These Chocolate-Espresso Puddles are one of my favourite speedy bakes and are perfect for using up spare egg whites (particularly when you are unsure how ‘pure’ they are). After posting a recent photo of them just out of the oven on Instagram and getting requests for the recipe, I am sharing this fudgiest of cookie treats with you, my lovely readers…. and even better, they are not only gluten free, but dairy free too.
Shortly before I made them, Mr GF had thrown together a lovely Carbonara which had used a handful of egg yolks. He had placed the whites in a bowl in the fridge, but when interrogated, confessed that whilst cracking the eggs, a yolk had broken and he could not be sure that it had not contaminated the yolk.
Whilst Mr GF couldn’t understand why this was a problem, the bakers amongst us know that the teensiest bit of yolk in the white means that the egg white can no longer be used for meringue, macaron or any other recipe that requires a stiff whip. These Puddle Cookies on the other hand, don’t need treating with kid-gloves, so are perfect for when ‘mistakes’ have been made in the egg-cracking department.
I confess, the recipe is not a Gluten Free Alchemist one, but is adapted from a non-espresso version that I was given by Adriana Rabinovich when I attended a gluten free baking course of hers a couple of years back. In turn, the sheet she gave me with the recipe, references ‘101Cookbooks.com’, so I guess it probably has a long history before it reached my greedy kitchen.
If you haven’t been on a course by Adriana and you need some tips and tricks for gluten free baking, then I would wholeheartedly recommend attending one. Although we didn’t make the ‘Puddles’ on the course, she served them to us with coffee at break and with just one bite, I was addicted and demanding the recipe.
Having made them many times, I think that they do require a little experience to get baked to perfection…. Baked too long they will be overly-crisp and crunchy… If you bake them too little, they are too soft and will fall apart on lifting from the tray. Both ‘mistakes’ are still equally yummy, but are not the intended result.
Cooked precisely, they should be a little crisp on the outside with a soft, chewy, slightly gooey interior, that sends you into the sort of blissful enjoyment that you never want interrupted. The darkness of the chocolate should fill your nose with a pungent aroma and the flavour should be deep and rich from the cocoa, with a hint of espresso bitterness as it spreads across your taste buds.
Believe me, it is worth working on perfection! You just need to know your oven and keep a check on them…
Tempted? You should be… These Chocolate-Espresso Puddles are sublime and ridiculously moreish, but because I am so generous, I am also sending a batch over to the following linkies… (well it would be selfish not to share… wouldn’t it?!)
Got To Be Gluten Free with Glutarama and myself
We Should Cocoa with Tin and Thyme
Bake Of The Week with Casa Costello and Mummy Mishaps
What’s For Dinner Sunday Link Up with The Lazy Gastronome
Brilliant Blog Posts with Honest Mum
Fiesta Friday with Angie and Spades, Spatulas & Spoons
Chocolate-Espresso Puddles (adapted from a recipe from Adriana Rabinovich) – Makes about 25 to 30 cookies)
Ingredients
10g instant espresso powder
Method
- Pre-heat the oven to 175 C/325 F/Gas 3 and base-line 3 baking trays with baking paper.
- Place the ground walnuts, icing sugar, cocoa, espresso powder and salt into a bowl/airtight container and mix/shake together until well-blended.
- Place the egg whites into a separate large bowl and whisk lightly until slightly frothy.
- Add the dry ingredients and the vanilla to the egg whites and beat together with a wooden/silicon spoon until the mixture comes together evenly.
- Leaving plenty of space between each for spreading, place spoonfuls of the cookie batter onto the baking trays.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. The cookies should look glossy and slightly cracked on the top when done.
- Remove from the oven when baked. As they start to cool, gently lift the bases from the baking paper. If they are difficult to remove, pop them back in the oven to cook for a little longer. (You want to get the baking just right… If you over-bake them they will be too crisp. A perfectly-baked puddle should be crisp on the outside with a fudgy middle).
These look amazing and i look forward to trying out this recipe!
Thank you Zeba. I hope you enjoy them x
I'm so glad you decided to share a batch with us, they look like they need to be baked asap – or rather as soon as this heatwave has moved on. I'd better make sure CT doesn't see them or he will be saying, blow the heatwave!!! Ground walnuts make fantastic biscuits and I was delighted to see them here. it's also so useful to have another delicious recipe for using up egg whites. Thank you for sharing with #WeShouldCocoa.
I couldn't not share with you Choclette… I just knew you would appreciate them! And to be honest, they are so easy and quick to make that even in the heat they are doable. I have to agree though… I LOVE using ground walnuts in baking! x
I'm not at all surprised you were demanding the recipe Kate, they look AMAZING! I mean who doesn't love a chocolate cookie! Thankyou for sharing with #Bakingcrumbs,
Angela x
Absolutely Angela. What's not to Love?! x
OK, what do you serve (besides fruit) for dessert at a bookclub where 2 members are vegetarian, 1 is gluten free, and 1 is dairy free??????? These cookies! Wow, love them and they are beautiful glossy chocolate as well. Thank you for bring this to FF.
Absolutely! That makes me smile… Thank you x Besides… 'Fruit is not a pudding'!!!! x
Those look amazing Kate, and as ever, it is hard to think they are GF too! Karen
Thanks Karen. You know me…. If it 'looks' gluten free then it probably isn't good enough! x
These cookies are looking so perfect. I love cookies and I love espresso – yum!! Thanks for sharing & happy Fiesta Friday, Kate. x
Thank you Jhules. And thanks for popping over for a read x
Love all those flavors together. Sounds amazing. Pinning for later.
Thanks Lizet x
Chocolate and coffee are such a fabulous combination – and the looks so darn good too! xx Maria
Thanks Maria. I have to say… I am a little addicted to chocolate and coffee xx
Wow they look simply stunning!
Thanks Kat x
Thank you for sending a batch of these beauties over to #CookBlogShare! I love coffee and chocolate together!
You are most welcome Monika x
Sounds delicious! I love coffee, so these cookies have exactly the flavours I like. Yum!
Thanks Anca. Me too! x
I have decided I would let you make these for me…blow the egg intolerance I'll deal with that afterwards! I love chewy gooey biscuits…don't get me wrong, there's a time and a place for crisp, hard to bite biscuits but these are just pure indulgence…..scrummy! #G2BGF
Ha ha! I would say 'that's not good', but I think these are probably worth the pain! x
sounds delicious and I think I might have seen the 101 cookbooks version. I would take mine without coffee but I love how you tweak it to your taste and how you know just how long to bake then – that is the sign of a beloved recipe
Oh wow… It's good to know that the 'recipe trail' has a discovered start point. I never quite know with recipes that have been from one person to the next…
I think though that these Puddle Cookies are pretty versatile and would be pretty straight forward to tweak in all sorts of ways. I'd quite like to try making some fruit ones…
These look incredible! So rich and chocolatey and your photos are beautiful. I'd swap the walnuts for hazelnuts because I'm fussy x
I was just thinking could I swap the walnuts for hazelnuts!
Thanks Cat and Priya. They would be great with hazelnuts I think…. I may have to try them that way myself! x
The perfect combination! I couldn't think of anything better than chocolate and coffee. Your cookies look so moist and delicious!
Me neither Alida. These are very delicious, if a little too addictive x
Chocolate? Espresso? I may not be a heavy sweet-tooth, but this combination makes me look a lot further. I also appreciate that it's healthily gluten-free. Looks moist and yummy.
Thank you. I have to say… I am a huge fan of Chocolate and Espresso! x