Sour Cherry Chocolate Brownies

 

It’s finally time to fall off the health-wagon and indulge in some chocolate brownies. Congratulations to those who have embraced chick-peas, lentils…now‘s the time to be rewarded!

Personally I am a fan of bitter cocoa brownies, rather than ones made with melted chocolate. To me they taste richer and more like the dark, 85% cocoa chocolate which is my particular preference.

I found this recipe a while back and have tweaked it to include two of my favourite baking staples…sour cherries and cracked sea salt. Sour cherries add such a zing to any baked good. While tricky to source (see notes below) they are well worth it.

The other addition I am particularly passionate about is fair-trade chocolate. You can purchase fair-trade cocoa at any Oxfam shop, or even now in some supermarkets. In addition, Cadbury’s is now mainly fair-trade, so you can purchase their choc-buttons free of guilt to include in this recipe.

Without further adieu, let’s get bakin’

Makes: 16 medium brownies

• 125g butter
• 1/2 cup fair-trade cocoa powder
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 3/4 cup plain flour
• 1 handful of dried sour cherries, roughly chopped
• 150gms of dairy milk buttons (Cadbury fair-trade). Chop half and leave remainder.
• 1 pinch of sea salt

Method:

• Preheat oven to 160 degrees C (150 fan-forced) and line a medium (22cm x 22cm) square baking dish with baking paper.
• Sift the cocoa into a medium bowl.
• Melt the butter over low heat. When the butter is melted add to the cocoa in a steady stream, stirring with a metal fork as you go. Continue to whisk until smooth.
• Whisk the eggs and vanilla essence together. Add to the cocoa mixture in a steady stream, whisking with the fork as you go, until smooth.
• Stir through the caster sugar and pinch of salt until well combined and mixture is glossy.
• Fold in the flour and stir gently until smooth. Don’t over mix this.
• Stir in the chopped cherries and half of the chopped chocolate buttons until just mixed through
• Evenly pour the brownie mix into the baking tin and then place chocolate buttons periodically on top.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until firm to touch. It’s fine if they are a bit gooey – after all, they are brownies!  Allow to cool in the tray before turning out, and cool completely before cutting into squares.

A note on sour cherries!

These tasty little cherries are tricky to find! Some delicacies sell them for an absolute mint, but by looking around you can find a good supplier! Terrey Hills Fruit Barn for example sells them at a reasonable price.

Enjoy!