Gluten-free Espresso Chocolate Fudge Cookie Recipe

All right all you coffee and chocolate lovers, check out this amazing gluten-free fudge cookie recipe below.

Coffee and chocolate, is there really any better combination? Even friends of mine who don’t like coffee (I know, hard to believe, but they do exist) love a good recipe with a mix of good coffee and chocolate. And this gluten-free recipe is one of those combinations.

Though I did alter it a bit to cater for me trying to be on a low sugar diet, and also I’m gluten intolerant. There were a few fails with this recipe, as I had to experiment a little with some ingredients to get the right result.

Those fails were, I accidentally melted too much chocolate in this recipe, used the wrong type of sugar replacement, and then for the second batch I made, I accidentally over cooked them. Sigh! See, everyone gets it wrong at first sometimes. 3rd time was a charm with this recipe, as I came to the conclusion I had to switch up a few ingredients for others so the recipe worked.

For example, I used a very dark cocoa powder (have no idea where it came from, it was in the cupboard, so I though ‘hey why not’ I’ll use that), which made the cookies WAY too dark, compared to the picture in the actual recipe. Yes, I know what you make from a recipe hardly ever looks like the picture that goes wth the recipe – but I mean, my first and second batch of cookies really looked nothing like the picture, I mean polar opposite to the picture.

Though the first batch still tasted good, the second unfortunately had to be binned. The burnt texture on the top was not pleasant at all, as you can imagine.

I also realised with the first batch I had incorrectly melted too much chocolate with the butter for the batter, not realising, I was supposed to save some of the chocolate chunks to place into the batter for a delicious fudge like and yummy texture to the cookies when you broke them open.

The final issue I had with this recipe, was that I had opted to use a brown sugar replacement, and it just didn’t work for this recipe. Not sure if it clashed with the sweetness of the chocolate or the cocoa, but it it didn’t really work. Though my partner told me the cookies still tasted nice with the fudge bits in the middle, I wasn’t happy with the overall taste.

So, my the third batch, I realised that I couldn’t go sugar-free, and it was best to just use plain old brown sugar for this recipe, and reserve the sugar replacement for other recipes, like in cakes, where I know they work.

Here’s what you’ll need for the recipe:

• 70g unsalted butter
• 200g dark chocolate (roughly chopped)
• 2 free range eggs
• 3/4 cup of brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon of granulated coffee (any is fine)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of vanilla extract
• 1 cup of gluten-free flour (I used self-raising, and then added in a tablespoon of baking powder to help the flour rise a little extra for the cookies.
• 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt flakes

The original recipe actually called for 250g of dark chocolate, but then when it came time to following the method, they skipped an entire 50g worth of chocolate, so I have changed the recipe to the full block – standard size, which is 200g and I actually think it’s enough chocolate.

The other issue I found with the recipe, which I think may have been a typo, was that they stated to use a tablespoon to scoop up the batter and ball up for cooking on a tray – but that was way too much and the cookies were MASSIVE and looked nothing like the picture (once again) in the magazine for this recipe. So, I suggest using a teaspoon instead, which I will edit for this recipe.

Here’s how to make the cookies:

(Make sure to read my tips below the method of this recipe to make sure you don’t miss anything either

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (fan-forced)
2. Place the butter and 100g of the broken chocolate into a saucepan and melt together. Be sure not to let it over cook, or the chocolate will burn and get chalky. It must look like a creamy consistence. Once done, set aside to cool.
3. In a bowl, mix the eggs, sugar, coffee and vanilla together until well combined.
4. Once the chocolate and butter mixture has semi cooled, stir this into your wet mixture and mix well.
5. Sift in your flour, cocoa, baking powder, and fold altogether until just well combined.
6. Add in the salt flakes and the remaining 100g of broken chocolate and fold the mixture.
7. Set aside the mixture and let it set for a bit to thicken. I found 5-10 minutes was more than enough.
8. Line a baking tray with baking paper and then spoon a teaspoon of mixture onto the tray and continue. Making sure to leave enough room for the biscuits to spread as they cook.
9. Cook for 10 minutes, or until just cooked, then remove and let them sit for at lest 30 minutes before eating.
10. Often cookies rich with chocolate like this one, which is very fudge like, the cookies will continue to set once taken out of the oven. So make sure not to overcook, or they will be too hard, or even burn.

Tip One:

Leave the mixture as a ball when you place on the tray. Don’t squash down or flatten, or you will end up with super large biscuits and risk them all melting together.

Tip Two:

Save a little chocolate to the side and top each ball on the tray before baking, for an extra chocolatey touch to the finished cookies.