Portlandia!, East Coast Edition

It's a weird and long story as to how I ended up in Portland, Maine the other weekend. Suffice it to say that I (finally) made it there, and I reaped delicious rewards for doing so. The trip was inspired by Maine's exploding craft beer scene, but I had several sweet treats alongside the Belgians and saisons. This travelogue will speak as much (or more) about the meals (and brews) as the desserts!

I have a weakness for - or, perhaps more accurately, obsession with - Belgian-style frites. Portland has a restaurant specializing in frites fried in duck fat. The appropriately-named Duckfat, therefore, was the first place we ate, and wow, were the frites amazing! Take a look at them in their cone, accessorized with garlic and Thai chili mayos as well as a hefeweizen from Belfast.

The Maine potatoes were substantive and earthy, and their frying medium imparted a rich, fatty flavor as well as a delightfully consistent, crisp coating. The cone was depleted in record time, washed down by the refreshingly light, orange-tinged hefe. Duckfat also offers panini sandwiches, so I enjoyed their house-cured ham and local Gruyere pressed on bakery bread.

That filling meal did not obviate dessert. Two Fat Cats Bakery specializes in pies, but they also have smaller treats. We split a chocolate whoopie pie with chocolate filling while walking back across the city. The cake part had a tough surface, with a soft and airy interior. Its chocolate flavor was very rich, analogous to that of Flour's homemade Oreos; I'd love to know what cocoa powder they used! The intensity was disproportionate to how light the cake was, which made for a very strong impression in relatively few bites. The filling was subtly flavored, somewhere between white and milk chocolate, and light on the tongue while being more solid than standard whipped offerings. There was a lot going on here, and I loved it! (I apologize for not having a picture; I did not want chocolate cream on my phone.)

Next came the pilgrimage-worthy Novare Res Bier Cafe. You could spend hours, days, weeks in that bar - it's a fascinating hybrid of cellar-style beer geek hangout, German-inspired biergarten, and hipster dive. Anyone and everyone fits in! I went there to access Maine brews as well as something rare and European (their list of Cantillons had me drooling), both of which were easily found. Maine came in the form of Oxbow's Freestyle #15, a light saison with Centennial hops that had an odd (but delicious) Fruit Loop quality...and Europe appeared as Brasserie de Cazeau's Saison Cazeau.

It's a dry, rustic saison that's brewed with elderflowers. I have likened elderflower to the mythical nectar of the gods; its honeyed, floral sweetness is among the most transcendent flavors (and aromas) I have ever encountered. Now a hint of that glory manifested in a favorite beer style, and I wept. Well, not really. But my appreciation was deep and sincere.

Eventually, it was time for a nightcap. An imposing edifice along Commercial Street promised "haus-brewed beer"...

...so in we went. In'finiti Fermentation and Distillation opened 2 months ago, and I wish them every success! The atmosphere is great - think dark, shiny wood tables and chairs; lighting fixtures made from barrel staves and hoops; portholes in the wall; visible brewing apparatus; and a sweeping view of Portland's industrial harbor. Their drinks and food are similarly excellent. I sipped the dankly floral Headstash DIPA, brewed in collaboration with Maine darling Oxbow, and snacked on a soft, sweet pretzel dipped in mustard.

The following morning brought a return to Two Fat Cats - but not for another whoopie pie! Instead, this cheerful chalkboard sign dictated our eating.

Here's my slice o' blueberry pie on the bakery's outdoor picnic table.

The pie, predictably enough, contained tiny Maine blueberries. Those small fruits are sweeter than their larger cousins, which made the filling rather sugary; I'm sure the actual sugar in the filling didn't help. However, the filling also had a Julie-approved (read: excessive to most) quantity of cinnamon. The spice cut through the sweetness nicely! The flaky yet substantive pie crust was near perfection...and the coffee? Two Fat Cats' proprietary blend, of course!

Lunch was a waterfront lobster roll and clam cake, courtesy of Portland Lobster Company. Their lobster roll's filling is simply lobster meat, tossed in butter - none of the 'lobster salad" embarrassments often seen elsewhere. Delicious! Also: lemonade with maple syrup is fantastic.

