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January 18, 2008
Week 41: Cherry Brownies
Chocolate and cherries. This should be a yummy combination, unless the recipe calls for maraschinos. Which it does, of course.
Yuck, yuck, yuck! I sooo hate maraschino cherries. The only place they belong is in a Manhattan. And I had to chop them up. Eeeeeewwww.
Ok, enough with Jennifer's biases. The recipe itself was really not too difficult. A basic brownie base with nuts, maraschino cherry juice and chopped cherries and a simple frosting with more chopped cherries. My kids wanted me to decorate the top with some extra cherries, but I had to draw the line. The only bonus that I got from this is knowing that there is just over a cup of cherries in one of those Kroger jars.
There was no drama surrounding this recipe, except that I forgot until about 7pm that it was Thursday and I needed to make brownies. I had to go to the store and get the cherries, and not being sure how much was in the jar, I bought 2. Then it was back home to bake and help with homework.
The brownie base was pretty simple, basic brownie stuff. The only strange thing was using the maraschino cherry juice. The batter went in the oven and cooked for about 40 minutes. While the brownie was baking, I made the frosting. Again, no surprises, except for more chopped cherries. The brownies cooled on the top of the fridge overnight and were frosted in the morning.
These were not that good in my book. I think the maraschino turned me off to liking them from the get go. The texture was ok, but the chocolate flavor was a bit lacking. These are not getting a very good rating from me. We will have to see what others have to say.
- Prep time: 25 minutes (includes chopping cherries AND nuts, and a bit of homework help)
- Cooking time: 40 minutes (10 minutes extra)
- Total time: 3.5 hours (includes 2 hours for cooling and 5 minutes for frosting)
Modifications
None.Improvements
I would totally redo these with canned bing cherries and a kirschwasser for the cherry-alcohol flavor that the maraschino cherry juice was trying to imitate. In fact, I may do this soon because I happen to have an open can of bing cherries in my fridge.My Rating - scale of 1-10
- PITA Rating: 6 (Maraschinos are gross, hard to spell and I had to chop them AND nuts.)
- Difficulty Rating: 4
- Recipe Complexity (over a basic no-frills brownie): 6
- Texture: 4
- Flavor: 2
- Overall Rating: 3
Posted by jamm at January 18, 2008 08:58 AM
Comments
Hmmm, cherry brownies...
Chocolate and cherries have never really stirred my tastebuds to any real level, though the creator of this brownie seems to have done that. As one who tends to like the softer, cake-like brownies over the harder ones, this brownie was a real delight.
The cherry taste though persistant and sweet was at no point overpowering. The soft texture reminds me of birthdays long ago with my favorite cherry-chip cake.
The frosting is light and smooth which worked well with the texture of this dish.
I give it a 9.
Posted by: brenten at January 18, 2008 11:54 AM
Very very nice - and perfect for a cold Michigan morning.
I give it a 9.5!
Thanks Jennifer.
Posted by: cseeman at January 18, 2008 01:28 PM
As a previous comment noted, on the cakey - fudgy brownie continuum, these were on the cakey end. Very delicate crumb, with the frisson of cherry coming through nicely. Maraschinos aren't my favorite cherry, either, but here I didn't mind. I heard a rumor that these brownies might make a reappearance sometime with dried sweet cherries softened in some liqueur, which would get my support!
Posted by: bgreming at January 18, 2008 03:36 PM
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