Adobe Stock / Brent Hofacker
These dark, subtly sweet cookies are the perfect accompaniment for a hearty mid-winter pint of equally dark Hudson Valley beer.
As craft beer continues to be plentiful in the Hudson Valley, the foamy firewater has busted out of the brewery and into the kitchen. Along with the standard beer-battered fish and onion rings, today’s chefs are also using brew in burgers, chili, mac and cheese — even pasta.
But beer in cookies? You bet! None other than the folks at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park have devised this recipe for chocolate stout oatmeal cookies, which incorporates two cups of NYS craft-brewed stout (like the stuff made at the CIA’s own brewery) along with raisins, oatmeal, cocoa, and plenty of chocolate chips. Incorporating flavor notes of both chocolate and coffee, the stout adds a nice kick to these tried-and-true cookie favorites. The CIA chefs recommend washing down the sweets with the same beer you used to make them.
Chocolate Stout Oatmeal Cookies
Makes 24 to 30 small cookies
Ingredients:
2 cups stout beer
1 cup golden raisins
2 cups light brown sugar
½ lb butter, diced and at room temperature
3 cups rolled oats
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup spent grain flour (substitute all-purpose flour if unavailable)
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp salt
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips
Method:
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Combine 1 cup of stout beer with the raisins in small pot and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and allow to steep for 15 minutes.
Combine brown sugar and butter in bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment. Slowly cream mixture together until light and fluffy.
Add remaining cup of stout to the rolled oats and let sit.
Mix together cocoa powder, flour, spent grain, baking soda, baking powder and salt, and fold into the oat mixture.
Add oat mixture, raisins, and egg to creamed butter. Gently mix until it comes together.
Fold in chocolate chips.
Spoon tablespoon-size drops onto a parchment-paper-lined cookie tray and bake for 10 to 12 minutes until lightly browned but still soft.
Related: Where to Find Chewy, Gooey Cookies in the Hudson Valley
