Flour-less Dark Chocolate Brownie Cups

I am a self confessed chocoholic. However, the chocolate has to be dark for me to really enjoy myself. There is something sickeningly sweet about milk chocolate that allows me to easily push it aside (mostly). This recipe is my own creation from years of fiddling with dry brownie and cake recipes that don't press my buttons.  

Ingredients

150g butter

300g good quality dark cooking chocolate

50g good quality dark cocoa

200g caster sugar

4 eggs

Preheat your oven to 180°C and choose and prepare your patty-cake pans. I used a combination of mini (about 50cent coin size) and ordinary in an array of colours. 

Using the double boiler method (demonstrated in this post) melt the chocolate and butter until smooth and glossy. Take off the heat. 

Meanwhile, beat your eggs and sugar until fluffy and doubled in volume. I'm in two minds about which method to use for this step. It takes longer and more physical effort to do it manually but I find it to be therapeutic, so that's my choice. However, if you're in a rush or don't mind the extra bit of washing up, feel free to use an electric beater (I have confirmation that this works just as well). 

Sift the cocoa into the melted chocolate and butter and stir to combine. Slowly fold the egg batter through the chocolate mixture until well combined.  Because of all the effort (if you did it manually) you put into making the eggs fluffy, be sure to be very gentle in this process. 

Now it's time to spoon your batter into the patty-cake pans. If you're using mini patty pans you'll find the mixture goes on and on and on..... and is seemingly never ending. That's why I use a combination of big and small. 

Pop them into your preheated oven. 10 - 15 minutes for small ones and 15 - 20 for larger sized ones. The purpose of these is to keep them fairly gooey in the middle. Once they're cooked leave until cool and place them in the fridge for an hour or so. When you bite into them, they should be deliciously fudge-like - almost like a chocolate bar. 

Fresh berries of your choice on top cuts through the bitterness of the chocolate like a dream. I highly recommend raspberries if you're willing to fork out the money.

And there you have it, my very own flour-less dark chocolate brownie cups. I hope you like this one, the recipe is one the first successes I made up entirely. Let me know what I can do if you think it can be improved.

Bon appétit! 

Erin xx