Dark Chocolate Sauce

Makes: About 1 cup

¾ cup milk stout or foreign export stout ¼ cup sugar ¼ cup heavy cream 8 oz dark chocolate (nibs or a bar, cut up) 1 Tbs sea salt (optional)

In a small saucepan, combine the beer, sugar, and heavy cream and bring to a boil. Add the chocolate, reduce the heat to low, and stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth. If desired, stir in the sea salt (or sprinkle the sea salt over the chocolate sauce after you glaze the donuts).

Use this sauce at room temperature to glaze the donuts, or it will keep covered in the refrigerator for up to 7 days.

Beer Sensory Notes:

There are two beers you can use for this recipe: a sweet stout (or milk stout) or a foreign export stout (tropical stout). The flavor you want the sauce to have will affect your choice. A sweet or milk stout will be rich and creamy, due to the lactose, with quite a bit of balance against the bitter coffee/chocolate flavors. There will be a touch of bitterness in the beer, with low to medium hops bite/ bitterness. The mouthfeel will be extra creamy due to the lactose, and you’ll get a touch of bitterness on the tongue. The finish will be a bit of lingering sweetness. Examples include Left Hand Brewing Milk Stout, Samuel Adams Cream Stout, and your local milk stout (assuming it’s sweeter and not as bitter as a classic stout).

On the other hand are tropical stouts, which are a different take on your classic stout due to their fruity-ester nature instead of the classic rich, roasted characters alone. The head will pour a nice tan color, and you will immediately smell a mix of bitter chocolate or espresso mixed with some dark-fruit notes such as plums, figs, dates, or raisins. Generally, this tropical stout was brewed at a higher ABV, so it will have a heavier mouthfeel, mimicking the notes of the smell, with a bit more roast character prevalent. It will finish smoothly, if a touch dry. The classic and best tropical stout is Lion Stout from Ceylon/lion Brewery, and it should be available everywhere (thanks Sri Lanka!). Other options are Jamaica Stout by Big City Brewing (Jamaica) or Dragon Stout by Desnoes & Geddes Limited (Jamaica). Either way, with this donut, you can’t go wrong!

What the Beer Does for the Dish:

If you want a sauce that’s rich, smooth, and creamy, you’ll choose a sweet stout or milk stout, and you’ll get something like a milk-chocolate sauce with just a hint of roasted characters. If you want a sauce that has a bit more dark-fruit character with a lot more dark chocolate, espresso, and roasted character, choose the tropical stout, and this will create more of a fruited, high-percent cacao chocolate to pair with the sweet donut. Think of an 85 percent cacao chocolate bar, loaded with figs or dates, sprinkled with espresso, and this the flavor you should get in the sauce.