Creme Brulee Stout Muffins

I am no beer connoisseur. I like really light beer as my standard drink. I am more than happy to try new beers, but it's not something I seek out. So when it comes to cooking with beer, I either tend to look for exactly the type the recipe calls for or do some research first. I don't tend to just guess what beer will do well.

Except when it comes to stouts. I'm not one for dark beers usually. Every now and then I like myself a Guinness or Smithwick's (most for car bombs, which is a rare occasion). However, when it comes to cooking or baking with stout, I like to go into it blindly. I'll go down to my local packie and see what stouts they have. They always have new and seasonal stouts, and I've almost never used the same stout twice. I needed stout for 2 recipes this week, so I was pretty excited to try yet another 2 new types of stout.

The one for this recipe is a Crème Brulee flavored stout.

Yes. Crème Brulee. As a stout. It's a real thing. I almost drank this whole bottle by myself before adding it to the recipe. It's like dessert in a bottle. A stout brewed with vanilla beans?! Genius! This is a baker's kind of stout. I'm not going to go into trying to describe this stout, I will do it no justice. But it's a stout that tastes like crème brulee. And not just sort of vanilla-ish, I mean it tastes like crème brulee. This stout is super flavor-infused.

First of all, Guinness is great, but with all the more interesting flavored stouts out there, I knew I was going to adapt the recipe. This works great in a sweet muffin like these!

Crème Brulee Stout Muffins
adapted from Shall We Cook

1.5 cups flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 tsp.salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1 egg
1/4 cup applesauce (I used one single serving pack, plain)
1/4 cup milk
2 tsp. flavorless oil (such as vegetable or canola)
1/2 cup stout
1 tsp. cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 375 and grease or line one muffin tin (makes 12).
2. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, sugars, salt and baking powder.
3. Add the egg, applesauce, milk and oil and stir until just combined.
4. Add the stout and cinnamon and mix until well combined.
5. Fill muffin tins equally with batter (about 2/3 full).
6. Bake for 20 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.