The Great Beer Kitchen Top 10 Winter Warmers

Our editorial team picks the ten recipes most likely to get you through the colder months with warmth, spice, and a full glass.

Winter cooking asks something different of you than summer does. Where summer is about restraint -- preserving the freshness of a perfect ingredient -- winter is about transformation. Long, slow cooking, heavy spicing, and enriching with butter and cream are not indulgences in winter; they are necessities. Our ten winter warmer picks are unified by a single principle: they all improve with time. Every one of these recipes is better the next day, and several are at their absolute peak after two days in the fridge.

At the top of the list is our Beef Bourguignon -- Julia Child's landmark recipe adapted to include a small measure of dark stout alongside the Burgundy. The stout adds a roasted depth that the wine alone does not provide, and the long braising time (three hours minimum) allows everything to marry into something that is genuinely greater than the sum of its parts. Close behind is the Moroccan Lamb Stew with preserved lemon, which rewards a minimum of 2.5 hours in the oven and tastes dramatically better reheated the following day when the warm spices have fully bloomed.

For dessert, our Sticky Toffee Pudding and Dark Chocolate Stout Cake vie for the top position depending on your preference for caramel or chocolate. Both can be made entirely in advance: the pudding keeps for three days at room temperature (reheat in portions with extra warm sauce), and the stout cake freezes beautifully for up to two months. A winter dinner party built around these three courses -- the bourguignon, the lamb as an alternative main, and either pudding for dessert -- will require only reheating on the night, giving you the time to focus entirely on your guests.