Look closely at the brownie and you can see it has a blond layer and a chocolate layer, similar to the appearance of a beer cocktail containing Guinness Stout and lager. The glass, by the way, doesn’t contain a cocktail but simply Guinness Stout, which we found in ample supply at Wegmans.
                                 Roger DuPuis | Times Leader

Look closely at the brownie and you can see it has a blond layer and a chocolate layer, similar to the appearance of a beer cocktail containing Guinness Stout and lager. The glass, by the way, doesn’t contain a cocktail but simply Guinness Stout, which we found in ample supply at Wegmans.

Roger DuPuis | Times Leader

Not-so-secret ingredient is a cup of Guinness Stout

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<p>Our test cook pulls the pan of finished brownies out of the oven a few minutes before the appointed time was up, and soon lamented she should have taken them out even sooner because that oven runs hot and the brownies were slightly scorched on the bottom.</p>
                                 <p>Roger DuPuis | Times Leader</p>

Our test cook pulls the pan of finished brownies out of the oven a few minutes before the appointed time was up, and soon lamented she should have taken them out even sooner because that oven runs hot and the brownies were slightly scorched on the bottom.

Roger DuPuis | Times Leader

<p>On the day test cook	Mary Therese Biebel brought Half-and-Half Brownies into the newsroom, she and page designer Lyndsay Bartos tried to enhance the St. Patrick’s Day mood by singing ‘It’s A Long Way to Tipperary,’ and ‘When Irish Eyes are Smiling.’ If you want to hear them, check out news editor Roger DuPuis’ video at timesleader.com.</p>
                                 <p>Roger DuPuis | Times Leader</p>

On the day test cook Mary Therese Biebel brought Half-and-Half Brownies into the newsroom, she and page designer Lyndsay Bartos tried to enhance the St. Patrick’s Day mood by singing ‘It’s A Long Way to Tipperary,’ and ‘When Irish Eyes are Smiling.’ If you want to hear them, check out news editor Roger DuPuis’ video at timesleader.com.

Roger DuPuis | Times Leader

<p>Mary Therese Biebel</p>
                                <p>Times Leader Test Kitchen</p>

Mary Therese Biebel

Times Leader Test Kitchen

“I like beer. I like dark beer. And I like brownies,” reporter Ryan Evans said after tasting the latest offering from the Times Leader Test Kitchen. “So this is all my favorite things in one.”

“I like Guinness Stout,” reporter Kevin Carroll said, naming the special ingredient in this week’s Half-and-Half Brownies. “You can’t go wrong if you add that to something that’s already good, like a brownie.”

“And you can’t mess up a brownie,” he added.

Oh, but I feared I had. I think I left the brownies in the oven too long — and I worried that might have had a drying effect.

“They’re not dry at all,” page designer Toni Pennello assured me. “They’re moist.”

“I think the bottom might be a little scorched,” I pointed out.

“But they’re good anyway,” obit clerk Ashley Bringmann said kindly.

“I’m not really a fan of the burnt taste,” sports page designer Justin LaCadre said more bluntly. “But they remind me of something I’ve had before, something like a Double Dutch German Cupcake that had liquor in it. And, I’m not really a fan of beer, but it goes well with the chocolate.”

“For me, as a non-drinker, the Guinness stood out immediately,” news editor Roger DuPuis said. “But then the chocolate became dominant. It was a good blend of flavors, and they were amazing when they were warm.”

If you’re wondering, gentle readers, why I seized upon this Guinness-laced recipe, with one week to go before St. Patrick’s Day, it’s because page designer Lyndsay Bartos had spotted a story from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, available to us through the Associated Press, that contained the recipe and, as she explained, “I slipped it into the paper (on Feb. 27), hoping you’d notice and make the brownies.”

Sure and begorrah, the subliminal technique worked. Lyndsay got her wish — and she said she really enjoyed the taste of these half blond/half chocolate brownies.

So did columnist Bill O’Boyle, who wanted to know what they’re called.

While the original story referred to them as “Black and Tan Brownies” we’re calling them “Half and Half Brownies,” because in Ireland “Half and Half” is what they call the beer cocktail of dark Guinness and pale lager that the brownies resemble.

That other name, in fact, might hit a sore spot in many circles. My ears were still tingling hours after I recently came across, on youtube, an Irish song that angrily challenged the Black and Tan constables of the early 20th century to “come out and fight me like a man. Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders. Tell her how the IRA made you run like hell away, from the green and lovely lanes of Killashandra.”

When I mentioned all this to a friend of mine, someone whose heritage is Irish every day of the year, not just on March 17, she confirmed that “Half and Half” is a better name for a drink or a brownie.

“Mary Therese, the Black and Tans were HATED by the Irish!” she wrote in an email. “They were a brutal British occupying police force meant to keep the Irish people ‘in line.’ To give you an example of what they were like, (my husband) had a friend who grew up in Ireland and he told us about having to lay on the floor in grade school because the Black and Tans were strafing the school.”

Yeesh! OK, for sure now, we’ll just call these Brownies “Half and Half.” And here is the recipe.

Half and Half Brownies

For blond layer

6 tablespoons butter, softened

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Cooking spray

For chocolate layer

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped

4 tablespoons butter

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup Guinness Stout

4 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)

1/4 teaspoon salt

Place one rack in lower third of oven; place another rack in center of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare tan brownies: Place butter and brown sugar in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife.

Place flour in bowl and add baking powder and ¼ teaspoon salt, stirring well. Add flour mixture and pecans to sugar mixture, beating just until combined. Spoon into a 13-by-9-inch baking pan coated with cooking spray, spreading evenly with a knife or rubber spatula. Bake in preheated oven on lower third of oven for 15 minutes.

Prepare black brownies: Melt chocolate and butter in a large microwave-safe bowl on high for 1 minute or until melted, stirring after every 20 seconds until smooth. Add granulated sugar, stirring until well combined. Add eggs, vanilla and Guinness, stirring with a whisk until well combined. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour with ¼ teaspoon salt, stirring well. Add flour mixture to chocolate mixture, stirring to combine. Pour mixture evenly over tan brownies.

Bake on the center rack for 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into center comes out almost clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack; cut into squares.