Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Cherry Coconut Brownies

Donna Hay was so right when she said that brown doesn't photograph well. I had a bad day with the camera with these brownies, but they tasted so damn good that I had to tell you about them anyway. The main problem I had was that I didn't have the right sized tin and I was making up the recipe in my head, so my brownies were too thick. So I had to cut narrow, tall pieces of brownie rather than fat, short rectangles. Oh well, no one seemed to mind.
I was making a big tin plus a small ramekin of the mixture because I had a tiny bit left over and I got so excited about tasting the ramekin brownie that I forgot about the big tin and managed to slightly burn the very top of them. It was very upsetting because it meant I lost that lovely crackly top that you expect to see on a good brownie. But just to prove the recipe works, I'll show you the lovely texture of the mini brownie I was testing:
See?! If only I hadn't forgotten about the big tin! Oh well, luckily I remembered to rescue them before they tasted burnt, so they were still great to eat. It was fudgy without being raw or too dense which is something I'm not a huge fan of in brownies. The tart cherries and crunchy bits of coconut were amazingly good in this super moist brownie. I always knew it would be, I mean bloody hell, these are the ingredients of a Cherry Ripe. I was obsessed with Cherry Ripe as a child when I was stuck in the Middle East and Malaysia for years without any access to them. My brother used to bring me them over from Perth and one time he brought so many that I overdosed on them and haven't been able to enjoy them with the same gusto since.
Cherry Coconut Choc Brownies
250g dark chocolate
245g butter + 5 g for greasing tin
1 cup shredded coconut
1 1/2 cups chopped cherries (fresh, frozen or canned, whatever you can get. I used canned)
150 self-raising flour
200g caster sugar
3 eggs
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and line a 20x30cm baking tin. Drain cherries if they are in syrup and chop into halves.
Cut butter into cubes and roughly chop up chocolate and place both in a heatproof bowl. Melt chocolate and butter together over a double boiler and then set aside to cool.

Mmm chocolatey...
Beat eggs and sugar together with an electric mixer on low speed until they are well combined. Beat in melted chocolate and butter until smooth. Stir in cherries. Fold flour and coconut gently into the mixture until just combined, taking care to not overmix. Pour into prepared tin, smooth over with a spatula and bake for about 20-30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out with moist crumbs and no raw batter stuck to it.
Cool completely in its tray on a wire rack then turn out onto rack and cut into squares.
These were a huge hit with everyone, I'm happy because these days I get permission from the boyfriend to bake as much as I want because he can feed it to his workmates as well as mine. It's funny how nothing seems to get people more excited than super chocolatey things. The boy being his usual tactful self mentioned that the dark fudgy brownie with the bits of white coconut looked like worms or maggots crawling through the dirt. Thanks. But then I thought, this could be a great thing to do as part of a halloween dessert! Ooh yes, going to have to brainstorm this idea...
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24 comments:

  1. I agree - brown doesn't photograph well at all! Oh well chocolate is chocolate hahaha! These are like tropical black forrest brownies with the coconut and cherry! :D

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  2. Haha, love the boys description and I can see where he is coming from in the last pic!

    Look at all that chocolately goodness... YUM!

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  3. Had a 'brown' day with camera? Eat some brownies!! Haha. I had the same experience with brown :(

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  4. Such deliciousness! Love the idea of a Cherry Ripe brownie, and whilst I hadn't noticed it at first, it has huge potential for a Halloween theme!

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  5. looks lovely Steph, im scared to try and bake a brownie it seems .. somewhat complicated??

    xx Bettybites

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  6. people do get excited about yummy chocolatey things!
    looks great :)

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  7. When I first read the title - I thought - Cherry Ripe... mmmm... these brownies sound fantastic and look lovely and moist.

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  8. Wow, these sound delicious. I hear you re: brown and photography. I made some thyme brownies recently and it was the hardest thing to shoot.

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  9. hmmm, fudgy chocolate brownies, my favorite. And I love the addition of cherry. Nothing better than chocolate with cherries!

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  10. I love the look and the sound of your brownie. The cherry addition is also love.

    Glad to find your blog. :)

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  11. But you know what? These still look delicious! I have to disagree somewhat with Donna. Sometimes brown looks delicious-chocolate anything for instance! :P

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  12. I concur with Lorraine ^^! Chocolate brown is definitely in fashion (well in my books haha :P) and trust me... brownies can never be too thick ;) hee hee these look great Yum!

