Fudge Walnut Brownies with Cherries

What is the best day of the year to bake brownies? The answer, of course, is any day. Nothing tops the experience of biting into a decadent, rich fudge brownie. I reserve baking brownies for special occasions as they are mighty rich. But now and then, a treat is needed. And there is no excuse not to bake these brownies. Today, I’m trying out a new recipe. The one-bowl recipe can be mixed up in under 10 minutes baked in the oven in 33 minutes. It is a great recipe for all the winter holiday events. I experimented with adding two flavor “pops” into the brownies — candied cherries and toasted walnuts.

Brownie flavor ingredients

When brownies are loaded up with all kinds of flavor ingredients — nuts, chocolate chips, toffee, peanut butter, cream cheese, cherries — brownies get even better. I loved the walnut addition into the brownies and this ingredient really made the brownies “shine.”

The candied cherries are an inspiration from making all my “Cherry Bounce” cocktails in June. (See my June blog post on “Geroge Washington and his Cherries”). I found that candied cherries were a delightful spin off ingredient from my cocktail brew. However, if you are not eager to make homemade candied cherries, then another option for cherry flavor is to add just a few chopped marachino cherries to the brownie batter. And, the brownies are still tasty if the cherries are omitted entirely. But, who can deny that it is a novelty to make brownies with cherries.

Recipe Inspiration

Brownies are one of my favorite dessert treats, so occasionally I’ll indulge and bake brownies. I believe that there can never be too many brownie recipes or brownie variations — just like cheesecake recipes. There’s always room for one more recipe, one more variation. This recipe is adapted from the Smitten Kitchen Blog. The author states that these are “my favorite brownies” — and she must have a zillion brownie recipes posted on her blog. Let’s see what we think about this particular recipe.

Fudge-type brownies vs cake-type brownies

There are basicially two types of brownies in this world — fudge brownies and cake-type brownies. Cake brownies have leavening (baking powder or baking soda) and are more like a cake or other bar dessert in texture — they may be a little lighter and not so rich. Fudge brownie recipes typically do not include any leavening ingredients. They are dense and can be quite gooey and luscious.

Recipe

These brownies are fudge brownies. There is no leavening — baking powder or baking soda — in the recipe. It is not a mistake that these ingredients are missing. The brownie recipe basically consists of butter, eggs and lots of sugar plus a little flour. The dark milk chocolate bar provides the chocolate flavor. Vanilla extract and a pinch of salt highlight the flavors. Some brownie recipes are made using cocoa powder or milk chocolate morsels or bittersweet chocolate or unsweetened baking chocolate bars, I had a dark milk chocolate bar on hand and it worked well giving a mild chocolate flavor — not overpowering.

Getting set up to make the recipe — toast the walnuts and get the cherries ready first

To mix up this recipe quickly, it is helpful to get the walnuts and cherries ready first. If you have just purchased chopped walnuts from a grocery store, they can be used “as is.” However, I keep whole walnuts in my freezer. To bring out the flavor and get rid of the staleness, I toast the whole walnuts in the oven for 5 minutes at 350 degrees. Then I chop them to small bits in my little food chopper.

Candied Cherries

To make these brownies into “true” cherry brownies, then we need candied cherries — either marachino cherries or homemade candied cherries. Making homemade candied cherries is actually very simple. Remove the pits and stems from one cup of cherries, preferably very ripe, sour cherries (they have the best flavor). Add the cherries, sugar and a little water with one teaspoon of lemon juice to a heavy pot. Let the cherries simmer for one hour. Remove the cherries from the heat. Drain off the juice for other recipes. You have candied cherries. That’s it.

Alternatively, chop up just a few well drained, stemmed marachino cherries for the brownies.

Get the baking pan ready first, too

Don’t forget to get the baking pan ready first, too. Since these fudge brownies are extry gooey, it is difficult to cut them and remove them out of the baking pan. I can’t stress the importance of lining the baking pan with foil which overlaps the edges of the pan and to oil the foil. Then it is a simple matter of lifting the brownies out of the pan after baking by holding onto the foil. It is also easy to flip the the brownies upside down on a plate and peel off the foil. Then flip them back — right side up — onto a cutting board to score and cut the brownies.

One bowl recipe – and a note of caution when cooking with chocolate bars

This is a one-bowl recipe and mixing it up goes quickly — so have everything ready.

A note of caution: You have to be a little careful when a recipe uses a chocolate bar. When melting bars of chocolate, they can “seize” up and become hard and grainy rather than smooth and shiny. This can happen if you try to melt the bar too quickly or use a temperature which is too high or stir too vigorously. The brownies are ruined, at this point. To avoid this problem, I melted the chocolate bar — along with the butter — in a double boiler.

As the water heats, the chocolate and butter melts. The low temperature helps prevent the chocolate bar from “seizing.” Stir gently — not too much.

After the chocolate is safely melted and most of the butter is melted, you can remove the bowl from the stove. Then add the rest of the brownie ingredients — one at a time — stirring after each addition to mix up the brownies.

Pour the brownie batter into the baking pan which you have already lined with foil and oiled. Make sure to push the batter all the way to each corner and evenly across the top. Bake until the center isn’t jiggly. These brownies don’t rise. They will be soft in the center but shouldn’t be gooey. A toothpick should come out clean when inserted into the center of the brownie pan.

After the brownies have cooled down to room temperature, use the foil along the sides to lift them out of the pan. Using a plate, turn upside down onto the plate. Peel off the foil and then turn — right side up — onto a cutting board. Make sure the brownies are completely cooled down. Dip a long bread knife (or kitchen knife) in water. Score and cut the brownies into pieces. Rinse the knife off after each cut and wet it again.

Here are my fudge brownies!

The brownies are baked, it is time to test them. What is our opinion of the Smitten Kitchen’s favorite brownie recipe? Well, my husband loved them — especially the texture — and the brownies quickly disappeared from the cutting board. I loved the brownies, too. Yum! Excellent. Beware, however, they are rich. Cut into small squares!

These brownies remind me alot of fudge. In fact, The Smitten Kitchen’s author states that she refrigerates the brownies and serves them chilled. That’s not a bad idea — as these are gooey brownies, especially in the center of the batch.

However, the brownies are great when warmed, up too. Now that’s an idea — these would be extra, extra tasty when served warm with ice cream for a sundae. Yum.

My favorite part of the recipe is that these brownies are exceedingly easy to mix up. No electric mixer is required for these brownies. Just one simple of bowl does the trick. After the walnuts and cherries ingredients are prepared (which can be done ahead of time), mixing up these brownies is easy.

These brownies are delicious any day of the year. Enjoy the recipe!