Fudgy Brownie Bites
Every once and a while a magical thing happens in the foodie world. Someone tries a recipe, adds their own twist and posts it. Then someone reads the post and does the same. And another. Before you know it there is a convoluted trail of foodies putting their spin on an already delicious recipe. Like the passing of a ritual torch, it is time I bestow to you this delicious, possibly perfect brownie recipe. This isn’t the most intricate trail I’ve seen in the foodie world, but it’s a fun one, so let’s follow it anyways.
It started with a tweet (check me out @rvank) I sent out, asking if anyone had a moist brownie recipe. The adorable, inspiring Brian Samuels of A Though for Food–a favorite foodie of mine and a big inspiration for my pursuits here–suggested I check out one of his posts. He promised me a delicious brownie recipe, a recipe he adapted from none other than the queen of food blogging, Deb of Smitten Kitchen. She adapted the recipe from Alice Medrich’s book, Bittersweet. Who knows where this Alice got the recipe, but a few things have changed since it reached me, mostly at the work of my own hands.
My tweet was not entirely forthcoming. I was looking for a moist recipe because I planned to bake the brownies in mini cupcake tins and I didn’t want to risk overcooked, dry brownies. You see, I am a cookie fiend whereas my family and friends are obsessed with brownies. I wanted, needed something shaped almost like a cookie to trick me into thinking I was eating a cookie–or something like that.
In addition to Brian’s suggestion, my request ended up starting a 75 tweet thread about what makes brownies moist. It was foodie on foodie action–serious hair pulling action. In the end, it came down to fat. The original recipe from Alice only uses fat from butter to create a candy-like bite (the chocolate coming solely from cocoa powder). I, the careful man I am, figured I needed a bit more fat since I was baking the brownies in a mini muffin pan. I added 4 ounces of a 70% chocolate bar (which contains some cocoa butter to add to the fat content; the extra sugar in the chocolate doesn’t hurt either). I also multiplied the recipe by 1.5 because I’m a hungry boy.
This will yield 36 incredibly moist, soft, fudgy pillows of brownie bite. The recipe should scale fine if you don’t want that many–or if you want a bunch more–, though I assure you 36 will barely last a day or two. I’ve also linked you to both Brian’s and Deb’s recipe above if you’d like to try something closer to the original.
Ok. Enough words. I should have stopped long ago because really, the only thing that matters in this post is the recipe, a recipe you must try! P.S. Did you notice my homage to Brian’s photography above?
Fudgy Brownie Bites
Ingredients
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chopped
2 cups sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 ounces 70% cocoa chocolate bar, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs, cold
3/4 cup cake flourInstructions1. Butter a mini muffin pan (with 36 muffin cups); preheat an oven to 325°F with a rack in the bottom third of the oven.2. Place the butter in a large bowl over a pot of simmering water (bain marie). When it begins to melt, add the sugar, cocoa powder and chocolate bar. Stir occasionally until the butter and chocolate have completely melted and mixture is completely mixed together–it may still appear a bit grainy.3. Remove the bowl from the bain marie and allow the temperature of the mixture to cool slightly.4. Add the vanilla and stir. Then add each egg, one at a time, mixing well after each to completely incorporate it.5. Add the cake flour and mix the flour in until it is completely dispersed. Continue to mix for another minute to ensure the mixture is smooth. The batter will be very thick.6. Spoon the batter evenly into the minicupcake pan. Place in the preheated oven and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out covered in crumbs and a paste-like substance, but not a liquidy looking substance (it should stick to the toothpick and not run or fall off). Mine baked for 18 minutes.7. Allow the brownies to cool to room temperature then place the pans in the freeze for 20 minutes–this will help the brownies come out of the pan easier. Remove from the freezer, run a knife along the outside of each brownie and pop the brownie bite out.
Um, these look amazing. Reminds me of the chocolate brownie bites my mom bought when I was a kid – she wasn’t much of a baker.
p.s great blog.
p.p.s i love your recipes. you’ve got some good taste buds.
p.p.p.s i also love cornbread.
Brownie bites are my latest obsession. I’m definitely going to try this recipe because the moist fudgy (hmm my phone first recognize that word. MUST CHANGE THAT.) texture is more difficult to achieve with the bites. Wonder how these would work with add-ins?
