Chocolate Chunk Cherry Brownies and the evilness of squirrels

Bittersweet and white chocolate, a touch of espresso and dried cherries soaked in red wine give these brownies a nice grown-up finish. Make them ahead—they’re twice as good the next day. Recipe below.

BEFORE I EMBARK ON THE STORY OF HOW I CAME TO MAKE THESE BROWNIES, I would like to say death to all squirrels. All squirrels, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

A few weeks back, I was seized by the baking bug and to my amazement found that we actually had ingredients that would make it possible to both bake something delicious and to avoid a trip to the store. The product of that frenzy was double chocolate chunk cherry cookies, which turned out to be rather unexpectedly fiddly to make.

I recall a lot of crouching over the cookie sheets, muttering, with chocolate batter all over my hands and forearms and forehead. But those cookies came out pretty darn good. We enjoyed a few, and then the rest were divided up and shipped off to family members in need of an injection of baked goods. One of whom has a nice apartment lobby, and thus a safe place for a package to sit for two or three hours, and the other of whom has a front porch.

You can guess the rest of this tale of woe.

Those lousy squirrels did not even leave a thank-you note. They made a neat, small hole in the box and that was what was discovered, an empty, empty box without even one lousy crumb in it. Death to all squirrels, and I mean it.

Last week, operating under the same primitive urge to mix together fats and sugars and then consign them to the postal service, flipping through cookbooks and blogs and finding increasingly intricate not-appropriate-for-a-little-spare-time recipes, I thought: Oh, dear, all that work. And then I thought, what is wrong with me? Brownies are the answer.

And indeed, as so often, they were. Even more moist, intense chocolate flavor than any cookie, and none of the fiddling, and what sad soul does not love a brownie?

These brownies are kind of grown up, with chunks of bittersweet and white chocolate and with cherries that have been macerated in wine, and they are very easy to put together. Not as super-fast as a one-bowl recipe, but pretty darn fast. What’s more, they taste twice as good the next day. Try it. You’ll see.

Also, those cute squirrels that live in Bandolier National Monument, the ones with the tufted ears—they can live, and so can the black squirrels that live around Lansing, Michigan. But that’s it.

Chocolate Chunk Cherry Brownies
Makes about 18 large brownies

1 cup unsalted butter
2 scant cups sugar
1-1/4 cup cocoa (see Kitchen Notes)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups dried sour cherries, macerated in red wine (see Kitchen Notes)
3 tablespoons of the red wine from macerating the cherries
4 large eggs
1-1/2 cups unbleached white flour
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup white chocolate chips or white baking chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder

At least a couple of hours before you begin, put the cherries in a pie plate and pour the red wine over them. You will probably need about 3/4 cup of wine. Leave it on the counter to macerate for a while.

After two or three hours, begin making the brownies. First, preheat the oven to 350ºF. Prepare a 9 x 13 pan: Lightly oil it, then line with aluminum foil or parchment paper so that you will be able to lift out the cooled brownies in a single motion all at once.

Drain the cherries, reserving the wine. Melt the butter carefully in a saucepan over low heat. When it is just melted, turn off the heat and pour in the sugar. Stir to combine. Turn the heat on, very low, and stir for another minute. (This will help you get that brittle almost shiny top crust.)

Pour the butter and sugar mixture into a bowl. Stir in the salt, baking powder, cocoa, vanilla and 3 tablespoons of the red wine from the soaking cherries. (Save the rest of the wine for something else.)

Break the eggs into a bowl and beat them lightly, then pour them into the batter and stir again, until everything is nice and smooth. Then add in the flour a little at a time.  Scatter the coffee powder over the batter and stir it in. At this point the batter should start looking shiny. Next, add the chopped white and bittersweet chocolates.  When that has been incorporated, add the cherries. Fold and stir.

Pour the batter into the baking pan and smooth it out, if need be. Bake for 26 to 30 minutes, depending on your oven. These are done when your tester comes out with a few crumbs on it and the brownies feel only barely set in the center.

Cool completely in the pan on a rack, then lift the brownies straight up from the pan in a single motion using the foil overlaps as handles – set the whole thing right onto a flat surface to slice.  Or just let it cool, and then slice and serve right from the pan.

Kitchen Notes

With the cocoa, the brand doesn’t matter. I’ve made this recipe twice now, each time using a different brand of cocoa. Both are widely available at grocery stores, and both were fine.

With the wine, the flavor does. Don’t use anything you would not want to drink. Save the leftover macerating wine to cook in a tomato sauce, or braise meat with it, or make up some wintry cocktail and tell us about it.