Black Forest Brownies

When you can't decide between chocolate and fruit, choose both.

Summer's zenith approacheth. My refrigerator bursts with black raspberries, tart cherries, sweet cherries, blueberries, blackberries, and even the elusive red currant. I may have bought too much.

I'm cherry-obsessed. They're the most magical fruits, especially the tart ones. But I love the sweet ones as a midsummer snack. I'll always remember driving from Traverse City, Michigan, towards Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, with my friend Kate in 2004. We bought a big container of dark, sweet cherries from a roadside stand, and as we drove along Lake Michigan, we spit pits out the window. Ahh, youth.

Cherries, clockwise from 12:00: Jubileum, Montmorency, Bing, and Rainier.

The height of Michigan cherry season ends soon, and I've been developing cherry recipes for my cookbook. One of these recipes, which is slated for the book, is my version of a Black Forest cake. Why don't we see more Black Forest cakes popping up around cherry season? They're my kind of cakes because they incorporate four of the best things: chocolate, fresh cherries, whipped cream, and a splash of booze. A bonus: no buttercream. This retro cake needs a major comeback. It’s practically a trifle, anyway.

I didn't want to leave folks hanging without a Black Forest-themed recipe, so here's a quick one to whip up. Plus, you can use fresh, frozen, or jarred cherries, so it's good for any time of the year.

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Black Forest Brownies

Makes one 9-inch square pan, about 16 brownies.

When making brownies, the quality of your cocoa powder makes all the difference. I swear by either Cacao Barry Extra Brute or Valrhona. If you love chocolate and spend money on bars of the good stuff, get yourself some quality cocoa powder.

The fresh cherries (I prefer tart Balaton cherries) in this recipe give you a burst of juicy-jammy sweetness just like in a black forest cake, and the white chocolate stands in for the luscious cream.

170 g (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter

300 g (1 1/2 cups) sugar

84 g (1 cup) Dutch-process cocoa powder

3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

3 large eggs, cold

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

2 Tablespoons Kirsch

135 g (1 cup plus 1 Tablespoon) all-purpose flour

125 g (about 3/4 cup) plus 85 g white chocolate chips or roughly chopped white chocolate, divided

About 350 g fresh or frozen* (not thawed) tart (ideally Balaton or other morello variety) or sweet cherries

Heat the oven to 350F with a rack in the center. Lightly butter a 9-inch square metal baking pan and line it with parchment paper. I prefer an aluminum pan with a loose bottom.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter and sugar over medium heat, stirring until the butter is melted and the mixture looks shiny. Turn off the heat.

In a mixing bowl, add the cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, eggs, vanilla extract, almond extract, and kirsch. Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon or whisk until well combined and smooth. It will be thick. Add the melted butter mixture to the cocoa mixture and stir to combine. It will become glossy and runny. Add the flour and stir to combine, then stir in the white chocolate chips. Scrape the batter into the baking pan and smooth out the top. Set the cherries on top of the brownie batter, pushing them in only a tiny bit. You want a bit of space between each cherry. I had a rough grid of cherries (about 8 by 8), but it might look different if your cherries are a different size.

Bake at 350F for 34-42 minutes. OK, it's hard to tell when brownies are totally done. You can't go by color, and if a toothpick comes out clean, it might be overdone plus the cherries are juicy. They should look puffed a bit and shiny, and they shouldn’t jiggle much when shaken. If you use frozen cherries, the bake will take longer than if you use fresh ones.

Let the brownies cool completely.

Melt about 85 g of white chocolate in the microwave in 30-second increments, stirring between each until fully melted. (Or them melt over a double boiler.) Using a piping bag or just a spoon, drizzle the white chocolate over the brownies and let cool until set.

For the cleanest and easiest cutting, put the room-temperature brownies in the pan into the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Run a butter knife or offset spatula around the edge of the pan. Using the parchment paper as a sling, carefully remove the brownies from the pan, place them on a cutting board, and slice with a large chef’s knife. These brownies are rich, so I like to cut them into 16 pieces. Let them come to room temperature a bit before serving. These last, covered in the refrigerator, for 3 days.

*Jarred tart cherries work just as well, just drain them before using.

Happy Baking,
Martin