Cherry Brownies

We were having some friends over for a Friday night of cheese, desserts and Rock Band so I decided to try the Blackcurrant Brownies from the LCBO's lovely Food & Drink (Autumn, 2012). Something a little different, since I don't make brownies too often - but hey, sometimes I like to go all out with gooey brownies full of butter! Especially when others are around to eat them.

First up was melting the butter (I took it down to 3/4 cup from 1 cup) with the chocolate. The Hershey's bar I had bought was less than the 175 grams they called for, but luckily I usually have some dark, mini chocolate chips in the freezer, so I threw in a handful of those too. I also took it down to 3 eggs from the 4 the recipe called for, and cut the sugar from 1 cup to 3/4 cup. Sometimes recipes are just too decadent, ya know? These ingredients cost money!

The batter was quite grainy (so much sugar!) but looked very chocolatey. Next up was putting half the batter in the pan, then freezing it for 30 minutes. The recipe claims the freezing makes them more moist - maybe, but more importantly it lets you put a nice layer of jam in the middle! I used an organic Morello cherry jam I had, because who doesn't like cherry and chocolate? It was a little tough to spread the second half of the batter onto the jam, but it didn't need to look very pretty - I figured it would all even out in the end.

After a further 20 minutes in the freezer, they were ready to be baked. Even with the slight reductions in butter, sugar and eggs they tasted fabulous. Really chocolatey, gooey, and the layer of jam in the middle gave them an extra fruity kick to cut through the rich chocolate. Fairly easy recipe, if you don't mind waiting while the pan's in the freezer.