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  13. These look super delicious! Haha. A brownie in any shape/size goes down a treat :)

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  14. i can see how moist the brownie is in your photos! you should name this recipe as your own and call it a Cherry Ripe Brownie :P

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  15. Trisha - Haha I know! Hey yeah is it like blackforest, I never thought of that!

    Rilsta - LOL it does look a bit wormy in that last pic doesn't it? Totally doing it for halloween!

    Ellie - brown is evil hey! Though I'm no whiz with the camera, I'm sure a more talented person wouldn't have the same troubles :)

    Justin - hehe thanks! me too, but I restrained myself :)

    Helen - Hehe yeah I'm definitely thinking about ideas for Halloween now!

    Betty - Nah it's actually surprisingly easy! I think the hardest is getting the timing right, because it's easy to over or undercook them

    m.e (Cathie) - :D Thanks so much!

    Anita - Hehe yep that's what I was thinking of as I was making them, it's such a yummy combo!

    Julia - Ooh thyme brownies sound delicious!! I'm sure yours will look way better than mine :)

    Maria - I totally agree, cherry and chocolate is a winner!

    Anh - Aw thank you! :) Thanks for reading it!

    Lorraine - Hehe thanks so much! Chocolate is definitely the exception!

    FFichiban - Hehe I agree, the thickness made them more fudgy and moist :D Just a bit messier though!

    Betty - Hehe thanks! I agree ;)

    panda - :D Yeah I thought about that but I didn't want people thinking I actually used the cherry ripe chocolate in the recipe hehe

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  16. StephPPppp! Swing some this wayy ^_^ These look amazing and soo moist and of course rich with chocolate mmmmm. I love the combo of how you added cherries since they seem to be in season. ^_^

    I hate it when i go to a cafe and I buy a brownie and its rock hard.. Iwish they would make it nice and moist like yours.

    Your sucha good baker i bet your neighbours are constantly smelling the fragrance of baking from your place.

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  17. Yeah I love cherries so much, I wish they were in season for longer! Rock hard brownies are fail :(

    Haha thanks! Though they also have to deal with hearing my electric mixer going crazy at all hours of the day and night!

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  18. Yumyumyum. I instantly thought "cherry ripe", and of course, still have an obsession with them!

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  19. :D Thanks! I'm slowly growing to love them again, that's probably why I was inspired by them :)

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  20. Hello Steph, I have just found this recipe and it is in the oven and looks very promising...
    Maybe I'm just being dumb, but I couldn't find where you added the coconut in the method. I mixed it in before the flour. Is that what you did?
    Thanks :-) Helen

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    1. Oh no! So sorry about that, it should be after the flour but before the flour is fine too. I'll go fix the recipe now, sorry about the confusion!

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  21. Hi steph, I love your blog and follow it religously. Zmy friends and I have probably bookmarked half of the recioes on this blog to make. My family and I (I'm in Year 8) love this brownie and by bequest have made it several times. It never lasts long. Anyway I had this 'like' on this exchange that was here for to weeks with my friend and the Friday before they were to go back, I got up at 4:35 am to bake a batch of brownies to send wih them, I get up and 5 usually on Fridays for rowing but it still ended up to be a bit of a time race to get them finished. In the end I had to go and mum said she'd take them out when they were ready and even dropped them in later at quater to 9. Anyway I wrote note for him as eell to go with the brownies. Anyway if it doesn't work he either a. It was meant to be or b. He as bad taste in food (and cooks) c. Doesn't have any taste buds at allnor d. My friend ate them all before the exchange got to try any. Anyway thankyou for the blog, the recipes, being australian- meaning most of the ingrediants and brands I'll be able to find and thanyou for the recipes, this one especially and for the confidence to do something like that. It's all thanks to hours of scrolling through mouth watering recipes. Keep baking!!! LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS SITE. THANKYOU SO MUCH.
    LOVE Caitlin xo
    XOXO

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    1. Hi Caitlin!

      Wow! Getting up at 4.35am to make brownies, now that's dedication! I totally agree, if he doesn't appreciate the awesome brownies then he isn't worth it anyway. I mean, who doesn't love brownies?? And thank you for reminding me of this gem of a recipe that is hidden in the archives of my blog, it makes me want to go through my history and redo some of them (and redo the photos, yiiikes). It makes me super, super happy to have readers like you who are baking my recipes and I'll try my best to keep posting recipes that you will hopefully enjoy as much as this one! Keep on being awesome xx Steph

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