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The Best Wine Pairing with Brownies

Watch out, brownies and ice cream: there’s a new pairing on the block. Brownies and wine can make a spectacular pairing, if you pick the right bottle. Alternatively, you can even go ahead and bake the wine into the brownies – our friends over at the Wine Buying Guide recommended this recipe. Read on for all things wine and brownies, from pairings to a recipe.

What Wine Should I Pair With Brownies?

Napa Valley Merlot’s lush dark fruit, chocolate, and spice notes make it an excellent wine pairing with brownies. After each bite of rich, fudgy brownie, Merlot cleanses the palate with a wash of dark fruit. Its smooth tannins accentuate the bitter dark chocolate. 

I’m particularly a fan of the Duckhorn Merlot. You’ll want a Merlot that is fruit-forward, approachable, and filled with supple tannins. Duckhorn can be relied upon to deliver the epitome of a classic Napa Valley-style Merlot, every time. If you’re looking for a value wine, the Textbook Merlot offers excellent quality at a lower price, $24.99. It offers similar notes of dark fruit, vanilla, oak, and chocolate.

While Bordeaux’s right bank also produces plenty of Merlot, I would probably avoid it unless you are looking for a pairing with more contrast. Bordeaux-style Merlot is usually dry, with savory acidity and textured minerality. This profile is better-suited to meat dishes than desserts.

What Wines Don’t Pair as Well With Brownies?

I’ll be the first to admit it – brownies aren’t the most versatile food to pair with wine. While the counsel is often to pair sweet wines with dessert, the Ruby Port I tried tasted too sweet with the brownies. Port has concentrated flavors and high alcohol content. Its sweetness is appropriate if you are eating straight-up bar chocolate or truffles. But against brownies, which also contain butter, flour, and eggs, the Port’s sweetness is cloying.

On the opposite end, a very dry wine won’t work either. You’ll want a wine with some tannins to complement the bitter chocolate. However, it also should have some ripeness of fruit to stand up to the sugar in the brownies. Most brownie recipes are quite sweet, with at least one cup of sugar per pan of brownies. This high sugar content will make dry wines taste harsh or tart. If you are opposed to fruit-forward wines, you can try to reduce the amount of sugar in the brownie recipe to help it pair better with dry wines. However, with less sugar, you may not get the glossy, crinkly crust that makes brownies so beautiful.

Red Wine Brownies Recipe

Dark Chocolate edited

Another way to help your wine pair with brownies is to bake it into the batter! Just a quarter cup of red wine adds an element of complexity to your otherwise standard brownie recipe. You won’t actually taste red wine inside the brownie. Instead, you’ll get a depth of flavor that makes regular brownies pale by comparison. These brownies have an undertone of berry flavor from the wine, and extra richness from its tannins.

Honestly, I might just make all of my future brownie batches wine-infused. The recipe is surprisingly easy, and has so much more to it than the one-dimensional chocolate flavor of a regular brownie.

Since you should always cook with a wine you would drink, all brownies were made (and consumed alongside) one of our favorites, Duckhorn Merlot. The Duckhorn Merlot has a more fruit-forward flavor on the palate, with hints of milk chocolate and raspberry, making it the perfect companion to chocolate.We tested a few variations on the Wine Buying Guide‘s recipe to find out which one brought out the best in our wine and brownies.

Red Wine Brownies with Regular Cocoa Powder

If you prefer a milder, creamier chocolate flavor to the more bitter strength of dark chocolate, this is the recipe for you. Any readily available Hershey’s or Nestle cocoa powder will yield a brownie that’s lighter in color and flavor.

Red Wine Brownies with Extra Dark Chocolate Cocoa Powder

For the intense dark chocolate lover, dark chocolate cocoa powder is a must. We used Hershey’s special dark cocoa powder, which is available in many grocery stores. This simple swap made for an incredibly rich, fudgy brownie.

Red Wine Brownies with Wine-Soaked Cranberries

To play up the wine flavor, you can soak dried cranberries in the wine for about an hour or until softened, and then add them to the brownies. This adds a more tart flavor that contrasts nicely with the sweetness of the brownies. We made ours with dark chocolate cocoa powder to match the intensity of the flavors.

wine reduction brownies edited
Red Wine Brownies with Mulled Wine Reduction

Here’s the truth. Wine-infused brownies are naturally a bit more fudgy, because they have slightly more liquid. If you prefer a drier, lighter brownie, you can attain the same complexity from the wine with less moisture by reducing the wine. With this final variation, we simply doubled the amount of wine to a half cup, and then simmered it until it was reduced to less than a quarter cup. Voila. Less fudgy mess.

The winner? For us, dark chocolate brownies with wine-soaked cranberries was the best variation. The combination of sweet and tart, fudgy and fruity, was simply sublime. Also, the wine flavor was a bit more subtle in some of the other recipes. As wine lovers, we can never get enough wine, and wine-soaked cranberries definitely bring on more of a kick.

Interested in more wine and dessert pairings? Check out these ideas below:


Here’s our take on the recipe, or hop over to TheWineBuyingGuide.com for the original:

Yields 9 squares
Preparation Time: 15 min
Cooking Time: 35 min

Ingredients
1 1/2 stick unsalted butter
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon espresso powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
3/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup red wine

Directions

  1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Lightly butter or grease an 8×8 inch baking pan.
  3. In a saucepan on medium-low heat, melt the butter. Once melted, add in chocolate chips and stir until melted. Remove from heat.
  4. Mix in the sugar. Once combined, whisk the eggs, vanilla, cocoa, flour, salt, and espresso powder until well combined.
  5. Mix in any other extras: wine-soaked fruit, extra chocolate chips, nuts, etc., along with the red wine.
  6. Spread the batter into the baking pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out somewhat cleanly (it will still have chocolate, but should not be entirely wet).
  7. Let cool at room temp and cut into squares.