Warm Up With Winter Treats at Boundary Bay Brewery

Ski Lift Chocolate Mousse

After Thanksgiving, we’ll be serving up a new Winter Dessert Menu here at Boundary Bay Brewery.  We like to offer up desserts that celebrate the flavors of the season and this new Winter Menu is full of hearty, warming desserts perfect to ward off any winter chill!  Look for our new menu during the first week of December!

Winter Crumble

Winter Crumble: a sweet walnut crumble tops a wintery fruit filling of pears, apples, dried figs and cranberries.  Served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  A sweet treat to balance the bitter winds of winter.

Ski-Lift Chocolate Mousse:  a rich chocolate mousse spiked with peppermint schnapps!  One bite and you might think you’re dining in a chalet up on Mt. Baker with this new take on a winter warm-up enjoyed by powder hounds around the world.

Chocolate Stout Ice Cream Cake

Chocolate Stout Ice Cream Cake: house made caramel ice cream is sandwiched between layers of bittersweet chocolate cake smothered in a warm chocolate sauce.  Both the cake and the sauce are flavored with Boundary Bay Brewery’s own Oatmeal Stout.  A great dessert for sharing…if you have the will power!

Sticky Pecan Pumpkin Cake:  Thanksgiving has come and gone but if you haven’t had your fill of Autumn flavors you CAN have your cake and eat it too!  Pumpkin pie meets pecan pie in this delicious cake with a sticky sweet layer of caramelized pecans covering a decadent pumpkin cake topped with Oatmeal Stout caramel sauce.

Sticky Pecan Pumpkin Cake

Sweet Tweetin’ at Boundary Bay Brewery

Last night we had our very first Sweet Tweet at Boundary Bay Brewery!  This year, we’ve gotten into social media pretty deeply and one of our favorite sites is Twitter.  We decided to invite some of our Twitter fans to our beer garden for a tasting menu of our new summer desserts.  We asked them to help us pair each dessert with a beer and to post tweets about it while attending the event.  The tweeters were served the Larabee Cake (a chocolate mouse, meringue and blueberry confection), a Strawberry Shortcake in a honey-champagne glaze and a Cherry Porter Ice Cream cake.  They were each poured tasters of a selection of our beers and asked to taste and tweet and tell us what they liked best.  They even got to try a chocolate wort reduction sauce drizzled over figs as the grand finale!

Larabee Cake

After tallying the votes, here’s the Sweet Tweet results: the crew chose Dunkles Bock as the clear winner to accompany the Strawberry Shortcake (thought the Stout got a few votes too – especially when tasted with the shortcake biscuit!).  “Dunkles Bock brings out some nice complexity and cuts the sweetness.”  When it came to pairing beer with the Cherry Porter ice cream cake, the opinions were much more divided.  As one of our voters stated quite clearly: “With Dunkles = yum.  With Stout = yummier!”  One of our tasters thought the Stout was the undeniable obviously right  choice, while another observed that the “Dunkles Bock makes the cherries pop…”  And last, but not least, the Larabee cake was paired with everything from the lightest (our Lightner Ale) to the Oatmeal Stout.  “Stout works with the chocolate perfectly and cleanses the sweetness.” vs. “Ale works surprisingly well…Ale works best with the more strongly flavored desserts, contrary to my expectations.”

Overall, the Sweet Tweet was a great success!  We were blessed with a group of Twitter techies who were well versed in beer and food as well.  They served as an incredible think-tank and we are so thankful to all of them for being part of this event with us.  If you’d like to read more of the comments posted during the Sweet Tweet, go to search.twitter.com and type #bbst (boundary bay sweet tweet) in the search field to see all the results.  And, if you’re still longing for more Sweet Tweet action, you can check out all the photos from the event on our Facebook Photos Page.

our sweet tweeters

Boundary Bay Unveils a New Dessert Menu

At Boundary Bay Brewery and Bistro, we like to try new things…especially when it comes to our food.  Some favorites, like the Mac and Cheese and the Yam Alechiladas are tried and true and we wouldn’t dare to mess with ’em.  But, desserts are one area that we feel free to take creative license in and we are lucky enough to have some very creative cooks on hand.  The desert menu listed below is our new list of treats designed to tempt you and please you.  Shake off your winter blues and get on down to Boundary Bay to try one of these new delectable desserts!

