Baileys & Guinness Fudge

St. Patrick’s Day is in 2 days, what do you do? Crack out the Guinness of course. 😉

It seems to have become a thing that whenever St. Patrick’s Day draws near I will find a way to incorporate Guinness into a recipe post (e.g. our Chocolate Guinness Cake, or our savoury Steak & Guinness Pie!). I guess I enjoy starting my own traditions. That and Guinness. I definitely enjoy Guinness.

This year I figured I’d make a batch of Guinness fudge; simple, small, and great to share with family/friends/colleagues. However, I then decided go the extra mile and make a double layered fudge, adding another Irish drink I’m fond of, because well, why not.

BAILEYS & GUINNESS FUDGE!

You’re welcome.

To make the Guinness fudge layer, I added ½ a can of sweetened condensed milk, 20g of unsalted butter, 1tsp of vanilla extract, a pinch of salt and 75ml of Guinness to a large heavy bottomed saucepan. I melted this on a VERY LOW HEAT till fully combined.

I then added 500g of broken up dark chocolate to the pan and continued stirring on the VERY LOW HEAT till completely melted. This may take a while, but bear with it… you want to keep the temp as low as possible to reduce the risk of your chocolate burning! If you prefer, you could place all the ingredients straight into a heatproof bowl and use a double broiler, or even microwave it in 30 second bursts instead. Basically you just want to make sure you melt the chocolate slowly so it doesn’t become too molten too quick, and so that the mixture remains quite thick.

Once melted, I stirred in the remaining Guinness, then poured this out into a 8×8 inch square tin lined with greaseproof paper. I spread the mixture into an even layer, then left this in the fridge to set up and chill for about an hour before I started the next layer.

For the Baileys layer, I pretty much did the exact same thing as before but substituting the Guinness and dark chocolate for Baileys and white chocolate. Simple, right?

It is worth noting that as white chocolate doesn’t have the same components as milk/dark chocolate, it’s much more temperamental when melting…. meaning it’s especially important to keep the temperature as low as possible to stop it from seizing.

Once the ingredients had just melted and combined, I added the remaining Baileys, then poured the mixture on top of the chilled Guinness layer.

I then sprinkled on some chopped pistachios (to add some crunch and some green!) before placing it back in the fridge to set completely. Once ready (I left mine overnight), chop into 1×1 inch (ish) squares and share with your loved ones.

Or not. I’m not gonna judge.