I have some family coming to visit. They are going to be going to my parents' house and we are all having dinner there. My mom is making the dinner;
Giada's Cheesy Baked Tortellini, roasted peppers and
Asiago Cheese bread. Since she is doing all that she asked me to make dessert. I didn't want to do cheesecake since we were having all that cheese with dinner so I decided on some kind of
fudgey brownies. We don't get to see the family often and usually, when we do, we are going to visit them. Because of that I wanted brownies with something just a little
more. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing better than a perfectly
fudgey brownies. Nice and rich inside with a
crackley, thin crust on top.
Mmmm,
mmm.
This time,
hoever, I wanted to add something to it. I had this taste in mind of some cherries, almost like a chocolate covered cherry but in brownie form. I almost always have a package of dried cherries on hand that I get at Target. It's the Archer Farm brand. They are so good, plump and soft, not leathery some dried fruits can be. I thought those would be good so I started hunting through recipes online for brownies with dried cherries in them. I found a few but none exactly like
wahst I wanted. This
Nestlé one was close and so was this one from
Epicurious.
I like the idea from the Nestle one of heating them with some kind of liquor, but I didn't want to best the brownies batter. I was afraid they would end up too
cakey.
The
Epicurious one was really close, I added the chocolate chips to the brownies after reading that, but I didn't really want the cinnamon in it. Cinnamon in brownies is good, just not what I was imagining with this brownie.
Whle looking for the recipes, I saw that someone really liked the Dorie Greenspan Classic Brownie recipe so I stopped at the library and picked up her book (which I really must buy since this is the second time I have gotten it from the library). I doubled her recipe since there would be
som many people eating it. So, combining all three recipes, this is what I came up with:
Chocolate Cherry Brownies10 Tbs. unsalted butter + 1 Tbs .for greasing pan
8 ozs. bittersweet chocolate
4 0zs. unsweetened chocolate
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 cups all-pupose flour
2/3 cup dried cherries
2 Tbs. Wilderberry schnapps 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 325° F.
Cover a 9" x 13" pan with foil. Melt 1 tbs. of butter in the microwave. Brush on the foil on the bottom and sides and set aside.
Coarsely chop the cherries. Add them to a small saucepan with the Wilderberry schnapps and heat over medium heat until most of the schanapps have been absrobed.
While the cherries are heating, add the 10 Tbs. of butter and all the chocolate to a large saucepan and heat over low heat until the chocolate is almost melted. stirring occasionaly. When the chocolate is almost melted, turn off the heat and continue to stir until all the chocolate is heated.
Whisk in the sugar. This will turn your mixture grainy. Next, add the eggs, one at a time, whisking after each addition. Once the eggs have been incorporated, add the vanilla and almond extracts, whisking well after.
By this time your cherries should be well heated and most of the liquid evaporated. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside.
To the chocolate mixture, add the flour, stirring just until it is incorporated. Using a spatula, fold in the cherries with the remaining schanpps and the chocolate chips. When these have been evely distributed, add the mixture to the baking pan, smoothing it out with the spatula.
Bake in the middle of the oven 30-35 minutes. The brownies are done when the top is dull but a thin kinfie comes out of the middle almost clean. DO NOT OVERBAKE! It is always better to have slightly underbaked brownies than to overbake them.
Cool the brownies in the pan on a rack. When they are cool, lift them out of the pan with the foil and cut them.
I cut mine into 20 brownies.
Enjoy!
