GLUTEN FREE! Buckwheat Brownie Batter Cookie Bites

I often use buckwheat and rye interchangeably for many of our favorite desserts, especially chocolate ones! These are inspired by one of our family favorites, Black Forest Cake. - I use buckwheat, a locally grown psuedo grain, that is gluten free and often used around here in Ploye's. (Buckwheat Pancakes) -

Chocolate chips and cherries are like sweet little gems that bejewel this decadent dough! It’s really the most extraordinarily tasty combination of flavors, and the texture is soft, chewy and fantastically epic! - If I’m feeling wicked fancy, I’ll make icing to pipe over the top for a truly jazzed up looking cookie. *To be honest they are relatively sweet already, so most of the time I hold off. *

GLUTEN FREE! Buckwheat Brownie Batter Cookie Bites

4 dozen Brownie Bites

• ½ Cup Butter , Melted together with 8 ounces of chocolate chips, (or bittersweet chocolate of choice)
• 2 Tablespoons Cream Cheese, softened
• 1 Cup brown sugar
• ⅔ cup raw sugar, or white sugar (use less to taste)
• 4 eggs
• ½ cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup buckwheat flour (or Rye)
• ½ tsp sea salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon ground
• 1 ½ to 2 tsp instant espresso or coffee powder

Mix Ins-

• 1 heaping Cup Dried Cherries, or Cranberries
• 1 ¼ cups Chocolate chips

• Nuts if desired, just a hand full (almonds, pecans, walnuts)

In a large mixing bowl, melt together your chocolate chips, butter and cream cheese. You can do this over a double boiler on the stove, or by gently microwaving the mixture in 30 or 60 second increments. Add your sugars, and eggs, one at a time, stirring the mixture a bit in between. You don’t have to beat each egg entirely, you just need to get the mixture emulsifying a bit. Add remaining ingredients, minus the mix-ins, and stir together thoroughly. Stir in the mixins, and scoop your cookies out onto a tray for refrigeration or freezing if you’d like. One to two tablespoons per cookie . - You can refrigerate the dough covered overnight also, or of course bake them straight away.

Preheat Oven to 375 degrees. Bake on a lined cookie sheet for about 15-20 minutes, (If you flatten the cookies down with your fingers, they bake flatter, rounder and faster. If you leave them “mounded” they are more cakey and have more heft. ) The more “done in the middle” you’d like them, the longer you bake them.

Note: You can reduce the amount of sugar even farther if you’d like, although the texture will lose its fudge factor, these cookies are still quite delicious! (and slightly more nutritious!) Feel free to use some sucanat or stevia in place of sugar if you’d like.

• I love this recipe because it is super easy to make, wicked satisfying , and naturally gluten-free when you use buckwheat.
• I like to scoop my cookies straight away, so they don’t get too hard to scoop later.  If you can keep them in the fridge overnight if at all possible, they will be even better, but you CAN bake them straight away for a cookie with slightly less heft. (These cookies can even be frozen in a single layer on a cookie sheet, and put into a zip lock bag once frozen, to give away, or bake off later!)

By Cat Morrow www.LegacyAcres.org @LegacyAcres