Black Forest Brownies

As soon as I saw the recipe for Black Forest Brownies in the local supermarket magazine, I had to make them.  They were so fancy I was going to make them for Easter and then Mothers Day but had too much other rich food about on these days.  So we ended up making them one evening after an optometry appointment when Sylvia reluctantly chose new frames for new glasses, after finding her favourite glow in the dark frames were not an option.  Change is hard but brownies can make it better!

I really loved the sound of these brownies because they had a big cherry hit without needing fresh cherries which have such a short season.  The recipe used morello cherries, which were a great revelation to Sylvia, and cherry ripe chocolate bars that might not be easy to source outside Australia.  The best way I can think to describe them is like bounty but with a pink interior that is cherry flavoured coconut with the occasional glace cherry piece.  I have suggested Bounty Bars in the recipe as an alternative but it would mean missing the lovely pink chunks even though you would get some of the squidgy coconutty chunks.

My biggest challenge with the black forest brownies recipe was that in the supermarket magazine it called for boxed brownie mix.  I generally steer clear of cake mixes, which are overpriced, full of additives and don't make it that much easier to bake a cake.  So firstly I found a boxed brownie recipe which seemed all I needed.  However when trying to work out the amount of boxed brownie to add to my recipe I found that the supermarket recipe called for a 660g brownie packet mix but that on their website the largest brownie mix I could find was 500g.  This confused me further.  So then I went offroad and just found a good basic brownie recipe that I could fold in morella cherries and cherry ripe chunks.

Then I just had to work out the baking time.  The Black Forest Brownie recipe called for 45-50 minutes and the basic brownie called for 20-25 minutes.  Both were for a 20cm square tin and baking at 180 C.  It seemed a big difference.  As brownies are better slightly undercooked than overcooked, I erred on the side of less rather than more time.  I did 15 minutes at 180 and 15 minutes at 160 which seemed to work well.  No one wants dried out brownies!  So I am glad I didn't follow the supermarket recipe.

We really enjoyed these brownies.  They were great comfort food in lockdown.  I didn't have the patience to boil down morello cherry juice with sugar and vanilla and I forgot to sprinkle with icing sugar.  But we did eat them with cream and extra morello cherries.  I am not a big fan of cream but loved the morello cherries with them.  Sylvia enjoyed the brownies but I think she would have been happy enough to eat the jar of morella cherries by itself.  They are very nice that they are slight more sour than fresh cherries.  And maybe when we are a bit more social again I might make these to share with family and friends.

More brownie recipes with unusual ingredients on Green Gourmet Giraffe:

Brownies with butterscotch chips

Chocolate beetroot brownies

Chocolate brownies with chickpea flour (gf)

Nutella brownies

Tim Tam brownies

Zucchini brownie with smoked walnuts (v)

Black Forest Brownies

Adapted from taste.com.au and coles magazine

Makes 24

1 cup sugar
125g unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs, lightly whisked
1/2 cup plain flour

1/3 cup cocoa

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt
50g dark chocolate melted
1/2 x 680g jar pitted morello cherries, drained

150-160g Cherry Ripe chocolate bars, chopped*

Cream, extra morella cherries and icing sugar, to serve

Preheat oven to 180 C.  Mix butter and sugar together and then mix in the eggs.  Fold in plain flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt, then fold in dark chocolate, then morello cherries and chopped Cherry Ripe.  Scrape into a lined 20cm square cake tin.  Bake for 15 minutes and then reduce heat to 160 C and bake an additional 15 minutes.  Brownies are best slightly underbaked than overbaked so do a skewer test but a slight amount of mixture is ok.  Also use your nose and check if the top looks dried and does not feel very soft.  Cool in the tin.  Serve with whipped cream, remaining morello cherries and a dusting of icing sugar.

*NOTES: If you cannot get Cherry Ripe bars, the best substitute would be Bounty Bars.

On the stereo:

Mahler's 5th Symphony - BBC Proms 2010