After lunch came The Reason I've Wanted to Go to Portland All These Years. I've been a fan of Allagash Brewing Company since 2009's Interlude triggered THE moment of my beerwakening. Their Belgian lineup is both accessible and creative, offering standard abbey ales as well as inspired experiments in yeast, flavors, fermentation, and storage. I was eager to get closer to their processes and products via a tour and a tasting! Their tour took us through their expanding operation, which involved shiny new fermentation tanks, barrels...

a foudre... 

and this cheerful definition.

This apparatus lover was in heaven. Post-tour, our guides offered pours of Allagash's four flagship beers - White, Dubbel, Tripel, and Curieux. I left the brewery with a bottle of Coolship Cerise (a lambic-style cherry beer, brewed in an open fermentation vessel [the coolship] inoculated with naturally-occurring area yeast) and FV 13 (a sour ale brewed in the aforementioned foudre). I also have a cookbook of dishes inspired by Allagash's beer. I can't wait to try the recipes!

I knew it would be hard (read: impossible) to top the Snallavisit, but dinner and dessert back at In'finiti was a solid way to end my time in Portland. Their pilsner wasn't as noteworthy as their DIPA, but I appreciated its calm drinkability after all the Allagash hullabaloo. My fish 'n' chips were fried in a delicious and substantive beer batter; the batter was solid enough that I could eat the fish as finger food, dipping the pieces liberally in a tangy, spicy sauce. Then, our dessert defied all expectations.

The Gingerbread & Bacon dessert features a gingerbread cake and black pepper ice cream, both of which are drizzled in salted bourbon caramel and joined by granola and candied bacon. The cake was soft and moist with an assertive ginger flavor, while the ice cream's pepper was subtle and complementary. The salted bourbon caramel won by having some bourbon flavor, but none of the boozy zing I dislike - much like the Curieux sampled earlier! The bacon's candy coating was sweet and grainy, though the bacon bits themselves were a tad fatty and chewy. I've never had a dessert that combined so many unusual or savory elements together; the fact that it disappeared in 5 minutes or less is a testament to how well it worked. I can't wait to see what In'finiti is up to whenever I'm in town again.

...and with that, I was on my way back to Boston.

Oh, I almost forgot a treat I saved for the trip home! Bam Bam Bakery sweetened last summer's business trip; now, I had a gluten-free treat on my own time. The chocolate chip cookie dough bar was an immense square - at least 3"x3"x1.25" - of blondie-style dough, baked and interspersed with chocolate chips, that in turn was topped with heaping chocolate chip cookie dough crumbles. A bittersweet chocolate drizzle decorated the top of the bar. Part gooey, part crumbly, and all so good, I highly recommend this treat (and bakery) to the gluten-free crowd and omnivores alike.

Lastly, some words on the city itself. I had assumed it would be a larger version of the standard seaside village - quaint streets, neatly manicured buildings and gardens, cute shops, creative eateries, waterfront parks, and so on. Portland has all those things, but in limited quantities; the city as a whole is grittier, and more dilapidated, than I anticipated. There's an edginess and tiredness to the place that you don't see or feel in the seacoast's other havens. Also: so many hipsters! The whole thing almost felt out of place in the larger context of New England. Still, I appreciated the exposure to something so unusual - and as this post attests, there's plenty to enjoy and go back for.

Until next time...

BBF Brownies

As several past posts attest, I love baked goods and craft beer. The latest Bocoup Beer Fest inspired me to combine the two in a new way - namely, baking with beer. (I don't know what took me so long...)

I knew I had a winner when I saw an appealing recipe from The Kitchy Kitchen. Why did I choose it?

• It uses three distinct chocolates - cocoa powder, semisweet chips, and dark (70+% cacao) chocolate.
• It uses three distinct spices - cinnamon, cayenne pepper, and espresso (not technically a spice, but you know what I'm getting at).
• It uses beer - something dark and malty, which makes sense for baking with chocolate (though not for my personal drinking enjoyment).

