I should be having breakfast. I should be out enjoying the sun or watering the withering plants, or whatever it is that people normally do on bright Sunday mornings.

Instead, I’m talking about cookies. Not just any cookies, but decadently rich chocolate ones, and gluten-free to boot. I made these yesterday, based on an Alice Medrich recipe from her fabulous Bittersweet book. They’re part of a succession of gluten-free things I have been making in my kitchen for a wheat-intolerant friend, and also part of my current obsession with throwing glutinous rice flour into almost anything. The flour lends a certain chewiness to the end product (in a pleasing, almost-mochi kind of way) and manages to “hold” ingredients together, like normal flour would. It’s also incredibly fantastic in other things like chocolate brownies.

Helen and Jen wanted the recipe for these cookies, so I thought I might as well write a speedy post to share the recipe with everyone who’d be interested. So here you go. It’ll take much less time to whip up these cookies than it has, to write or read this post 🙂 Enjoy!

Bittersweet Decadence Cookies – the gluten-free version :
(based on Alice Medrich’s recipe from Bittersweet)

1/4 cup glutinous rice flour (or mochi flour) or plain flour, for the original version
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon vanilla salt
226g bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
1 cup dried cranberries or dried sour cherries
170g bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chunks

Position the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 175’C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together thoroughly; set aside.

Place the 226g of chocolate and the butter in a large heatproof bowl over a pot of barely simmering water and stir frequently until just melted and smooth. Remove the bowl and set aside.

In another bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar and vanilla together thoroughly. Set the bowl over the same pot and stir until the mixture is lukewarm to the tough. Stir the eggs into the warm (not hot) chocolate. Stir in the flour mixture, then the nuts, dried fruit and chocolate chunks.

Scoop slightly rounded tablespoons of batter 1 1/2 inches apart onto the baking sheets. Bake until the surface of the cookies looks dry and set but the center is still gooey, 12 to 14 minutes. Slide the cookies, still on the baking paper, onto racks to cool.

The July Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

Avert your eyes now if the idea of a supersized chocolate covered marshmallow cookie cake, sounds like too much to digest. To explain, let me start at the very beginning. This month, I somehow managed (once again) to leave the DB challenge until the last minute, so I opted to make just the marshmallow cookies, as they were something I hadn’t tried before.

Of course, my mind tends to wander, so while the cookie dough was chilling, I took a fancy to making Alice Medrich’s peanut butter-chocolate torte. The recipe is easy enough, and gluten-free to boot. However, I didn’t count on the cake cratering as it cooled. Despite the fact it looked wonderfully moist and possibly presentable with a simple dusting of icing sugar, I had a feeling the aesthetic police would not approve.

Since I was already in marshmallow-mode, it made perfect sense at the time, to convert the peanut butter torte into a peanut butter and jelly marshmallow torte! I slathered the raspberry flavoured marshmallow I had prepared on top of the torte and after it had set, covered the whole thing in the chocolate glaze recipe. A sprinkling of chopped peanuts for texture, some berry compote and a simple cocoa sauce to finish, and there you have it : my supersized DB challenge.

(Could I get at least one person telling me that it’s not such a crazy idea.. please?)

You can get the recipe for the marshmallow cookies from Nicole’s blog.

Peanut Butter-Chocolate Torte :
(serves 12 – 14; recipe from Bittersweet by Alice Medrich)

113g bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons natural peanut butter
1/8 teaspoon salt
90g unsalted butter, cut into chunks, slightly softened
4 cold large eggs
1 tablespoon bourbon or other whiskey
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 175’C. Line the bottom of 8 x 3 inch round springform pan with baking paper.

Place the chocolate in a large heatproof bowl in a wide skillet of barely simmering water and stir occasionally until nearly melted. Remove from the heat and stir until melted and smooth.

Whisk the sugar, peanut butter, and salt into the chocolate. Add the butter and beat with an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth and creamy. Beat in the eggs one by one, followed by the bourbon and vanilla. Continue beating at high speed for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the batter is fluffy, lightened in colour, and the consistency of frosting.

Turn the batter into the prepared pan, spreading it level if necessary. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted about 2 inches from the edge comes out clean but one inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs clinging to it. Set the pan on a rack to cool.

Serving suggestion : Sift icing sugar over the top of the cake and serve each slice with strawberry sauce.

Despite all signs to the contrary, I’d like to think I eat in a fairly balanced manner. Cake days get offset by salad days. Always featured at the dinner table are a good dose of vegetables, to counteract my sixth essential food group : ice-cream. However, I was left wondering today if there was anything that could possibly balance bacon in a brownie.

That’s when I decided that there are some things in life you just have to accept as being essential experiences. In other words, give in to the fun. I’m speaking of fish and chips wrapped in newspaper, eaten on the beach. Blowing bubbles into a chocolate milkshake, even though your mom has told you to stop playing with your food for-the-tenth-time. Eating a butter-fried croque madame without cutlery. Putting your ear to a bowl of rice bubbles containing freshly poured milk.

To that list, I’m adding bacon brownies. Eat bacon brownies in the comfort of your own home. With your feet tucked under a blanket. Eat it and marvel at how well the combination works. Savour the rich, moist, dark chocolate and the crispy, salty bacon. Forget those words that fill the mind with doubt and catch in the throat like a solitary dry rice cake. Words like chol-es-ter-ol, and once-on-your-lips-forever-on-your-hips.

Think instead : At least my feet won’t look fat in this. My handbag is still going to fit. Now I can finally get the most value out of my gym membership. Here’s something I won’t feel guilty about not sharing with my vegetarian friends.

If you’re not a fan of bacon, you should still make this anyway, sans bacon. It is a superlative brownie, and according to the authors of Baked, this brownie has not only been featured in O magazine, but has also been awarded “best brownie” by America’s Test Kitchen and the Today show.

The Baked Brownie :
(yields 24 brownies; recipe from Baked by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito)

1 1/4 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder
311g dark chocolate (60 – 72% cacao), coarsely chopped [I used Lindt 70%]
226g unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 176’C. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9-by-13-inch glass or light-colored metal baking pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, salt and cocoa powder together.

Put the chocolate, butter, and instant espresso powder in a large bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water and add the sugars. Whisk until completely combined, then remove the bowl from the pan. The mixture should be room temperature.

Add 3 eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not overbeat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey.

Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture. Using a spatula (not a whisk), fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until just a bit of the flour mixture is visible.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake in the center of the oven for 30 mnutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with a few moist crumbs sticking to it. Let the brownies cool completely, then cut them into squares and serve.

Tightly covered with plastic wrap, the brownies keep at room temperature for up to 3 days.

To baconise the Baked Brownie :
Bake 75g thinly sliced proscuitto or bacon in the oven until crispy. Crumble the bacon slices over the top of the brownie batter (or fold it through the mix) before baking. The bacon brownie is best eaten on the day it’s made, if you like your bacon crispy. Otherwise, the bacon will soften a little over the next couple of days, but still be perfectly tasty.

(Of course, the less decadent option would be to bake cookies instead, but honestly, I think the brownies are definitely the way to go.)