Brown butter cherry bars
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8x8 pan 1x
Ingredients
Crust:
- 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
- ⅓ cup sugar
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Filling:
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cup flour
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ stick unsalted butter
- 1 lb cherries, pitted
Instructions
Make crust:
- Preheat oven to 375.
- Mix melted butter, sugar, flour and salt until dough forms.
- Press evenly into a parchment-lined 8x8 pan.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes, until lightly brown. Remove and let cool while you make filling.
Filling:
- Add butter to a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, swirling occasionally until butter starts to get brown and smells nutty and delicious. Transfer to a bowl and let cool for 10 minutes.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together sugar and eggs with a pinch of salt.
- Add vanilla and whisk to combine.
- Add flour and mix to combine. Gradually whisk in cooled, brown butter.
- Arrange cherries on crust in a single layer. Evenly pour batter over cherries.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes, until center is puffed and golden and a tester knife/toothpick/etc. comes out clean. Depending on your oven, you might want to start checking around 30 minutes.
- Let cool completely before slicing.
Recipe from Smitten Kitchen.
Last cherry recipe this season! I think. Probably. Never say never.
To be fair, this recipe isn't actually mine, but it is one I've been meaning to make for years. These brown butter cherry bars come from Smitten Kitchen, which should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me. My life goal is to try all of Deb's recipes, even if I'm super behind.
The good news is that these are delicious. The bad news is I think I only have a few more weeks to make them 18 more times.
The beauty of these bars is that they're actually not too sweet, and the cherries themselves actually shine through. They're creamy and fruity and the cookie base is everything you want in a crust.
I haven't tried these with any other fruit, but based on the comments on Deb's post these bars will be great with berries, plums, etc. And I'm pretty sure in about a month I'm going to show up here with an apple version. So there's something to look forward to?!
I'll miss you cherry season!
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