Girl Scouts, Improved

It's been a bit lonely around the apartment, with Matt in Nepal for work. But I've been making the best of it, mostly by deep cleaning the refrigerator and cooking up a storm. Today, my kitchen has been filled with delicious -- if incongruous -- smells of chickpea curry, roasted broccoli, various kinds of homemade pickles, and my test batch of spent grain thin mint cookies.

What? Thin mints?? Made with spent grain?! Yes. With my Oktoberfest party coming up in a couple of weeks, I figured it was time to start testing some festive new recipes.

Now, don't get your lederhosen in a bunch trying to explain to me how girl scout cookies aren't authentically German. I know that. Neither is spicy pickled okra, but both are on the menu for Oktoberfest. And if you're coming to the party you will be glad I am departing from the traditional kraut-pickle-sausage-pretzel regimen (though all of these will be represented as well). The cookies turned out so well it is only because I really like my landlady that I have decided to share some tonight while we catch up on the latest John Oliver....

For your baking pleasure, I offer this easy recipe, courtesy of The Brooklyn Brewery's delicious Mash recipe blog:

Spent Grain Thin Mints

Ingredients
Cookies

• 1 stick of butter, room temp
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup Dutch cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• 3/4 cups Spent Grain Flour

Frosting

• 8 ounces dark chocolate, chopped (a half block of Trader Joe's Belgian dark baking chocolate, in this case)
• 1 teaspoon mint extract (or use 1/4 teaspoon mint essential oil) 
• 2 tablespoons butter 

Directions
Preheat oven to 350F.

Beat butter and sugar together until creamy. Add in cocoa powder, salt, and vanilla and mix until well combined. Fold in the flour 1/4 cup at a time until fully incorporated. Using your hands, form dough into a disk. (If super sticky, put in the freezer for 5 minutes to chill. This will give you time to lick the eggbeater and wash some dishes.)



Roll out dough on a floured work surface (and with a floured rolling pin) pretty thin, @ 1/8" thickness. Using a circle-shaped cookie cutter cut out dough and place on parchment-lined baking sheet.



Depending on the size of your cookies, bake for 8-10 minutes. (They are thin mints, so they bake quickly. Be careful not to burn them!) Carefully transfer cookies to wire rack and let cool completely.

In a double boiler (or a heat proof bowl over a pot), melt your frosting ingredients: chocolate, mint extract, and butter. Carefully dip cookie in melted chocolate, flip to fully coat and remove with a fork. Return to lined baking sheet and repeat for all cookies. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to set chocolate coating.



Just try not to eat them all in one sitting. They are FABULOUS.

Oh? The stuffed dragon? That's Werner. I needed a little help with some key parts of the process. I'm hopeful Matt will be around for the actual baking for the party itself. I'm going to need to buy more chocolate. And more milk for dunking.

Get mashed

"Two tickets, please."

Every so often, membership has its privileges. Though often combined with a fun and tasty potluck meal, most of my work with Slow Food DC involves many meetings and lots of logistical planning. It was fun this past Friday night to simply kick back with a couple of free tickets to a fantastic benefit dinner for my local Slow Food chapter thrown by two amazing chefs.

Did I mention it was a beer dinner?

Not only that, but one of the chefs -- Andrew Gerson -- is also one of the driving forces behind my all-time favorite spent grain cooking blog. I was so excited to be in the same room, and listened eagerly as the surprisingly humble but knowledgeable chef explained the beer pairing as we passed around each of the six courses. So entranced was I that I almost spilled my beer. Twice. (I maybe don't need to mention that I was entirely too shy, even after five or six drinks, to approach Chef Andrew to tell him how much I love his work. I mean, he's a real spent grain chef. Me, I dabble. No need to babble.)

The food was stellar, as was the beer. But the genius was in the pairing. Okay, fine, there was quite a bit of inventiveness in the food itself, actually, as chef Hiyaw Gebreyohannes mingled traditional Ethiopian flavors with globally inspired dishes ranging from a surprisingly spicy guacamole with toasted injera chips to a watermelon and catfish ceviche to beer braised lamb shanks to a custard with figs and honeyed injera. My favorite, though, was the chicken and peanut stew. (Oh, no, not because it was paired with my favorite Brooklyn pumpkin ale. No, really. That is good beer, though.) Kenton and I left the four-hour-long meal around midnight with full bellies and happy hearts.

To the Brooklyn brew crew and Slow Food DC, I must say thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

It was an amazing meal, and so beautifully presented, that some of us who will remain anonymous maybe took their placemat home as a memento....