Cherry Brownie Recipe Three Ways
- Nightingale
- 29 minutes ago
- 6 min read
These Cherry Brownie recipes three ways- two cherry and almond white chocolate blondies and one cherry and dark chocolate brownie recipes - are the result of multiple tangents after discovering that I was missing ingredients for successive recipe variations that I had originally set out to make - passion fruit, cocoa powder, orange juice - leading to the first iteration of the cherry and almond blondies... It thus wasn't planned out in advance, but rather assembled and devised as I went, with Littler Bit as my helper (she was more interested in taste-testing every stage than anything else. And in going through the cake decorating things and commenting on them, and asking if we could use them on various things. E.g., with sprinkles in hand, "These are for ice cream", and with food colouring, "Can I put this in yoghurt?", and with the almond extract, "Is this for cake or cereal?").
Anyway, assembled with multiple changes of direction midway through, this wasn't necessarily how I would have made Cherry Blondies otherwise, but such is life... as a Type C mom anyway. Having made them and being happy with them, but... the recipe kept going around in my head for days, so I decided to try two new variations side by side a few days later. All three of these wound up being quite different, from taste, to colour, through texture and how sweet they were. Two are blondie recipes, and one is for dark chocolate brownies.
Recipes
Cook time: 15-20 minutes prep, 30-35 minutes in the oven ~~ Portions: (how big do you cut your brownies?) approx. 20 brownies ~~ Difficulty: Easy
Cherry and Almond Blondies, Take One
Ingredients:
4 eggs
2 c sugar
4 TBSP oil
3/4 tsp orange extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 c (250g) white chocolate, melted
1 c tinned cherries, blitzed
2 c flour
pinch of salt
3/4 c flaked almonds
1 c dark chocolate chips
1) Beat the sugar and eggs together. Stir in the oil and the extracts, mixing well before adding the white chocolate and the cherries.
2) Stir in the flour and salt until just combined, followed by the almonds and the chocolate chips. If the batter feels to thick, add a little of the cherry syrup.
3) Pour into a brownie pan and bake at 180°C for 30-35 minutes. Allow to cool thoroughly before serving.
Cherry and Almond Blondies, Take Two
Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 c sugar
1/2 c butter, melted
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 c (~200g) white chocolate, melted
1 c fresh or frozen cherries, puréed
2 c flour
1 c flaked almonds
1/2 c triple chocolate chips
1) Beat the sugar and eggs together. Stir in the butter and almond extract, mixing well before adding the white chocolate and the cherries.
2) Stir in the flour until just combined, followed by the almonds and the chocolate chips.
3) Pour into a brownie pan and bake at 180°C for 30-35 minutes. Allow to cool before serving.
Cherry and Dark Chocolate Brownies
Ingredients:
4 eggs
1 c sugar
1/2 c butter, melted
1 c fresh or frozen cherries, puréed
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c (~200g) dark chocolate, melted with 1 TBSP milk
2 c flour
Pinch of salt
1 c flaked almonds
1/2 c dark chocolate chips
1) Beat the sugar and eggs together. Stir in the butter and the extracts, mixing well before adding the dark chocolate and the cherries.
2) Stir in the flour and salt until just combined, followed by the almonds and the chocolate chips.
3) Pour into a brownie pan and bake at 180°C for 30-35 minutes.
On the whole, I was happy with all three of these, although that does not preclude the possibility of more playing around with these in the future.
The first variation of the blondies was tasty, with a very strikingly distinctive hot pink colour to them. What they had in colour, they lost in taste, though. Having used tinned cherries (due to the peripatetic nature of that particular recipe development, that is what I had on hand), the cherry flavour was less present than I had hoped, but the colour was brilliant. I also used a little too much white chocolate and too much sugar so they came out tasting too sweet to me. Having said that, they were most definitely kid-approved, with both Little Bit (who usually has less of a sweet tooth) and Littler Bit devouring them at any opportunity.
