Brownie Truffles (Or Truffle Brownies ?)

Chinese New Year is in five days, new clothes have been purchased, the goodies are being given and I am annoyed.

The cookie making in my kitchen has been in full swing for the past week. Today saw me baking another batch of chocolate chip cookies (of which the recipe I am scared to post since so many blogs in the blogosphere have so many brilliant recipes) to be given as gifts. I have previously made chocolate chip and walnut cookies, madeleines and some checkerboard cookies of which the recipe I shall be posting soon. Normally I don't mind the baking but there was a miscommunication (who says grown ups have their head screwed on right, huh ?) which had me running around the kitchen making all three types of said cookies in one day. Then there was another miscommunication today (with the same person) which had me in the kitchen making yet another batch of chocolate chippies when I could've just mashed the two separate batches into one. Needless to say, I am up to my eyeballs in cookies and chocolate chips. 

I could either get mad or get over it. I decided to drown myself in chocolate. Thank god for the pan of brownies I had the foresight to make yesterday.

Actually it wasn't. Foresight, that is. I just saw the picture of some brownies and then the words melt in your mouth and truffle caught my eye and took over my mind and before I knew it, I was at the stove, stirring away. I made a really small batch (the original recipe yields a 9 by 5 inch block. This is small by my standards because my brownies used to measure 9 by 13 inches huge) and then stashed it in the fridge in anticipation for the cutting.

The brownies came in handy today when I was tired and covered in butter and had chocolate chips strewn in random places in the kitchen. The fact that ilovebrowniesmorethananythinginthewholewideworld and that these particular ones were gooey and more fudge than brownie helped a lot, I suppose.

Now there are two sides to the brownie world: fudgy versus cakey. I am so deep in the fudgy camp that I want my brownies bordering on fudge. As in stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth-and-can-only-be-washed-down-with-a-glass-of-milk type of brownie. The kind where you have to literally peel them apart after you cut them, they're so sticky. Cakey brownies have no room in my heart. Or kitchen.

And these are by far the fudgiest brownies I have ever made or eaten. And believe me, I have made (and eaten) a lot of brownies.

Dense slabs of chocolate, these are. They began to soften due to the heat of my hands (I had to maneuver them to get the best pictures) and when I took a bite, they practically melted away. Not your average run-of-the-mill brownie :)

They stuck to everything. My knife, my fingers, the plate. While licking the plate and fingers are perfectly acceptable behaviour, I strongly discourage licking the knife. That would be very stupid. Just cut yourself another piece.

Melt-In-Your-Mouth Brownie Truffles

Adapted from this site.

1/3 cup whole milk

1/4 cup caster sugar

1/2 tsp sea salt

100g dark chocolate, chopped 

90g butter

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp flour
Cocoa powder, to coat (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line a 9 by 5 inch pan with parchment paper.

2. Place the milk, sugar and salt in a saucepan over medium low heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Don't let it boil ! Once the sugar and salt are dissolved, stir in the chocolate.

3. When the chocolate has melted, stir in the butter until it melts. It should look like a yummy chocolate sauce at this point. Stir in the vanilla and the egg just till it's mixed in. Don't beat too much, you don't want to aerate the mixture. We're going for fudgy here, people. 

4. Stir in the flour until no streaks of white remain. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, until set. Immediately pop it into the fridge and leave to chill until the next day (makes it easier to cut, trust me).

5. Lift the brownies out of the pan and cut into 1 inch squares. You can make them smaller if you want, they're really rich. The original recipe said to roll them in cocoa powder like you would for truffles, and I recommend that because I think the cocoa would provide another layer of chocolatey-ness and make it looks really elegant. So pour some cocoa powder into a shallow dish and roll the brownie truffles around in them to coat. As you can see, I left mine I coated because one: I'm lazy and two: I needed my brownie fix NOW.