Bitter-Sweet Brownie Bites

I find brownie is one of the easiest desserts to make. It happened to me to make it with a fork or even a spoon instead of a whisk. It happened to me to make it with overheated and water damaged chocolate. It happened to me to make it without using any measurements, just keeping an eye on the consistency and tasting the raw mixture. It even happened to me to bake it in my sister's little grill oven with one non working heating resistor while waiting guests for dinner. No matter what the circumstances and the obstacles were the results were always superb. So far I've tried several different butter-chocolate-eggs-flour ratios and here's the last one. This time the chocolate is of a particularly good quality, I'm measuring all the ingredients till the last gram and I'm baking it in my oven.

In this recipe the emphasis is laid upon the chocolate and the cacao powder. I've used Cacao Barry's Saint-Domingue chocolate which contains 70% cocoa solids and has an extremely pronounced cocoa flavour. Besides it's bitter than the regular 70% chocolate and gives a long lasting pleasant feeling in the mouth.

Cacao Barry's Plein Arome cocoa powder is very potent and complements the strong cocoa flavour.

Bitter-Sweet Brownie Bites Recipe:
Makes 48 2cm square bites

• 100 gr butter + additional for greasing the baking pan;
• 125 gr dark chocolate with minimum 70% cocoa solids;
• 180 gr granulated sugar;
• 2 large eggs;
• 100 gr all purpose flour;
• 20 gr dutch processed cocoa powder;
• 1 scant Tbsp baking powder.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Line a baking pan with paper and butter it lightly. Set aside.

In a medium bowl sift and mix together the flour, cocoa powder and the baking powder. Set aside.

In a double boiler melt the chocolate and the butter. Remove from the heat and add half of the sugar to cool the mixture.

In a large bowl slightly beat the eggs. Add the remaining sugar and continue beating for one more minute. Beat in the chocolate-butter mixture. Add the sifted dry ingredients and mix well. Pour in the prepared baking pan and bake for 25 – 30 minutes. When ready, cool completely on a wire rack then cut it into 2 cm square bites.