Chocolate Brownie Bites

Every now and then I have a weak moment where i want to eat something really bad for me, like rich brownies or a layered cake with buttercream icing. Of course, there are times when it's okay to indulge so heavily with foods you regret once you've swallowed the last bite. Unfortunately, those days are not as frequent as the cravings.
It's important to keep your taste buds busy, and your body healthy and happy. There's a lot of ways to satisfy those urges for sweets and still feel like you're in control of your body.
As always, i don't call for as much sugar as similar recipes might, i prefer to keep it tasty with real flavours. Unfortunately with things like cookies, and cakes and pastries, butter (or margarine) is virtually inescapable, but you can cut back on the fat without cutting back on the flavour. I use in general about 1/4 to 1/2 cup less fat than many comparable recipes and i'm more often pretty happy with the results. I have experimented with even less fat than that, but i wasn't as satisfied with the results. The taste was good, but the texture changes when you try to cut back too much on a key element. So when you're working with your own recipe's, experiment by slowly cutting back on the stuff that's bad for you like butter, margarine, oil, salt and sugar, and increase the flavour elements and aromatics to balance it out. I think you'll be pretty pleased with your results once you find that perfect balance for yourself.

For these cookies (yes cookies, they taste like brownies, they're soft like brownies, but they are cookies) I use half the butter and half the sugar in comparison to the cookie recipe i originally started working with.


Chocolate Brownie Bites Recipe:


Dry:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup never bleached all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp instant coffee
1/2 cup cocoa (fry's is the best)
1 cup brown or white sugar
1/2 cup dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips

Wet:
1/2 cup unsalted butter or margarine
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup milk (milk, almond milk, soy milk, rice milk, etc...)

Method:

• Combine flours, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl and set aside.
• In a separate mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add vanilla extract and cocoa powder, instant coffee, then add the egg. Mix until creamy and consistent. 
• Add flour mixture to butter and egg mixture alternating with milk. mix to combine.
• gently stir in chocolate chips to combine.
• Portion tablespoon sized cookies on cookie sheet (about 15 cookies for one tray, makes about 3 trays.) you don't need to grease the cookie sheet. You may freeze the remainder of the dough in some plastic wrap for 2 months or make all 3 trays, baking one at a time.
• Bake cookies in preheated 350° oven and bake for 12 minutes. Cookies should be soft and fluffy to the touch when done. Cool cookies on wire rack for at least 5 minutes before devouring.

Last night i made a batch of these cookies, and to my dismay i ate six of them. I wish i were kidding, but then again, it's not so bad. At least i didn't eat 6 brownies!