What better, or more intriguing, way is there to get creative with brownies?! I'm sharing the slightly-reworded recipe here, with my notes in italics.

• 1 C flour
• 1/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder. The original recipe suggests Valrhona, but I already had Ghirardelli.
• 1/4 t cayenne pepper. I more than tripled this, but I could barely taste it in the finished product.
• 1/4 t cinnamon. I more than tripled this, too, and WOW - the pungent spice really came through in the end. I loved it!
• 8 T (1 stick) butter
• 1 T instant espresso. I used 3 packets of Starbucks' Via Italian Roast. It's not technically espresso, but it successfully imparts a strong coffee flavor to whatever I put it in.
• 3 1/2 oz dark chocolate. I used Valrhona's Guanaja feves.
• 1/2 C malty beer. I used Southern Tier's Choklat, an imperial stout brewed with...chocolate!
• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 1 C white sugar
• 1 C brown sugar
• 2 t vanilla
• 1 C semisweet chocolate chips. I used the Whole Foods house brand. Their chips bake better than Toll House's ever have!

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degres. Line a 13x9-inch baking pan with parchment paper, and spray it with a nonstick cooking spray.
2. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, pepper, and cinnamon together.
3. Melt the butter, dark chocolate, and espresso in a saucepan over heat. Stir the beer in once everything is melted, and let the mixture cool. The beer bubbled and frothed when it was added. It was here that I realized the carbonation was a key component of the recipe.
4. In a large bowl, beat the eggs, sugars, and vanilla together.
5. Add the dry and wet ingredients alternatively to the egg mixture, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Do not overmix. The batter is very thin, almost watery - more like a cake batter than a brownie mix.
6. Fold in the chocolate chips. I enjoyed seeing the beer's bubbles poke up between the chocolate chips.
7. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan, and bake for 30-35 minutes. 32 minutes worked just fine.

(Two side notes: I omitted toasted walnuts for reasons my regular readers understand. Also, Claire said any malty beer would work, even a Belgian-style quadrupel! I'll use a quad next to see what Belgian yeast flavor, if any, makes it to the end.)

I am obsessed with these brownies for two reasons. First of all, the chemistry of baking with a carbonated beverage fascinates me. The beer provides carbon dioxide, so the recipe did not call for baking's typical White Powders. Secondly, the brownies look, feel, and taste unlike anything I've ever made or eaten.

The surface turned out pock-marked and irregular. (Thanks, beer bubbles!) Their texture was like a moist, dense cake with a soft, large crumb. The brownies' only fudgy aspect was at the bottom of the pan, where the chocolate chips had sunk and melted into a gooey layer. This almost-fudge was fantastic, and the melted feves plus cocoa powder added plenty of chocolatey depth to the cakier portion. Aside from the chocolate, the most aggressive flavors were the cinnamon and espresso. Both were so strong that I was reminded of Mexican chocolate. The cayenne pepper, even in its tripled quantity, was barely noticeable. The beer added some maltiness, but that, too, would have slipped past my taste buds if I hadn't been actively searching. Still, the variety in something as simple as a brownie has me wanting more, ASAP! My BBF compatriots must have agreed, since, yet again, the treats were gone in an hour.

What other items, if any, have you baked with beer?

Also, for those of you who may be wondering when I'm going to start a beer blog:

I already have one, in the form of Untappd! This app is basically a Facebook for beer. You check in beers as you drink them, with the option of adding your current location (powered by Foursquare), a rating for the beer (up to five stars, in increments of 0.5), a photo, and a Twitter-style 140-character-limit description. I'm pretty diligent about using it, so I have a record of nearly every beer I've had, plus tasting notes, since I downloaded the app last August.

Follow your friends and see what they're drinking. Like - or in Untappd parlance, toast - and comment on your friends' check-ins. Get ideas for future beerventures from the beers the app suggests following each check-in. Make a note of beers you'd love to have by adding them to your Wish List.

If you're as nerdy about craft beer as I am, find me on Untappd - and if you're curious about the check-in pictured above, you'll learn more in my next post! Don't worry, there will be plenty of desserts.