I had liked the idea of using the orange extract with the cherries, and while it did work, I found that using the vanilla as well muddied the flavour-waters a little, so to speak, so I would strike that one out next time. Instead, I would add some orange zest to really lean into that flavour combination (but given my pantry scarcities I seemed to encounter on that particular occasion, I didn't have that on hand either. At least, not fresh. I do still keep Dried Orange Peel as a pantry staple). I would also use orange juice instead of cherry syrup to moisten the batter, leaning into the citrus notes and cutting some more of the sugar.
Attempting to balance out the sweeter, higher, flavour notes, I added dark chocolate chips. Unfortunately, I added too many of them (I know? Right? I didn't think that should be possible...) So again, the flavour profile was a little muddied, and so in the subsequent variations, I cut the chocolate chip quantities significantly.
Texture-wise, they were moist and squidgy, well within the normal blondie texture range, but I liked the almond flakes in them, so I kept those in the subsequent recipes. I am aware that nuts in brownies or blondies aren't everyone's thing, though, so feel free to just skip those if you so prefer. Overall, tasty, and I would make again, possibly just tweaking one or two things.
Blondie Variation two, I don't think I would tweak much. For blondies generally, I have discovered that I prefer to eat them once they have cooled. Because of the white chocolate, I find that if eaten hot, the only flavour that really comes across is sugar. As they cool, more subtle flavours are allowed to emerge. In the case of variation two, the flavours when it was hot were sugar and almond, which were overpowering. As they cooled, however, I found that the flavours were more balanced. I would possibly still cut the almond extract a little to showcase the cherry flavour a little further, though. These were on the slightly cakier end of the normal brownie texture continuum. Adding a little more liquid next time would not go amiss. Despite this, they were lovely and moist and stayed so the whole time that we had them around - almost a week, in fact. The downside to these was that, using the frozen cherries, although the flavour was more pronounced, the colour was darker. Still visibly pink brownies, they lacked the pop of colour that variation one had. Maybe if I need that colour in future (like for Littler Bit's pink birthday coming up), I try doing half-half tinned and frozen cherries - get the colour and flavour?
The dark chocolate and cherry brownies were delightful. The cherry complemented and deepened the dark chocolate, while the chocolate added richness and counterbalanced the sweetness. These ones were a little on the fudgy end of the texture continuum and quite sticky. It could have been that they were pulled out a couple of minutes early (what made me think that baking two batches of brownies back to back while doing bath-time and bedtime for the kids would be a good idea, and after a nursing shift, no less?) The other possibility could be the extra egg compared to the second variation of blondies. With the sugar content lessened, the 4 eggs could simply be too much. I might try these again with one less egg. Beyond that, though, and I'm not saying the fudginess really was even a bad thing, I was happy with this one.
The original brownie recipe I grew up with, for dark espresso brownies, is my dad's, and he was teetering on the verge of mildly offended that I had felt the need to play with what is generally agreed to be a rather excellent brownie recipe. When he tried these though, he did succumb to their call and recognised that although possibly not the healthiest lunch option on his visit, they were tasty and addictive.
Swaps and Substitutions:
Try using different citrus extracts, zests or juices in any of these; just adjust the other extracts accordingly. I went with almond and vanilla in the brownies here, but orange could be delectable!
Try different nuts, cut into different sizes to play with texture.
Try adding 1 TBSP of cream or milk to make the recipes squidgier.
Try swapping the almond extract and flakes for coconut.
Book Pairing
I am listening to The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon at the moment. Set in the late 18th century in Massachusetts in the wintertime, the story follows a midwife in her community. Right at the start, there is a murder, and the community is in uproar, people taking different sides. I am not very far in yet, but it is beautifully written, and I am completely won over to the main character's side. I just hope I am not betrayed by her later on! I wasn't listening while baking, but had been just before on my walk home from work, and so as I was stirring batter, my mind kept wandering back to the bookish world I had just left and mulling over where the story might take me. So far, it has been lots of fun!
Sounds wonderful! I am excited to try a different type of brownies - or three!