Chocolate Almond Brownie Bites

I was craving something chocolaty and fancied brownies but also fancied cookies too. In the end I decided to try and adapt a brownie recipe to make cookie shaped brownie bites.

I decided to make teeny tiny, bite sized brownie bites using a melon ball scoop to shape the cookies. To accommodate the smaller size, I halved the recipe and still ended up with 30 cookies! The original recipe used plain flour, but I replaced this with ground almonds and some cornflour to make them gluten free. I think this helped make them extra soft and fudgy, as they stayed wonderfully gooey.

Brownie batter does not naturally lend itself to being shaped into cookies, so after making the batter I chilled it in the fridge until firm, shaped it into balls, chilled again and then baked them with my fingers crossed. The intense chocolate aroma as they baked was intoxicating. They did spread out in the oven, but due to their teeny tiny size the top crust firmed up quickly enough to stop them oozing into a gooey mess, resulting in some seriously cute mini cookies.

They were far too soft to handle when straight out the oven, but just like brownies they firmed up on cooling and were just about sturdy enough to handle. They remained very soft but this made every gooey, rich chocolaty bite taste every bit as good as the fudgy middle of a brownie.

These are some intensely rich and chocolaty brownie bites, especially as they are studded with extra white chocolate chips for good measure. I loved their tiny size. They were so indulgent that I only needed 1 or 2 to satisfy my chocolate craving. I shared most of them with my boyfriend and the following day I received a text asking for another batch. They also taste amazing mushed into some soft vanilla ice cream!

Chocolate Almond Brownie Bites

Ingredients

50g ground almonds

15g cornflour

15g cocoa powder

½ tsp baking powder

100g dark chocolate

50g butter

50g caster sugar

25g light soft brown sugar

1 egg

100g white chocolate chips

Method

Break the dark chocolate into pieces and cut the butter into small cubes. Place the chocolate and butter in the base of a large saucepan. Heat gently, stirring occasionally until the butter and chocolate has melted and combined.

Remove from heat and beat in the caster and brown sugar, followed by the egg.

Weigh out the ground almonds, cornflour, cocoa powder and baking powder and add to the pan. Beat until combined.

Pour the batter into a clean bowl before quickly folding in the white chocolate chips. Don’t do this too long or the chips will melt into the batter.

Place the bowl into the fridge to firm up for 30 minutes.

Once chilled, scoop out small balls of dough using a melon baller/scoop and place onto a cling film lined tray. Alternatively use a level teaspoon of mix and roll into a small ball. Cover the surface with clingfilm and place in the fridge to chill for 20-30minutes until firm.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180C and line two large baking trays with greaseproof paper.

Place half the cookie mounds onto one of the trays, one inch apart. Gently flatten the surfaces so they are level, but still remain very thick.

Bake for 6-7 minutes, they will still look soft and unbaked. Allow to cool on the tray until completely cold or else they will be too soft to handle. Once one tray is baked, repeat with the remaining brownie bites on the second tray.

Makes 30 mini brownie bite cookies