The cherry on top

My very, absolute, for-certain favourite dessert is my mom's (ever so slightly altered) brownie recipe.  But, since my girl was leafing through a magazine and saw a recipe for cherry-almond brownies, I thought I'd give it a try.  We made them and were underwhelmed.  Perhaps I had set my standards too high.  Perhaps I am a purist when it comes to brownies.  Regardless, I determined not to make that recipe again.

But I still had a handful of dried cherries left over, so I thought I'd give it one more try, my way, with my brownies recipe.  All I have to say is...

Yep, that about sums it up.

Go ahead and take a moment to drool if you'd like.  When you've wiped up your keyboard, we'll continue.

So here's what I did to make what I think is the best brownie ever:

1 cup butter, melted*

1 cup cocoa, sifted

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/3 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup dried cherries

Preheat your oven to 350 F.

With a fork, mix the melted butter with the cocoa.  Add the sugar, eggs and extracts.  Dump in the flour and then the baking powder and salt.  Mix it mostly all together.  Add the cherries and mix until they are spread around.

Now I bake this in a 9x9 stoneware pan and I can't guarantee success if you don't do that.  But you can try.  So if you're using stoneware, just dump the batter in and spread it around.  If you're using anything else, grease and flour the pan so that the brownies don't stick.

Bake the brownies in the pre-heated 350 F oven for 30 minutes.  Take them out.  They may look a little undone, but they'll finish firming up as much as they need to on your counter.

This is the hardest part of making brownies...  Let them cool for at least a couple hours.  They really are best if you let them cool down and stick together a little better.  If you like the ooey, gooey, straight-from-the-oven brownie, that's fine with me, but they won't be pretty once you cut into them.  Just sayin' is all...

So wait at least a couple hours, then slice into 16 squares.  You can top it with vanilla ice cream if you want, but in all honesty, the cherry is the highlight of this dessert and you really don't want to distract from that, do you?

Enjoy.  Savour.  These are too good to just inhale without letting your tastebuds appreciate the tastes of the almond, cocoa and cherry all mingling together.

Mmmm...

*If you choose to use margarine, I completely understand.  I do not condone margarine use for these brownies, but I understand.  And if you make that decision, you may need to cook these a little longer, closer to 35 minutes.  Why? I don't know, go ask your dad.