SHF #38 Brownie Bites

This is my first time participating in a blog event. I love the idea of everyone sharing their posts and look forward to this as a path of inspiration. It is inspiration that fuels my posts. For this event the theme was baking with candy (store bought). For me I don't eat a whole lot of candy, and when I do it's usually homemade... but I do have a few favorite flavors that I was inspired by. First it was malt balls- I love malt! My first attempt was a chocolate oatmeal cake topped with malt balls but for several reasons this was a bit of a flop, I'll get back to that and come up with a post worthy recipe later (probably without the malt balls) and then my second thought was little brownie bites with toffee and dried cherries in them. It was a toss up between toffee and mint (not with the cherries) so I decided to divide the batter and try both. I love small individual portions, so I was inspired to use my mini muffin pans instead of a larger one (bite size can be a curse if you continue to consume more than a few in one sitting because you don't always realize just how many you pop into your mouth). The inspiration came from a low fat chocolate fudge cookie from Alice Medrich's Bittersweet , a great book to check out.

Brownies (24 mini muffin size or 1 8x8" pan)

2 1/2 oz(5 TBS) unsalted butter
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup low fat plain yogurt
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup malted milk powder

additional add ins:
1/2 cup dried cherries (soaked for 20 minutes in water and drained)
1/2 cup toffee pieces

OR
peppermint patties cut into small chunks depending on the size you'll need a few patties, enough for one chunk per muffin or enough to cover a layer in the brownies. I would spread half the batter in the pan, place the chunks evenly over the surface and put the rest of the batter on top.

or 1/2- 1 cup of any other add in you want (chocolate chips, nuts, coconut, malt balls, a layer of jam (layered as you would the peppermint patties)

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add cocoa powder and take off heat. Stir until combined. Add both sugars and stir. Add eggs, one at a time, stirring between additions, then stir in salt and yogurt. Sift flour and in a separate bowl mix the baking powder, flour and malted milk powder and add this to the chocolate mixture. Mix just until you no longer see any flour. If you choose to stir in your "add in's" add them now or layer them as you are putting the batter into the pans. Make sure you grease your pan well and if using a square pan, line it with parchment (makes it easy to get them out of the pan later)
Bake the 8x8" pan at 350 for 15-20 minutes
Bake the little cupcakes at 375 for 15- 20 minutes. Take brownies out of the pan about 10 minutes after coming out of the oven to prevent them from sticking to the pan.

* Make sure to not over bake the brownies, since they are low in fat they can dry out quickly- you want to make sure they stay fudgy. What you want to see when you insert a skewer into the middle is that it comes out fairly clean with a few moist crumbs attached (not with runny batter).