In my first book, Irish Kitchen Cocktails, I made a passionate plea for Irish bars and restaurants to better embrace the Irish coffee and make it a prominent fixture on all their menus, where it fully deserves to be. Well, here’s the super simple dessert accompaniment for it: a brownie with boozy benefits.
Makes 8
225g (½lb) salted butter, plus extra for greasing
200g (7oz) milk chocolate
150g (5¼oz) 70% dark chocolate
250g (heaped 1 cup) Demerara sugar
60ml (¼ cup) Glendalough Single Grain Double Barrel Finish Irish Whiskey
60ml (¼ cup) freshly brewed espresso
1 tbsp finely ground coffee
3 eggs
275g (2⅓ cups) plain flour
For the whipped cream topping:
125ml (½ cup) cream
1 tbsp Glendalough Single Grain Double Barrel Finish Irish Whiskey
1 tsp whiskey and vanilla-infused sugar or plain icing sugar
freshly grated nutmeg
Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F). Line a 20cm (8in) brownie tin with non-stick baking paper.
Put the butter in a heatproof bowl and break all the chocolate into it. Lash it into the microwave for 1 minute, then take it out and stir it up. Repeat until the butter and chocolate have melted and emulsified together. Alternatively, you can melt them together in a heatproof bowl set on top of a saucepan of gently simmering water, making sure the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl.
Whisk in the sugar, whiskey, espresso and coffee grounds until it’s all combined, then whisk in one egg at a time before adding the flour. Stir until you get a smooth batter.
Pour the batter into the lined tin, then bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes if you like your brownies to have a bit of chew and decadent ooze to them or 30 minutes if you prefer your brownies to be less gooey. Set aside on a wire rack to cool.
Using an electric mixer, whisk the cream with the whiskey and icing sugar until it’s firm. Dollop the whipped cream on top of each brownie, then grate over a little nutmeg.
TO DRINK: Double Barrel Irish coffee or a neat serve of Glendalough Pot Still Irish Oak Finish
from The Irish Whiskey Cookbook: 50 Recipes to Cook, Sip and Savour by Oisín Davis
