Mocha Bites

Wotchers!

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. Can’t be helped. But its barrelling down upon us like a heart-shaped juggernaut, and so here we are, casting about for some kind of celebratory recipe.

I don’t know about you, but I’m struggling to drum up any enthusiasm this year for any happy-clappy, joy-joy pink, cutesy, heart-shaped froth. So in much the same way that I came to create The Midnight Meringue all those many moons ago, I’ve decided to embrace the gloom and go in the opposite direction with these Mocha Bites.

Dark. Rich. Bitter. Indulgent. Adult.

Just the thing to enjoy with a hot cup of espresso, after a satisfying meal. Bonus: they’re flour-less, so suitable for those with sensitivity to regular flour, and can also be adapted to be dairy free and vegan.

Quick sidebar: these are flour-less, because they contain cocoa, whose very dryness mimics the properties of flour. I’ve said it before, but it’s worth mentioning again, that when you ‘chocolatise’ a recipe by adding cocoa, you MUST REMOVE an equivalent quantity of flour, otherwise your mixture will be too dry and the texture adversely affected (probably).

Another bonus is you can customise the texture of these chocolate morsels to your personal tastes simply by adjusting the cooking time. The insides of these decadent treats are similar to a brownie in texture. I prefer my brownie ‘cakey’, but if you like your brownie soft and gooey, just lessen the cooking time. The ones in the photo were baked for 20 minutes, but I’ve tried them at various cooking times, all the way down to 12 minutes. Be warned: the shorter the cooking time, the more inclined your bites will be to sink as they cool. The ones baked for 20 minutes stayed beautifully domed with a very attractive crackled appearance. The bites cooked for shorter times were noticeably more flattened in appearance.

Mocha Bites

Makes about 25 bites

These have a big punch of flavour – lots of dark chocolate, cocoa and espresso coffee powder. As a result, just one or two is sufficient to supply a very satisfying and indulgent taste. If you’re not a fan of quite so much espresso coffee powder, you can, of course, reduce it, but it does balance the richness of the chocolate flavour well as is. I’ve opted for ghee, as the dairy solids can occasionally catch during baking, and I wanted to ensure these came out as unblemished as possible. Feel free to use butter if you want.

To make this recipe dairy-free, replace the ghee with coconut oil.

To make this recipe vegan, replace the ghee with coconut oil and the eggs with 6tbs aqua faba.

1 x 200g bar 70% dark chocolate, broken into small pieces
60g ghee
2 large eggs
120g soft dark muscovado sugar
30g cocoa powder
3 tbsp espresso instant coffee powder [1]
½ tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

• Put the ghee and the chocolate into a small saucepan over low heat (2 of 9). Stir until melted. Remove from the heat and set aside.
• Using an electric whisk/stand mixer, whisk the eggs with the sugar until light and foamy.
• Pour the melted chocolate mixture into the foamed eggs and mix.
• Add the remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly.
• Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
• Heat the oven to 180°C, 160°C Fan.
• Using a small ice-cream scoop[2], portion out the dough mixture onto a baking sheet lined with baking parchment. These cookies don’t spread much during baking, so you can leave about 3cm between each scoop, and they should all fit on the one baking sheet.
• Bake your Mocha Bites. As mentioned above, you can dive straight in and bake the whole batch for 12, 15 or 20 minutes. However, to ensure they’re just right for YOUR tastes, I suggest ‘sacrificing’ three or four and baking them at a range of times (eg. 12, 15, 18 and 20 minutes), allowing them to cool completely before tasting/testing. Put each piece of dough on a small square of baking parchment (because they are too soft to move from a large sheet when baked), and begin baking them all at the same time, then slide them out of the oven, one by one, as the baking time passes. When completely cold, try each one, and then bake the rest of your batch according to whichever baking time produced the optimum texture for you.
• Cool on the baking sheet.
• Store in an airtight container.

[1] If you can only get instant coffee granules, use a spice grinder or pestle and mortar to pound them to a powder.

[2] Update to me recommending a small ice-cream scoop/portioner, I’ve found the same model I use at a refreshingly cheap price of £17.99 here (11/02/26).