Vanilla Pineapple IPA Popsicles | #POPSICLEWEEK

It’s that magical first-week-of-summer time. When everything seems possible, when we shed our winter skins and people ride bikes naked through the streets, the sun sets later and later each night, barbeques and beers on patios are plentiful and stretch past our pre-solstice bed-times, camping plans and picnic plans and beach-day plans are dreamt up and mapped out, and here in the PNW, we wear tank tops and flip flops one day, rainboots and jackets the next, constantly unprepared for the heat or the rain. It’s also the time of year when Billy of Wit & Vinegar hosts Popsicle Week!

Baked Chocolate Stout Donuts with Irish Cream Glaze

I love St. Patrick's day! But, to be fair, i don't really know much about actual St. Paddy's day in actual Ireland (even though last year I made this traditional Irish  snack plate!). The St. Patrick's day I know is all about wearing green (and pinching people who aren't wearing green), eating corned beef and cabbage, drinking green beer and Irish whiskey, and spiking everything you can with stout beer and Irish cream. 

Spike all the things! Baked chocolate Stout and Irish Cream donuts! Let's do this! 

Guys, this donut pan business is dangerous! They're so easy and fun and cute! I could make donuts for every holiday. Friday is a holiday, right? 

The baked cake portion of these is dense and chocolaty, with a little bit of stout flavor shining through. Use your favorite Irish stout, or find something fun. I used a salted caramel stout. What! Yep, it happened! It exists! The glaze is all boozy and Irish creamy. Ps. You can make your own Irish cream! 

St. Paddy's Day donut time. Here's what you do: whisk, stir, drink some stout, pour, stir, mix, drink some stout, bake, drink some stout, whisk glaze ingredients, cool donuts, drink some stout, glaze donuts, eat donuts. Drink some stout. 

Baked Chocolate Stout Donuts with Irish Cream Glaze

Adapted from this recipe

Makes 6-8 donuts

Donuts

1 cup flour

1/4 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup dark stout beer

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 egg

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Glaze

1.5  cups powdered sugar

2-3 tablespoons Irish Cream

Green food coloring

Preheat oven to 325. Coat donut pan with cooking spray. 

Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together beer, sugar, egg, and butter until combined. Add wet ingredients to dry, and gently fold with a spatula until combined (making sure to get all the dry ingredients mixed in). 

Spoon batter into a ziplock baggie and cut the corner off one end, so you have a hole about the size of a nickel (or spoon into a pastry bag). Pipe a thick ring of batter into each donut circle. Bake for about 11-12 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean, and when you gently touch the top of a donut, it springs back. 

Let donuts cool in pan for a minute or two, then gently turn out onto wire rack. Repeat with remaining batter if necessary (the original recipe said it made 6, it weirdly made 7 donuts). 

Let cool completely before glazing. 

To make glaze: Stir powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons of Irish cream together until combined. If it's too thick, add more Irish cream (also, you can add a splash of your stout). Scoop about 1-2 tablespoons into a small dish, and to this small portion, add a drop or two of green food coloring, until desired color. Spoon into a ziplock bag. 

Gently dip donuts into un-colored glaze, being careful when you pull it out to not break donut. Let glaze cool until hard/dry, about 30 minutes, then cut a hole in the tip of the baggie, and drizzle green glaze over top. Let cool another 10-20 minutes. (You can also let first layer of glaze dry, then double or <gasp> triple dip for more glazey goodness!)

Peanut Butter Porter Bread

I do this thing where I go to people's houses and imagine what it would look like if I lived there. Almost in a creepy way, where within fifteen minutes of walking through the door, my plans for the place are fully mapped out. In older houses, I like to imagine what it looked like when the very first owners lived there. 

A few months ago we ended up this house party, in an awesome giant home built in the 50s, mid-century modern design at it's finest–huge wooden double door entrance, split level where you go up just a few steps to the living room. I didn't even care about socializing, I just wanted to explore that house. "No, I'm fine here alone in the dark sitting room, don't mind me." I can totally picture Betty Draper hosting a swanky little shindig there, passing around a tray of rumaki or some other retro cocktail snack (ps. I LOVE rumaki!).

I also like to do that at furniture stores. Yesterday Evan and I walked to a new consignment store in our neighborhood. The place is two floors with little rooms, which the consignment shop had fully decked out like living rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms. Looking for a late 1991 style bedroom, complete with gold bed frame and pastel water color painting? Look no further! Would you like a drink? Step up to my 1970s home-bar, I'll mix you up a martini! There were even a few pieces that could have come straight out of Downton Abbey. I pulled Evan into my little fantasy world, and we wandered around for awhile, pretending to live in the little rooms. Imagining where that furniture had been when it was new. Who's homes it had been in. 

By the time we got home, it was pretty chilly out. Evan cozied up to a video game, and I cozied up to the oven to make peanut butter bread. I've made Fannie Farmer's peanut butter quick bread a bunch of times, but this time decided to do something a little different. I had one can of coconut porter in the fridge that Amanda brought back from Maui recently, so I decided to swap out the milk in the recipe for beer. I had been saving it for a special I-need-a-really-delicious-beer-right-now occasion, but then I saw that my local grocery store is carrying it (!!).  That coconut porter is SO good. Rich and dark but not too heavy, slightly sweet and coconutty. 

And, add it to peanut butter bread? Perfection. This bread is great–dense, slightly sweet, and peanutty, with just a touch of beer-tang. The best part about this recipe–aside from the fact that it's a breeze to make–is that while it's baking, you can drink the remaining half of the beer. My kind of bread! 

Peanut Butter Porter Bread

Adapted from Fannie Farmer

2 cups flour

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter

1 egg, beaten

1 cup dark beer (like coconut porter)

Preheat oven to 350, and grease a loaf pan (or line with parchment paper). Add dry ingredients to a large bowl (I used my stand mixer) and whisk/mix together. Add in peanut butter, egg, and beer, and mix until incorporated. Spoon into loaf pan, and bake for 50 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack. 

Hot Child in the City

It's. So. Hot.

Today's heat wave is supposed to be an all time high for Seattle. Everyone else in the country thinks we're just whiners that can't handle a 102 degree day, but they don't understand that Seattle is not equipped with AC!

Last weekend I ran in the Ragnar Relay (185 mile team relay from Blaine to Langley)! It was awesome and the best time ever, and I kicked ass (my contribution was 11.5 miles, not the full 185). I also got 2 hours of sleep and ate nothing but power bars for 40 hours. Since returning, I've been too tired and lazy, and it's been too hot to do anything. Too hot to cook dinner. Too hot to walk to the grocery store. Sorry readers, but this week my diet has not been one to write home about.

For dinner last night I had a nice cold Pacifico (Thanks Anthony), and saltines with brie and orange marmalade. It took all the strength I had to prepare even that. Let me tell ya though, there is something very satisfying about a cold beer and crackers with cheese for dinner.

The beer kept me from melting all over the floor, the cracker-cheese-marmalade combo was the perfect mix of salty, creamy, sweet, and zesty. Ahh. Nothin' like sprawling out in your sweltering apartment in a bikini next to your panting miserable cat,with an ice cold beer and a slightly upscale lunchable.

Tonight (after a long sweaty ride home from work in the Metro sauna bus) it's going to be Tecate and Popsicles for dinner. Welcome back to Washington, Evan. Land of Mexican beer and snack-food dinners.