Chocolate & Stout Are A Perfect Pair

I’ll be honest, it’s taken me years to come around to the allure of chocolate. I was not born a chocoholic, nor do I think I would qualify myself as one today but I can say that I do occasionally find myself craving it. Last weekend while making up my Oscar party menu I found myself coming back to some of the chocolate recipes I’ve pinned to my Pinterest page. Since I’ve also been on a pretty intense investigation into stouts I settled on this recipe for chocolate stout cake. Of course, I had to futz with the recipe and my god the result is something that I have actually dreamed of. Yes mom, I am finally dreaming about chocolate. The crumb is incredibly tender and you can actually taste the stout peaking through the cocoa flavor.

Ingredients:
• 1 C stout
• 2 sticks butter
• generous 2/3 C unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 C greek yogurt
• 2 1/2 C flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 C sugar
• 2 tsp espresso
• 24 truffles (optional)

Preheat oven to 350˚

Directions:
1. In a medium sauce pan combine the stout and butter and heat over medium until the butter is totally melted. Transfer to a separate bowl and whisk in the cocoa powder and continue stirring until it’s smoothly incorporated. Set aside and let the combo cool.
2. In another bowl combine all the dry ingredients and mix evenly.
3. In a small bowl whisk together the yogurt and the eggs until they’re smooth. Once the chocolate is cool mix the yogurt and egg in and stir until it’s smooth. Then add the dry ingredients in three batches, making sure to scrape down the side of the bowl.
4. Pour into a 2 buttered loaf pans or make then into muffins (this is what I did and I dropped a truffle into each). Bake at 350˚ for 45 minutes – 1 hour or 25-30 minutes if doing the cupcakes.

Makes 2 loafs or 24 muffins