 72% dark chocolate.
- Use regular, plain unsweetened cocoa powder. It is often labeled as natural cocoa powder. Dutch-processed cocoa powder also works.
- Mini chocolate chips slices easier than if you use standard chocolate chips or chocolate chunks.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this recipe? Rate & comment below!
How did you cut them so perfectly?
I used a really sharp 9 inch chef’s knife. Get the sharp point on one end of the brownies then cut down. Don’t drag the knife, just let it chop through the brownies then bring it back up. Wipe it clean and cut again.
Thank you. That cutting method worked perfectly for me. :)
Um…wow. Guinness is good, butterscotch is amazing, pretzels are my favorite snack but combining them all together??? Pure Genius!
Thanks! Its pure deliciousness!
I just made the Homer Simpson drool noise in my head when I saw this photo. PERFECT for those of us hosting a bunch of loud boys for the superbowl next week!
Nom nom nom! I love The Simpsons. I’ve always wanted to make that donut with the sprinkles and pink glaze. Have fun with the boys next Sunday!
Love the pretzels on top! Makes the sweet treats more delightful to my tastebuds, since there is that mild salty flavor to break the flavor. What a perfect way to enjoy game night. Lovely post!
Thank you! Yeah, its pretty amazing how adding a little bit of salt can make the dessert taste so much better.
Whoa! These look awesome. I will be making them later tonight and just shared on Facebook–too amazing not to! xo
Thank you, Rosie! I really appreciate you sharing the post! :)
These look amazing! And I love your photography. GO GIANTS!!!!!
Thank you! Yay, Giants! :)
I love this idea–and I love pretzels with sweets and chocolate! Can’t wait to try these bars.
The salt and crunch of pretzels surprisingly makes everything better! Hope you enjoy them :)
Whoa…what an amazing combo! Brownies and butterscotch as separate entities are fantastic enough. Together, they must be heaven. I love the little pretzel topper!
I spread a thin layer of butterscotch on the brownies and saved the rest for myself! ;) Next time I make these I’ll have to use chocolate dipped pretzels because the pretzels get stale pretty quick.
I just may have to try these…. Have an event coming up and these could be a hit!! :)
Yes, please try them!
These brownies look amazing! Love the pretzels on top and the fact that Guinness is in there. Very creative. I always find delicious things on your site, so not sure why I am not already a follower but I am now. Have a great day!
Thanks, Tina! So glad you’ve decided to be a follower :)