Oh, these bites TOTALLY look magical!
Cute little seducing bites! Love the idea to bake in those small molds.
The brownie bites look delicious! I love the ‘corner’ pieces on ‘traditional’ brownies for the chewy crust. Baking individual bites is a great way to achieve that in every piece :)
Oh wow! These look amazing. Brownies in bite form are dangerous…they just asking to be popped into ones mouth when walking by the kitchen.
Hel-looooo brownies!
These look just like those packaged Two Bite Brownies, which are basically my personal kryptonite. I can eat a full bag in one sitting, which probably translates to five million calories.
I’d probably consume an entire batch of these brownies in one sitting too, and it would probably be just as many calories… but least least I’d be spared all the icky preservatives and lord-knows-what-else lurking in the storebought versions. :)
Those look amazing! I have a BBQ coming up and I guess I could take that opportunity to convert my guests to fudgeism with your recipe. Great photos
You can stop chasing delicious you’ve found it!!! YUM :)
Your brownies look amazing! Great photos.
I’ve been searching for ages for a recipe that will make perfect little brownie bites and these look amazing! Your pictures are gorgeous and I pretty much want to eat at least 20 of them.
This really is my favorite brownie recipe and I’m so glad that you enjoyed it. And thank you so much for your kind words!
Glad I stopped in to see these delicious little morsels! In reading this, I can tell you put a lot of thought into making sure that these did turn out as you expected. I will need to try this recipe-thanks for sharing.
These are so cute!! Thank you so much for sharing. I love anything that is bite sized. Makes it seem like you can have more of them. Your pictures are outstanding!!
I have totally been craving brownies lately, and these look so delicious. The only problem is that the size is just perfect to not keep track of how many I’m eating… and eat them all!
Okay, I’m making brownies tomorrow! These sound so good, and your pictures are fantastic!
I love brownie bites. Because c’mon. It’s a bite. So you are meant to have more than one! These look super moist and fudgy Russell! : )
Looks wonderful! Yum!
These look amazing! I am a big brownie fan so going to bookmark this one to try out.
Your brownie bites remind me of the 2 bite brownies you can get at Costco. Love that you made your own though. Thanks for sharing!
Those look amazing! I love to slice brownie bites in half…add some vanilla ice cream and make brownie-ice cream sandwiches.
L. O. V. E. The recipe and the story. Thats one of my favorite things about this wonderful foodie and blogging community. I have yet to meet a brownie recipe I don’t like and this one is getting bookmarked for sure!
Love the deep dark brown colour and how that precarious stack has balanced itself!! :)
uh yum!!! I love brownies! That was THE treat I started my culinary adventures with when I was a kid. I had the recipe memorized and made it God knows how many times.
My new fav brownie recipe: Cocoa Brownies with Browned Butter.
I will have to try these too though!
Can I seriously request you to send me one of this luscious chewy goodness…
Such a wonderful recipe and lovely post.
This community is so beautiful and I feel so blessed to be a part.
Thanks for the recipe, I”ll sure try these soon but till then i”ll be dreaming about these babies and drooling…
Lovely photos and I like the idea of using muffin pan to bake these brownie bites!
These brownie bites look absolutely adorable – and I’m sure with a combo of Brian & Deb’s recipes, they were absolutely tasty too!
You have been tagged for the 7 links, see my 7 link post from today.
A new use for my mini cupcake pans. Thanks for the ideas!
Hi,
Got to know your site from Tina…. nice to know about your blog and loved your fugdy browny bites :)
Cheers!
Maria
Russell you did it again! You’ve made something amazing that makes my mouth water. I haven’t been baking for a while and my hands are itching. The only thing is…do you think I can use less butter? Two sticks seem a bit much to me.
Sounds like a GREAT brownie. I have been craving brownies all day and I adore the mini muffin cup types (a store near me sells them). may just have to start cooking :-D
Oh my… These are so decadent! I love all that dark chocolate… and the photos are fabulous – Kudos!
Your photos are positively enchanting… Seriously, one look, and I’m in love! Everything looks incredibly delicious. I’m scribing to your RSS this very moment. :)
Yum. Chocolately goodness in a bite-sized form. Seriously what’s not to love about these treats! Another most excellent post Russell.
