In light of my “research” regarding beer as food, the history of beer, and brewing styles, I have been sampling my way around the Right Brain menu. Ideas abound when one is a few pints in…

In preparation for the beer dinner with Right Brain Brewery and Epicure Catering in April, I decided recipe testing was in order. As a baker, desserts are usually my department (and also probably my favorite course), so I decided to start there.

Designing a dessert for a diner who has already eaten 3 courses that have been paired and cooked with beer, is relatively challenging. By the end of three substantial courses, I am typically feeling pretty full and content, not in want of much more.  A sweet little something is always a welcome surprise, however.  In thinking about the dessert,  I wanted it to be sweet, but not cloying, on the lighter side,  and have complexity of flavor.  Of course, it has to pair well with beer. My initial thought? Ginger.  It is just a nice coincidence that ginger can also act as a digestive aid for all those full bellies.

Ginger and beer (I’m starting with a stout) both have strong, distinctive flavors. Ideally, these characteristics would not try to beat each other into submission or out-muscle one another for center stage,  but the flavors would be conjured in a way to support one another in a delicious, transcendent bliss.

So, I went in the direction of cake. If executed properly, cake can be sweet, light, and have a complexity of flavor that some other desserts can’t manage. Beer is nothing if not aromatic, and cakes allow for heavy use of aromatics (which I often find overpowered by chocolate or muddied by the fat in custards).  And nothing is better than eating a slice of cake with a glass of freshly brewed beer.

So, keeping all these heady meanderings in mind,  I am working on a triple-ginger black pepper stout cake. Light, you say? Believe it or not, that is the challenge. I will keep you posted. In the meantime, I will keep “researching” pastry and beer…