Juan De Fuca Coconut Flan:  Rich and creamy with tastes of summer to come, this flan is topped with caramel and toasted coconut, served with a chocolate, oatmeal lace cookie.  $5.99

Flourless Chocolate-Orange Torte

Dry Irish Stout Gingersnap-Rum Cake:  A spicy cake, mellowed with the sumptuous chocolate tones of our Dry Irish Stout, coated with an intoxicating rum glaze and topped with warm caramelized apples.  $3.99

Sweet Potato Pie:  A southern classic, made into a Bellingham favorite, this sweet, spiced gluten free treat is made with a gingersnap crust and topped with heavy whipped cream and caramel.  A generous portion, so share with a friend.  $5.99

Route 542 Tiramisu:  Give yourself a pick-me-up with this rich, creamy and at times bitter treat.  $5.99

Flourless Chocolate-Orange Torte:  A silky, dense chocolate cake covered with satiny chocolate ganache, served atop a Grand Marnier, orange sauce and sprinkled with candied orange peel.  $5.99

Hot Fudge Sundae with Brownie Crumbles:  A scoop of ice cream covered with warm, sticky hot fudge, sprinkled with chewy brownie crumbles.  Ask your server to add candied pecans, if you’re a nut!  $3.99

More Top Secret Recipes!

Donica, our dessert diva here at Boundary Bay Brewery, has decided to let you all in on one of her own recipes designed to delight the palettes of our patrons here at the brewery.  Don’t be daunted by the intricacy of this recipe.  Your hard work will payoff and you will be the hit of the party when you show up with this banana cake that is sure to be everyone’s favorite.  It has been here at the brewery!

Banana Cake with Mocha Mascarpone Swirl

This cake is super moist and the marscapone swirl adds a rich and very unique flavor to the already rich taste of banana.

Cooking notes:The baking temperature of 275 F may seem low,but is necessary to keep the cake moist. It can take longer than the hour instructed by the recipe, just be sure to check the cake with a tooth pick, when it comes out clean it is ready…just be patient.  Placing the cake in the freezer for 45 minutes directly after it is done baking is another necessary step to insure the moistness of the cake, I suggest not to skip this step.

Ingredients

For Cake
3/4  cup butter (6 ounces)
2 1/8 cup sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4  teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas

For Mascarpone Mocha Swirl
1/2  cup heavy cream
4 teaspoons instant espresso powder
6 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
16 1/2 (about 2 cups) ounces mascarpone cheese
8 ounces finely chopped dark chocolate

Frosting
1/2 cup (4 ounces) butter softened
1 8 ounce package cream cheese
3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar

Make the mascarpone mixture before hand:

1. Place chopped chocolate and espresso powder in a medium bowl.

2. Bring the cream to a simmer in a small sauce pan. Pour it over the chopped chocolate and instant espresso.

3. Allow chocolate cream mixture to sit for a moment, then stir until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.

4. Gradually add confectioners sugar to chocolate mixture, stir until smooth.

5. As the chocolate mixture cools slightly, in a separate bowl beat the mascarpone with a rubber spatula until it is softened

6. With the rubber spatula gently fold in the chocolate mixture.

7. Cover and refrigerate for later.

Make the cake:

Preheat oven to 275

Use two 9×13 inch pans.

1. Mash the bananas in a measuring cup until you get 1 1/2 cups. Make sure the bananas are good and mashed. Mix in lemon juice. Set aside.

2. In medium bowl mix flour baking soda and salt. Set aside.

3. In the bowl of a standing mixer cream butter, once it is soft add sugar, mix until light and fluffy.

4. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla.

5. Starting and ending with the flour mixture add in flour mixture and buttermilk alternatively.

6. Take the bowl out of the mixer and with a rubber spatula stir in the banana mixture.

7. Pour enough batter into each cake pan to cover the bottom about inch. Take out the mascarpone mixture and drop four tablespoon size drops in the banana batter. Using a butter knife swirl the mascarpone mixture through out the batter. Pour rest of the banana batter into the cake pans, splitting it evenly so each pan is equally full.

8. Place the pans in the oven and cook for 1 hour (or until the toothpicks come out of the batter clean).

9. As soon as the cake is done place it in the freezer for 45 minutes.

10. To make the frosting cream the butter in the standing mixer until creamy, add the confectioners’ sugar, add the cream cheese and vanilla.

11. Frost the cake once it comes out the freezer. (Hint for frosting, if you want your cake to look really pretty and you want to insure there are no crumbs, do what is called a crumb layer, thinly frosting the cake and place it in the refrigerator until the frosting has hardened on the cake, locking in all the crumbs, then do the final layer of frosting.

Donica is going to continue bringing you recipes that she’s tried out on her willing subjects here at Boundary Bay Brewery.  Hurry in to sample some of her creations for yourself or just stay tuned to the blog and try her delicious recipes on your own!