Baked Cocoa Protein Brownie Bites
Dense, fudgy cocoa brownie bites baked in the oven, with a pinch of salt to sharpen the chocolate. High in protein from eggs and milk, and naturally not spicy.
- Total
- 47 min
- Prep 15 · Cook 22 · Rest 10
- Serves
- 1
- Difficulty
- Easy
You'll practice: Whisking · Folding
- Sweet
- Oven
Instructions
-
Heat the oven to 175°C. Line all 12 cups of the muffin tin with paper liners.
~5 min
-
Put 100 g butter in a large heatproof bowl and place it in the oven for 4 minutes, until fully melted. Remove the bowl and let the butter cool for 3 minutes so it is warm, not hot.
~7 min
Melting butter gently and cooling it prevents hot fat from cooking the eggs when they are whisked in.
-
Whisk 3 eggs, 120 g sugar and 0.5 tsp salt into the warm melted butter for 1 minute, until the mixture is smooth and slightly pale.
~1 min
Whisking eggs, sugar and salt into warm butter dissolves the sugar and starts a smooth emulsion.
Whisking Whisk briskly in one direction until the mixture looks smooth and slightly pale; stop as soon as it is uniform to avoid over-aerating.
-
Sift 90 g flour and 40 g cocoa powder over the egg mixture. Pour in 120 ml milk and stir with a wooden spoon just until no dry streaks remain. The batter will be thick and glossy.
~3 min
Stirring just until no dry streaks remain limits gluten development, keeping the baked bites tender rather than tough.
Sifting the cocoa powder with the flour stops bitter lumps from forming, so the chocolate flavour stays even in every bite.
Folding Use a wooden spoon to fold gently just until dry streaks disappear; overmixing develops gluten and makes the bites tough.
-
Divide the batter evenly between the 12 liners, filling each about three-quarters full.
~3 min
-
Bake for 18 minutes, until the tops are set and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out with a few moist crumbs, not wet batter.
~18 min
Pulling the bites when a toothpick shows moist crumbs leaves residual heat to finish setting the centres, keeping them fudgy.
Pull the tin from the oven while the centres still look slightly damp; they set as they cool, which keeps these bites dense and fudgy rather than dry.
-
Leave the bites in the tin for 10 minutes to firm up, then lift them onto a wire rack to cool completely.
~10 min
Resting in the hot tin lets the structure set so the bites hold together when lifted out.