So I was making the Seitan Portabello Stroganoff from Vegan with a Vengeance tonight, except I only had 1/2 cup red wine, and I wasn't about to open another bottle of wine just for the sake of the stroganoff (sorry, Isa), so I opened a bottle of oatmeal stout. Which worked marvelously in the stroganoff, but then I had half a bottle of stout left, and I'm really not drinking so much these days. So I did what any half-sane cook would do, and I made chocolate stout cupcakes. Except I don't have Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, so I went to search through my saved bookmarks, and I found this Chocolate Beer Cake recipe. So I adapted it, and while my boy and I were scarfing down stroganoff, these little beauties puffed up in the oven and made everything smell like heaven.
They turned out marvelous... rich, chocolatey and oh so tender. And I was happy. The End.
1/2 cup spelt flour
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Sucanat
3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
3 Tbsp Ghiradelli hot cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup Samuel Smith oatmeal stout
1/4 cup canola oil
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup dairy-free mini chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Combine the flours, Sucanat, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a largish bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the stout, oil, vinegar and vanilla. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix just until combined, then pour into greased muffin tins. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely, then release from the muffin pan.
Ingredient Notes: You can use any combination of flours here. I just have this massive 5-lb. bag of spelt flour that I'm trying to use up. I'm sure you could use normal sugar, too. I ran out of unsweetened cocoa, so that's why I added the Ghiradelli. You could use white or cider vinegar instead of rice vinegar (it's what I had on hand). Samuel Smith's stout is vegan, unlike Guinness or Murphy's.