I love brownies!especialy incredibly moist, soft, fudgy pillows of brownie bite, Haha ha!
Tq for sharing the recipe Russel, I’ll try to make it & join this foodie brownies chain soon ;)
I’m in loooove with brownies, it’s so decadent :D
Always a good way to start a party, “pass me the brownies!”… It looks amazing :)
I’m just bopping over from browsing Google+ and I just have to say that these look AMAZING – love the way you’ve styled and photographed these beauties. I love food photography and may have just found my newest favorite blog! :)
So true referring to the ever inspiring food community, we all search for deliciousness adn the tweak it to become our own. It is a very flattering cycle!
There goes my weight-loss program. Keep em coming!
I love the sound of these! Shall be trying them soon… My last batch of brownies had a salted caramel layer in the middle, which was a bit fiddly, but delicious. I haven’t perfected the recipe yet though!
Thanks for doing the hard part: fine-tweaking the recipe for mini-brownies. My go-to recipe wasn’t so perfect in minimuffin cups, and I’ve been relying on boxed Ghirardelli mix (sorry.) Will definitely use this next time as well as the hint to place cooled pan in the freezer as my least favorite task is getting cakes out of the pan cleanly. They should freeze well as a doahead for my holiday party: topped that afternoon with a delicately flavored whipped cream flourish (favs: raspberry, mocha, chocolate) far better than $4.00 apiece to a caterer.
I made these last night. So great! instead of the chocolate I used 2 rounds of Abuelita hot chocolate and reduced the sugar by a half cup. So so fudgy and fantastic.
Next time im going to try adding caramel sauce inside and a bit of salt on top. mmm.
These look delicious. I was wondering why you use cake flour instead of all purpose flour. Thank you.
Cake flour contains less gluten and more starch than bread or all purpose flour. Because of this cake flower gives baked goods a softer, cake-ier bite – in my mind perfect for brownies. If all you have is all purpose flour, you can substitute that in. The recipe shouldn’t be affected much outside of a small difference in the texture and bite of the brownie.
Hi! I just saw your response. Thank you. Also, how much batter do you use to fill the mini muffin tin? 1 tbsp? More? Less? Thank you!!!
You’re welcome! As for filling the mini muffin tins, since they don’t rise a whole lot I fill them about 3/4ths full, maybe a little more. Since pan sizes could vary I’d measure it visually rather than by a particular volume measurement.
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These look so fudgy and perfect. I plan on making them ASAP! I love your site!
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I cam across your blog while looking for cocoa powder versus cacao powder. I read your recipe and picked the tip of adding chocolate bar to the brownie batter. While I am writing this I saw comments from some familiar people. I am not a baker but I do try my hand on baking.
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I made these in mini muffin pans for a going away party, very chewy and chocoaltey, not cakey at all, just what I was looking for! The only thing I changed was that I used 60% cacao because that’s all I had on hand. Will be making again for sure, thanks so much for the reciepe!
I gotta get to Target and grab a few bags of those kisses! I’m gonna cheat and use a box mix. Shhh, the boys I bake for will never know ahintyng but that Miss Ingrid baked for them! :)~ingrid
I stumbled upon your blog while looking for a good fudgy, not cakey, brownie…I just made these and they are so good! They are moist, chewy, and perfect! Thank you!
I just finished making these and I carefully followed your instructions for getting them out of the mini muffin tins (which do not always cooperate with food removal). A quick jab of my paring knife along the edge and they popped right out. Thank you so much for this handy tip which will serve me well in the future. Oh, and the brownie bites were wonderful. Thanks.
We stumbled abon this recipe when seaching to make something yummy and chocolaty and so we made this recipe. They turned out sooooo moist and delicious new favorite by FAR. P.S. we used regular sized muffin tins because we could not find our mini ones and they still turned out AMAZING thank you so much for this recipe
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There are three main myths about the creation of the brownie. The first, that a chef accidentally added melted chocolate to biscuit dough. The second, a cook forgot to add flour to the batter. And thirdly, the most popular belief, that a housewife did not have baking powder and improvised with this new treat. It was said that she was baking for guests and decided to serve these flattened cakes to them. This became our beloved treat of today. Whatever may be the case; all three myths have gained popularity throughout the years due to its mysterious beginnings.*
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