I have a great recipe for you today, I’m so excited about this one and I can’t stop eating these little chocolate cherry squares! I know I already stared this week with the cherry + chocolate combination (see here for amazing Creamy chocolate coconut smoothie topped with cherries and more chocolate!) and honestly I thought to keep this one for next week but because cherry season is so short, I decided to share it today, just in time you can make it over the weekend! I used a smaller square baking pan in this recipe so if you are making it for more than 2 people, I suggest you double up the quantities and bake it in a larger rectangular baking pan as they will be gone quickly believe me! ð
To go back to the cherries season, I hate that is so short! Ugh strawberries are already almost gone from our markets here in Croatia and cherries will be gone soon too and that’s like the favorite fruit of so many people including me. Maybe that’s why we appreciate them more because we can enjoy them for such a short time but it’s still kind of sad. That’s why we should enjoy them while we still can and in some European countries cherries season doesn’t start before July so for many of you there is still plenty of time to save this recipe and make these! ð
Now about the name. I first thought to call them brownies but than I googled a bit and learned something new that I should have probably known already but I didn’t.  The difference between blondies and brownies is that blondies don’t have any melted chocolate or cacao powder used in the batter, they do however contain brown sugar and often chocolate chips or chopped chocolate pieces. So because I used coconut sugar (as a healthier version of brown sugar that is unrefined and it has lower glycemic index than regular sugar) and didn’t use any melted chocolate in the batter, I decided to call these blondies.
Both brownies and blondies are normally made with lots of butter and sugar that overpowers other flavours so this is my healthier version where I used coconut oil and coconut sugar that gives them slight caramel taste and two of my favourite flavours in the world, sweet cherries and slightly bitter dark chocolate, heaven!
You can of course use whatever chocolate you prefer, if you like sweeter desserts, you can use chopped milk chocolate but I really love this combination. I hope you’ll love these as much as I do!
Before the recipe I want to wish you all a lovely weekend whatever you will be doing. I will be heading to Slovenia for few days and I’m looking forward to seeing my aunt and uncle and my friends. If you are on instagram or snapchat, you can follow me there for more (just look for: travellingoven)… Oh and also don’t forget to Subscribe to the blog if you don’t want to miss any posts, just write your email address to the Subscribe box and you will be receiving all the posts straight to your inbox.
Recipe in English:
- ½ cup coconut oil, melted
- ¾ cup coconut sugar (or light brown)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup spelt flour
- pinch of salt
- 1 - 1.5 cup cherries, remove the pits
- 1 cup (200 g) dark chocolate, chopped
- Note: 1 cup = 250 ml
- For a sweeter desert, use milk chocolate instead of dark.
- Preheat oven to 180 C / 350 F. Line a 20 x 20 cm / 8 x 8 inch square baking pan with a baking paper, you can skip this step if using a silicone one like the one I used.
- Melt the coconut oil over low heat and pour it into a large mixing bowl.
- Add coconut sugar, eggs and vanilla and whisk until it's all well combined.
- Add flour and salt and whisk until just combined, don't over mix it.
- Stir in cherries and chopped chocolate.
- The batter will be quite thick and that's how it should be so just use a spoon to mix it gently.
- Using a spoon transfer the batter into prepared baking pan and smooth the surface.
- Bake it for about 30 minutes or until tester comes out mostly clean (never mind the melted chocolate that will mark the tester).
- Leave to cool completely before cutting into squares.
- Keep in an airtight container at room temperature. You can store them in the fridge too but because of the coconut oil, they will harden when in the fridge.
Recipe in Croatian / Recept na hrvatskom:
- SASTOJCI
- ½ salice kokosovog ulja, otopljenog
- ¾ salice kokosovog secera (ili obicnog)
- 2 veca jaja
- 1 zlicica vanilin ekstrakta
- 1 salica glatkog brasna
- ½ salice pirovog brasna (ili integralnog)
- prstohvat soli
- 1-1,5 salica ociscenih tresanja
- 1 salica (200 g) tamne cokolade, isjeckane
- Napomena: 1 salica = 250 ml
- PRIPREMA
- Zagrijte pecnicu na 180 C. Oblozite kalup velicine 20 x 20 cm papirom za pecenje (ne morate ukoliko koristite silikonski kalup).
- Otopite kokosovo ulje na laganoj vatri i ulijte ga u vecu zdjelu za miksanje.
- Dodajte kokosov secer, jaja i vanilin ekstrakt i miksajte dok se sastojci dobro ne povezu.
- Dodajte brasno i sol i promijesajte da se spoji, ali nemojte previse mijesati.
- Umijesajte ociscene tresnje i isjeckanu tamnu cokoladu.
- Smjesa ce biti gusta tako da koristite zlicu kako bi je rsporedili po kalupu.
- Pecite 30 minuta ili dok cackalica ne izadje pretezno cista.
- Ostavite da se ohladi prije rezanja na kocke, vadjenja iz kalupa i posluzivanja.
- Dobar tek!
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OMG! These look so decadent and perfect – would love to try this recipe as soon as possible!
Thank you, these are so good I’m making them again this weekend while the cherries are still in season! ð
Absolutely perfect recipe that captures the essence of choc+cherry combination. we loved it and will definitely make it again!
Thank you so much Iva for trying out this recipe, I’m so happy you loved it! <3