PotW: Raspberry Guinness Pancakes w/ Chocolate & Mascarpone Cream

[last week's PotW: Whole wheat pancakes with almond fruit and mascarpone cream]

This weekend, we brought Guinness Week to a close by celebrating with Guinness pancakes!  Originally, my roommate and I had planned to cook up a savory Guinness pancake creation, with potatoes, green apples, and cheese, but when we went to the Palo Alto Farmer's Market on Saturday morning and saw what could possibly be some of the last raspberries of the season, I suggested instead a sweet Guinness pancake with fresh raspberries.  And, viola! this delicious, sweet creation was born.

Fresh raspberry Guinness pancakes

with dark chocolate

and mascarpone cream

These Guinness pancakes have such a nice undertone to them--you can't quite tell that it's Guinness, but there's definitely something different there than with your average run-of-the-mill pancake.  The subtlety of the pancakes also nicely reflect the delicateness of the fresh raspberries!  Definitely a great way to end Guinness Week.  Happy 250th, Guinness!

Read on for recipe....

Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes + Mascarpone Frosting [Guinness Week!]

Guinness Week continues!  I hope y'all are celebrating as much as I am.  :-)

Since it was impossible to bring Guinness-Dark Chocolate Ice Cream around with me to share with everyone, I decided to also whip up a batch of mini Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes to pass out.  Suffice it to say, they were a huge hit, disappearing so fast that some people didn't even believe they existed in the first place because they didn't get a chance to have any!  The mascarpone frosting on these are the perfect compliment as well, reminiscent of the frothy tops of a tall glass of properly poured Guinness.  And, the best part of it is that it's okay to eat Guinness cupcakes during the work day!  :-P

Accompanying anecdote: at first, one of my professors kept refusing the cupcake offers. But, immediately upon hearing that the cupcakes contained Guinness, he said, "Oooo! Beer! *Now* I must try one!"  Oh, academics.

Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes
with Mascarpone Frosting














Read on for the recipe...

Happy Birthday, Guinness! (Guinness Dark Chocolate Ice Cream)

Guinness turns 250 years old this week!  Hurray!  So, since I need no better excuse, Desserts for Breakfast here is taking a break from the scheduled programming and turning to a week of celebrating this awesome dark beer.  So, welcome to Guinness Week!

Okay, so it actually started out very serendipitously.  I had planned to get back to ice cream making after a month or so of being away from it (due to traveling and catering orders), and I'd decided to make chocolate ice cream.  But, right as I flipped open David Lebovitz's awesome ice cream book, the book fell open to Guinness-Milk Chocolate Ice Cream, and I *had* to try it.  It was only later that night once my custard was cooling in the fridge did I find out that it's Guinness's birthday this week--hence, perfect timing!  This has spurred quite a Guinness obsession in the house, and there's more Guinness goodness to come.

Guinness-dark chocolate ice cream

But, as much as I <3 David Lebovitz's book, I do prefer dark chocolate to milk chocolate.  And the ice cream came out great despite the substitution.  This was such a rich, creamy ice cream with a great added depth from the Guinness.  Definitely something worth having around for Guinness week!  (btw, I also made a vanilla bean ice cream later that day to go with the Guinness-chocolate. It's a perfect companion and helps mild out some of the alcoholic flavor, if that's not your cup of tea.)

Read on for the recipe....