White Chocolate, Cherry and Almond Brownies

OK so a friend at work handed me a bag of lemons the other day, it was her subtle hint to get me to make lemon meringue pie. Now the thing is lemons are rare in these parts so I understand her excitement but sheesh, talk abut pressure. As a result I have decided to make a weekend of bucket list creating, then have some friends round for afternoon tea tomorrow. So in an attempt to avoid the pie for a little bit longer, I made this...

You'll notice the pinkish tinge caused by the cherries...

White Chocolate, Cherry and Almond Brownie

Serves: 15 

Prep Time: 5 mins Cook Time: 45mins

200g white chocolate

125 g butter

200g glace cherries (halved)

1 cup caster sugar

1 1/4 cups flour

2 eggs

50g flaked almonds

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line a baking tin (20x20 square) with paper.

2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler making sure you stir constantly, allow to cool slightly.

3. Put cherries, sugar, flour and eggs in a bowl and mix together with the chocolate and butter.

Ready for mixing

4. Pour into the baking tin, smooth over the top with a spatula and sprinkle with almonds.

Pre-oven

5. Place in the oven and cook for 45mins, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

6. Allow to cool completely in the tin and then cut into pieces.

Post-oven

I was a little disappointed with the end look of this, I think my glace cherries must have retained too much liquid (I went for ones from a jar because they're about 1/10 the price of the dried ones) and it tainted the colour of the brownie (it's now a cute pink colour) and the brownie itself is almost too moist still despite being cooked properly, next time I'll leave the cherries to dry out for a bit longer. That said, the taste is good, and I'll still put it out on offer for my guinea pigs tomorrow, so really what else matters. :)