What would Christmas be without the scent of freshly baked cookies? But what beverage goes best with gingerbread, cookies and Christmas cake? The classic choice is coffee and tea, or at the most a glass of mulled wine at the Christmas market. In the English-speaking world, cookies can also be dunked in milk. But whatever your choice of drink, it is most likely to be sweet. People who prefer a more savory tipple usually get a raw deal. The thought of drinking beer with cookies, or even using it as an ingredient, was unthinkable so far! But now it’s time to get rid of this blinkered attitude.
Baking with beer: If you enter these two keywords, most search engines and online book stores will come up with savory snacks, such as beer bread, muffins, beer batter, pizza or quiche. But ever since the invention of chocolate and caramel-flavored beer, we should know that it also goes well with sweet treats. Nowadays, nothing is out of bounds when it comes to combining aromas.
For beer drinkers with a baking problem
It is therefore high time to pair beer with cookies! The book “Cookies & Beer” takes a humorous and inspiring look at this culinary combination. Written by Jonathan Bender, a journalist from Kansas/USA, it appeals to “bakers new to drinking beer and beer drinkers new to baking.” Bender starts off his recipe collection at a fast pace with “Man Bars” for breakfast and seriously recommends drinking an oatmeal stout with it! In the morning! If you prefer to start your day a little less energetically, you can look for inspiration in the chapters on fruit or chocolate – and maybe also vary the time of day. Each recipe is paired with a beer recommendation, such as a hoppy wheat with orange and ginger-spiced cookies or a dark ale with maple fig shortbread. There is also a section on savories.
Anecdotes lighten up the mood in-between, making this baking book easy and fun to read. At the end, it gets even more creative with two recipes for hobby brewers who don’t know what to do with their excess spent grain, including one for dog treats! There are also delicious-sounding recipes for cookies that include beer not only as an accompaniment but also as an ingredient.
Beery Christmas baking
But what about Christmas cookies? The book also includes several recipes for the festive season: Zimtsterne (winter stars), ginger nib cookies and several others will bring the typical aromas of Christmas to your kitchen – of course with a beer recommendation. We want you to benefit from these special creations, too, and are giving away three copies of “Cookies & Beer”. All you have to do is to post a comment here or on our Facebook page and tell us your favorite cookie and your favorite beer.
How to win your copy of Cookies & Beer!
The competition begins when this post is published and runs until 21 December 2016 at 11.59 pm. After that, we will draw the winners randomly from all the comments and announce them here in the following days.
Please enter your e-mail address when you write a comment so that we can contact you if your name is drawn. We will only use your details for the purpose of this competition.
The judges’ decision is final. By participating, you consent to having your name published should you win. We do not accept any liability for the delivery of the prize and only deliver it within Europe.