Vanilla Stout Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Happy St. Patrick’s week, yes I said week. Because don’t supermarkets and other stores stock up the aisles, with green Irish themed decorations. So it’s only fair that you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day a little bit each day of the week leading up. Last year, the dessert of choice was this Chocolate Irish Cream Pie for PiDay. This year one of my goals was to revisit some of my original recipes from the blog that are delicious but whose photographing could use some updating. So this past Saturday, I started the morning off by cooking stout beer with a vanilla bean, the key ingredient in these vanilla stout chocolate oatmeal cookies. 

Even if stout isn’t your choice of beer, it does bake deliciously with chocolate and is a much bearable way to enjoy this drink. You might also want to give it a try in this Irish Car Bomb cocktail with Baileys. It’s quite common to see desserts infused with a fine spirit like this and these, but I remembered a batch of chocolate stout cupcakes I made a few years ago back in college.

The depth of flavor stout adds to sweets, especially chocolate, isn’t that of caramel or molasses, although now I’m curious to remake these with them. It adds a mild bitterness, and moisture, creating a chewy gooey delight that pairs well with the nuttiness of spelt flour, oats and bittersweet chocolate. Once you add the the vanilla stout reduction, the mixture smells of sweet butterscotch.

You distinctly taste the old fashioned oats, gluten free if you’d like, as I did, and from the heavy stout beer. Another reason I purposely did this oatmeal recipe because National Oatmeal Cookie day is this Saturday. You get a rich dark chocolate taste your initial bite then it melts and the bitter stout hit you subtly. 

They’re oh, so soft and chewy, like classic oatmeal cookies should be. And they’re a chocolate lovers dream. 

Some Irish car bomb cocktails and vanilla stout chocolate oatmeal cookies, is my way of spreading the luck of the Irish, and hoping there is green grass and flowering trees in the days to come. 

On a side note, I’ve stopped a flowering tree in someone’s home in my town, and I couldn’t lie and say that it made me happy and excited for Spring! Are you with me? What are some recipes you’re planning on making come the new season…

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Vanilla Stout Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies 

Ingredients {Makes about 3 dozen cookies}

12 tablespoons – Browned Butter 

1/4 cup – Greek Yogurt 

1 cup – Dark Brown Sugar {packed} 

1/2 cup – Granulated Sugar

2 large – Eggs 

1/2 cup – Vanilla Stout Reduction {recipe below}

3/4 cups – All Purpose Flour 

3/4 cups – Spelt Flour 

1 teaspoon – Sea Salt 

1 teaspoon – Baking Soda

2 cups – Old Fashioned Rolled Oats

2 cups – Bittersweet Chocolate

1/4 cup – Unsweetened Cocoa

Sea Salt, for sprinkling {optional}

Recipe {Adapted from The Bojon Gourmet}

Whisk together the slightly cooled browned butter, yogurt, sugars and eggs in a large bowl, then whisk in the stout reduction. In a medium bowl, whisk the flours, salt, and baking soda, then stir into the wet ingredients with the oats, chocolate, and bittersweet chocolate chips  until just combined. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for about an hour or freeze until firm.

Pre-heart over to 350 degrees, with racks in first and third levels of the over. Butter or use non-stick spray on four baking sheets. Scoop a heaping tablespoon of dough into rounds at least 2″ apart onto sheets, and top with a sprinkling of sea salt. Bake cookies, rotating halfway front to back and top to bottom, until golden around edges and tops are set {about 12 minutes}. Allow to cookies to cool on sheets, for 5 minutes then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely. 

Vanilla Stout Reduction 

30 ounces – Guinness {or your stout of choice}

1 – Vanilla Bean {split lengthwise + scraped}

In a medium saucepan, combine the stout and vanilla bean. Over medium high heat, bring to a boil, then reduce down to a simmer, stirring occasionally until reduced to 1 cup {about 25 to 30 minutes}. Cool slightly, and remove the vanilla.