We managed to beat the birds this year in collecting a lot of our cheeries, and this was the first recipe we tried (original recipe here) although we didn't follow it faithfully it was totally a favourite for the summer of lockdown!
Ingredients
Blondies
- 10 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
- 1tbl flax seed in 3tbl of water
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- pinch salt
- 1 1/4 cups flour
- 1 cup ripe cherries, pitted and quartered
- 100g chocolate, chopped into small pieces, approx 0.5mm
Topping
- 1/4 cup ripe cherries, pitted and quartered
- 30g semisweet chocolate, chopped
Method
- Make Brown Butter: Cook butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until it foams, turns clear, and then turns a deep brown, apparently this should take about 6mins but it took longer. The butter separates and leaves grainy pieces in the bottom. I filter out the grainy bits. Pour brown butter into a medium bowl and let cool to room temperature.
- Preheat oven to 180c and line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper
- Add brown sugar, flax seed egg replacement, extract, and salt to bowl and whisk until smooth.
- Fold in flour just until incorporated, then fold cherries and chocolate into batter.
- Scrape batter into prepared pan and use a piece of parchment paper coated with nonstick spray to press batter evenly into pan.
- Top with remaining cherries and chocolate, pressing gently into the batter; tap pan sharply to remove air bubbles.
- Bake for approx 35 minutes, until golden and set in the middle, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few crumbs attached.
- Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Carefully lift parchment to remove bars from pan and place on a cutting board; cut into squares with a sharp knife.
