It's cherry season y'all. I'm sure you've seen it at your local grocery store (or not because they have been going fast around here) cherries are everywhere!

Now, I've admitted in the past that I am not a great baker. Sure..sure…my skills have been improving over the years but personally, I just get aggravated with it more time than not. In fact writing up recipes for this blog are difficult sometimes as in my mind 2 tsp = just throw some stuff in a pan. Baking definitely tests my patience, but I digress.

When I am baking, because- who doesn't like the occasional tasty sweet treat? I am always looking for easy, quick and minimum ingredient recipes.

Cue: The Chocolate Chip Cherry Blondie. My new summer time staple. I can barely keep these in the house as my husband has been secretly demolishing them when I go to bed.

What is a blondie you might ask? Well, it's basically like the second favorite sibling of the brownie. Hey kind of like me and my sister!

Ok, I'm kidding. Sorry, Emmy! Both are equally amazing.

A blondie substitutes vanilla instead of chocolate (Wut-TTTT, really?) and includes brown sugar.

You can substitute any kind of "filling" in this basic blondie recipe. I haven't ventured out from cherries and chocolate, but perhaps I will once the cherries start disappearing from the grocery store this summer. In the meantime, I am all about this amazing combination.

One thing that I've heard of folks using is a "cherry pitter". Now I understand pitting cherries by hand can get rather messy but I would assume using a cherry pitter causes just as much of a risk in dyeing one's fingers and clothing. I am all about my kitchen gadgets, but a cherry pitter to me sounds just as useful as a banana slicer (which does have AMAZING reviews, btw), so I usually just go at it with a small pairing knife. I like my cherry pieces large so I usually just kind of give them a rough chop, mostly just halving them.

The biggest problem I've had with this fast recipe is of course the fact that my tiny baby has grown so tall that she can steal my spatulas. Then act so cute that I just let her have it and find another…

Once you've grabbed all your back up baking supplies to replace those that have been stolen it all comes together rather quickly. In fact, I don't even bother with the stand mixer (gasp).

Throw them in an airtight container and they will stay in the fridge for a week for a fast summer treat!

 

Chocolate Cherry Blondies

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) melted unsalted butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 Tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 Tsp salt
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup cherries, pitted and chopped.

Preheat oven to 350. Line an 8×8 brownie pan with baking parchment. After you've melted the butter, add the brown sugar and stir to combine, adding the egg and vanilla afterward. Once the wet ingredients together add your flour and salt to combine. Don't over mix. Then fold in chocolate chips and cherries. Pour into your prepared pan and spread out with a spatula. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the edges begin to pull from the sides and the center feels set/firm. The baking time can vary depending on how many cherries you use so just keep an eye on it. It's hard to test this by inserting a tooth pick to see if it comes out clean because more often than not, you are inserting it into a chocolate chip or cherry. Cool bars for at least 1 hour before slicing.

 

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