The Perpetual Feast

This is heaven in a brownie bite.

Have I mentioned that I love Nutella, that creamy chocolate and hazelnut spread. I had always avoided it, because it seemed that by its very nature it would have too many fat grams for regular use – but then I read the label and discovered that it had less fat per serving than peanut butter, and my love affair began.  I love Nutella on bananas:

I love it on banana bread (or regular bread, for that matter):

I love it on French Toast:

So when the potluck announcement said H-Q (that’s me) bring desserts, I knew what I had to do.  The original recipe came from Sunset magazine, and made 8 humongous brownies.  I honestly don’t know how you could eat one of those big brownies, since my brownie bites were very rich even for one piece – and the only thing I did to them was swap out the eggs for egg substitute.

I expect they would freeze well if you had leftovers, but don’t expect any.  The ones I brought were almost all gone before the main course came off the grill (life is short, eat dessert first), and I took an empty plate home.

Chocolate Hazelnut Brownie Bites

Cooking spray
½ cup butter
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup sugar
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ cup egg substitute
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup flour
½ cup chocolate hazelnut spread (Nutella)

Preheat oven to 350°. Spray 2 mini muffin pans (24 total muffins) thoroughly with cooking spray.

Microwave the 1/2 cup butter in a heatproof bowl until melted. Add chocolate, stirring until melted.  Use the best quality chocolate that you can for richer flavor, and make sure that the chocolate is finely chopped:

Add sugar and cocoa to the chocolate mixture and stir to blend. I mixed this by hand and stirred thoroughly after each ingredient was added. Stir in egg substitute, vanilla, and salt. Add flour ¼ cup at a time and stir until smooth. Spoon batter evenly into muffin cups.

Use a half teaspoon measure to spoon a heaping half teaspoon of Nutella on the top of each brownie bite.  Press gently into the brownie bite so it is still on top, but sinks in a little.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the brownie part comes out with just a few moist crumbs, about 15 minutes. Let cool on a rack about 10 minutes. Loosen brownies from pans, move to rack, and cool completely.  This make 24 brownie bites at about 7 grams of fat/brownie.  Yes, I know that these are not the lowest fat dessert ever, but they are very good, and won’t break the “fat bank” as an occasional treat or a party dessert.