Welcome To My Gluten Free Website!

Welcome To My Website!

Monday, June 23, 2014

Chocolate-Espresso 
Brownie Cookies

I have a couple different crackle-cookie recipes. Some are quite fickle, but they all taste great. This recipe is not too sweet, a bit rich with a great full chocolate flavor enhanced by the espresso. These are tender, moist and chewy just like our favorite brownies. The recipe doesn’t contain very much flour blend, which doesn’t impede the structure or taste at all. 

Isn't it funny how desperate one feels when having a specific craving? Absolutely nothing else will sate the urge to indulge in that specific food. Nothing. You can try, but it's just not gonna work. That's what happened this weekend. I wanted chocolate. The best chocolate made into the best snack and dessert, something that would satisfy and fulfill that urgent craving. 

So I was gleaning information through some favorite cookbooks and food magazines and found an inspiration recipe for these in the "The Best Of Fine Cooking Chocolate" edition from winter 2012. The front cover shows individual delectable "Dark Chocolate SoufflĂ© Cakes With Espresso-Chocolate Sauce." I thought I wanted those, however while perusing this priceless magazine (priceless meaning that when donating magazines to hospitals and the Long Beach VA, this one stays at home!), I discovered that I wanted everything! So I took my time and contemplated needing an entire box of tissues due to my drooling over it all. 

Yes, I was nice and asked my husband Greg if he would like to try brownie cookies, to which he enthusiastically said yes! Fantastic!

Brownie cookies it is then! These are sooo good! Beautifully crackled on top, tender and just the right chew. The chocolate flavor is fantastic and highlights very nicely from the espresso powder. I purchased my instant espresso powder from Sur la Table. You can also find it online from King Arthur flours, or you can substitute dark instant coffee. Or leave it out all together.

#1-FYI: Consider using a kitchen scale to measure all of your baking supplies. It's much more accurate and precise, giving you consistent products every time. While measuring by cups will be different just because every manufacturer produces what they think is the proper measure. There are so many different sets of measuring cups out there in the marketing world! I've actually checked measuring cups, having several sets myself, and they are all different, not by much maybe, but enough to alter your products final outcome. 

#2-FYI: I made these cookies twice in the same evening first using The Art Of Gluten-Free Baking's flour blend, and then using America's Test Kitchen's flour blend. They were both outstanding, and cooked up exactly the same in appearance, structure, and taste. Very interesting! 


SO I'm including them both here for you to choose from:

"The Art Of Gluten-Free Baking" 
Jeanne's GF AP Flour Blend                                           Makes about 4 1/2 cups
1 1/4 cups brown rice flour
1 1/4 cups white rice flour
1 cup sweet rice flour
1 cup tapioca flour/starch
scant 2 teaspoons xanthan gum

Whisk together in a large bowl. Measure out the amount called for in the recipe your using, then transfer the remaining blend into an airtight container and store in a cool, dark place up to 6 weeks, in the fridge for 4 months. (Mine never lasts more than a couple of days!)

"America's Test Kitchen" 
Americas Test Kitchen GF AP Flour Blend              Makes about about 9 1/2 cups
24 ounces white rice flour (which is a whole bag of Bob's Red Mill brand)
7 1/2 ounces brown rice flour
7 ounces potato STARCH - not flour!
3 ounces tapioca starch or flour, as they are the same thing
3/4 ounce nonfat dry milk powder

Whisk all ingredients together until well blended. Transfer to an airtight container. If you won't use it with in a 3 month period, keep it refrigerated. Mine doesn't usually last more than 24 hours!

GF Chocolate-Espresso Brownie Cookies

Equipment Needed:
Servings: About 2 dozen - 3 inch cookies
Rating: 5 Stars!
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients: 
12 ounces or 3/4 lb. dark/bittersweet chocolate, chopped, use the best you can afford to buy, I use Callebaut Dark Chocolate
2 ounces or 1/4 cup unsalted butter, cut in pieces
¼ - ½ teaspoon instant espresso or instant coffee
large eggs
6 ounces or 3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 ½ ounces or 1/3 cup Jeannes GF Flour Blend or ATK's GF flour blend
¼ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon Kosher salt
Method:
Pre-heat oven to 350℉
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
1. Melt the chocolate, butter and espresso powder together in a double boiler, just until 3/4 of the mixture is melted. Then remove from the heat and stir occasionally about 5 minutes to melt the remaining mixture with the residual heat. This helps keep the chocolate mixture from overheating, or scorching. Let mixture cool.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer beat the eggs and sugar for about 4 minutes, mixture should ribbon back into the bowl and dissolve itself right back into the main batter body.3. While egg mixture beats, combine the dry ingredients with a whisk and set aside.
4. Add the cooled chocolate mixture to the egg and sugar mixture and mix well. Add the vanilla extract, mixing well and then the dry ingredients. Mix well, scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl, then beat on medium-high speed for  5-6 minutes to hydrate the flours. This step helps to not have gritty, grainy, sandy tasting goods.
5. Using a 2-3 ounce cookie/portion scoop, portion out the batter to about 1/2 inch apart, (these cookies don’t really spread to much so you can place them closer on the cookie sheet.) Let the cookie batter portions sit and air dry for about 8-10 minutes.
6. Bake the air dried cookie portions one sheet at a time, at 350℉, for 12-15 minutes. These cookies have a hard time being removed from the parchment paper if they are under baked. if you have difficulties try baking them longer, maybe 5-7 minutes if they have completely cooled, or you can try chilling them for about 15 minutes. Either way, clean the spatula every 2-3 cookies as chocolate dough will build up along the edge and then rip at the cookies instead of removing them easily. I had to rebake some of them for an extra 5-7 minutes, depending on how long they had been out of the oven. The texture was still soft and chewy like the way we like brownies, but had more structure with the extra baking time, and when completely cool were easily removable from the parchment paper. And finally, the cookies will be cracked while still baking, and they just get better, and better as they cool. : )
This photo has cookies from both flour blends!
Enjoy!


Source:
Debbie Wells

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