Guinness Brownies with Butterscotch Fudge

Guinness Brownies with Butterscotch and Pretzels

5 from 3 votes

Guinness Brownies with Butterscotch Fudge

These Guinness brownies are topped with butterscotch fudge and garnished with a crunchy salted pretzel.

Yield: 9x13-inch pan or two 8-inch square pans (for thin brownies) or one 8-inch square (for thick brownies)

Prep Time25

Cook Time25

Cooling Time30

Total Time1 20

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: pieces

Author: Maryanne Cabrera

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 9x13-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

Ingredients:

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.

Baking Time: If using one 8-inch square pan for thick brownies, bake for 30-35 minutes. Insert toothpick in center of brownies to check for doneness.

Serving & Leftovers: Serve same day. Pretzels will get stale overtime. If the brownies are going to sit out awhile, I suggest using chocolate covered pretzels.

*estimated nutritional content is for 9x13-inch brownie pan

Nutrition