Today I found sweet red cherries at the Hollywood Farmers Market. I brought them right home. I had every intention of giving them a good start in life. You know, serve them simply with sweet cream and a smile! Maybe even bake them up in a pie, so wholesome and delicious!
But something went wrong, and I swear it’s not my fault. Cherries can be so deceptive. So downright fallacious.
They may present a cute, shiny face to the world. Flushed red– all pert and pretty. I don’t know, maybe they are just naive. But the damage is done. The minute I left them alone in the kitchen these cherries began to cozy right up to deep dark chocolate. Well one thing led to another and before I knew it their co-mingling produced a plate of Bittersweet Chocolate-Cherry Brownies. And these brownies are very bad boys.
If I were your mother I’d tell you stay away from them because they are such a bad influence. I might try and distract you by introducing you to all the good girl granola on the block. I’d even invite broccoli, spinach and kale for a sleepover. Just hoping you kids would settle in together and play nice.
But I know how you think. The more I’d try and keep you away from these bad boys the more you’d want to hangout with them after school– under the bleachers… making a chocolate cherry crumble mess.
And your father? He’d be no help. In fact I suspect he’s carrying on with chocolate behind my back! Besides, show him a pretty cherry face and he’d blush all rosy and point out that cherries are the first stone fruits to arrive at the seasonal party– so sweet and well-behaved. He might even look for that silver lining and bring up anti-oxidants.
But you and I we know better. We know just how bad these brownies are. Very bad. Now wipe that smile off your face, I have invited Carrie Carrot over so you can study for the SATs.
Bittersweet Chocolate-Cherry Brownies makes 16 CLICK here for a printable recipe
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, more for pan and parchment paper- 6 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
- 2 large eggs
- 1⁄4 t salt
- 1⁄2 c dark brown sugar, packed
- 1⁄2 c granuated sugar
- 1 t vanilla
- 1⁄2 c all-purpose flour
- 1⁄4 c unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 c fresh cherries, pitted and quartered
Instructions
Chocolate-Cherry Brownies
Butter a 8x8-inch baking pan and line with buttered parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In top of a double boiler set over barely simmering water, or on low power in a microwave, melt 1 stick butter and chocolate together. Cool slightly. In a large bowl, whisk eggs until frothy. Whisk in salt, both sugars and vanilla.
Add the chocolate mixture to the bowl, stir to combine. Sift in the flour and cocoa, fold together until barely combined. Fold in the cherries. Spread batter into prepared pan.
Bake for 30 minutes or until shiny and beginning to crack on top. Cool in pan on rack.
SERIOUS FUN FOOD
Greg Henry
Sippity Sup
Hmmm, you think healthy children’s meals and snacks don’t deserve to be on the L.A. Times? I work as a chef consultant for a non-profit that provides healthy meals and snacks to low income children. I think that we as a nation need to be aware of the food our kids are eating and how to make their meals more organic, healthy and cost effective!!! Most of the kids I work with have never been to a farmers market or know where their food comes from, it’s our responsibility as culinarians to show them. I think the media is a perfect platform for this issue!
Healthy snacks for kids is my short hand humorous phrase I use for trendy food writing aimed at a mass audience, with no thought about actual cooking. It’s not literal. I intended this to be a silly look at people’s obsession with food as entertainment (mine included). A responsible, serious article about healthy snacks for kids with real information of course belongs in the new paper. GREG
You don’t have to apologize for anything you say here. It’s your blog! ha And in the end, it’s just a contest. Everything’s subjective with a contest. We’re down for ground meat on buns any day, any way.
Greg, could not agree with you more on the burger debate. Bijouxs heats up the cast iron skillet really, really hot, throws in some salt, fries up the burgers and then uses a real bakery hamburger bun — from there on out, everyone for themselves.
Sounds like the perfect burger. I just stopped in because our Farmer’s Market had fava beans today and I remember you talking about them last year. Which also reminded me that when I lost my hard drive a few months ago, I lost your RSS feed. I’m a returning reader. 🙂
I’m so bad with burgers. And my husband is even worse. We need to follow your tips and try to grill up some really good burgers. I suppose I need a meat grinder… or at least have the butcher do the deed for me. I like all of that fancy stuff on my burger… caramelized onions, arugula and blue cheese. Thx for the burger tips!
I just love that word:)
In Serbia we don’t have hamburgers — the equivalent is extremely delicious, spiced up, cooked well, but not the same beast.
We have the butcher grind our meat, too, and husband has not complained of an evil eye:) At least not yet.
Our approach to good, old American burger is the same as yours, including a small, charcoal Weber fired up using a chimney (we left our big charcoal daddy grill to our neighbors, when we had to pare down:(
I am a sucker for alliteration, too, but we knew that we are kindred spirits:)
I’m actually more of a ground chuck guy for burgers, although making burgers from beef tenderloin scraps is a winner too.
y’know what drives me crazy? Burger “recipes”. Seriously. Bun recipe? sure. Condiment recipe? Yeah. But the method to the ground critter itself should be implied. Almost like so many recipes for pie where the crust is concerned: if you want some jank-@$$ store-bought crust, that’s your choice; just like if you want to use your specialty burger mix (read:meatloaf), you can go right ahead if that works for you.
I blame contests like this really. Anyone else wanna use this soapbox now? =)
I completely agree with your method of cooking burgers, in fact, I’ve dubbed mine “zen burgers” because it takes zen-like patience to not over-work the meat… especially when it comes to grilling — no constant flipping, no smashing, etc.
Being a girl and all, I was a little offended by your comment that gas grills are for girls. This one only uses charcoal. Perhaps the biggest challenge is getting the fire started, and with a chimney it’s a snap. There is no reason for a gas grill.
I was mostly making fun of myself anyway, and of course the fanaticism attached to burgers. Besides, I could not resist the alliteration. Gas Grills are for Girls. GREG
I love alliterations too. How about “Gas Grills are for Goombas”. Anyway, no offense taken. Some of my best friends use gas grills. 😉
Grill/Girl it’s hard to beat that combination, editorially speaking… GREG
article, Greg! your words are entertaining. love the bit about the bread. you are funny. and so right! now i’m hungry! 😉
I agree with you. In a burger, the meat is the hero and when we take away from that it’s really just a sandwich with some beef in it.
Drooling while reading this. All I can think about is sinking my teeth into a big juice burger with a soft fluffy bun…Glad your back from vacation!
I always have my meat ground (gah…that sounds sexual, well maybe it is sometimes…but not here). I buy the slab of meat then be all cute and coy and ask them to grind it for me. Being of the girl persuasion, I don’t get the stink eye, I get the “oh isn’t she a cute little girl trying to cook something” eye. Whatever!
I do, however, insist on the double grind when making my chili.
Great post! Welcome back. 🙂