Chocolate cookie base, rich chocolate fudge, cherries and cherry flavored M&M’s – all in one irresistible bar! A scrumptious way to start the summer!
Cherries are one of my favorite stone fruits. Little gems of juice and sugary sweetness, they mark the beginning of summer.
During my childhood I spend most of the summer vacation at my grandparents house in the country side. The house near us belonged to the brother of my grand-grandmother and they had this big cherry tree in front of the house. Towards the end of may we’d see here the cherries beginning to ripe and by middle June, when school was over the tree was full with red juicy cherries, just ready to be picked up. Carefully we’d climb up the tree and eat to our heart’s desire.
The joy of childhood. Not a thing to worry about.
With just a little over two months before I start packing for our trip to Romania I’m beginning to reminisce more and more about my home town.
When we picked cherries for this month Chocolate party, memories of my grand-grandmother came to mind. She lived well in her 90’s and loved cherries. I remember her saying “cherry season is my favorite time of the year”. It is indeed a beautiful season.
With her memory in my mind I made these chocolate cherry bars.
The basic recipe is the one from Hershey’s cookbook, I mentioned it before when I made the chocolate chip bars.
This time I followed the the recipe, I actually kept the fudge layer and topped it with thawed frozen cherries and a whole bag of cherry flavored M&M’s leftover from Valentine’s day (that pretty much gives you an idea how much candy I buy around the holidays if I still have some)
The bars turned over Ahh-mazing! I was a little worried the liquid from the cherries might make the bars super soft and hard to keep their shape, but once cooled they were easy to cut with a sharp knife.
Yields one 13X9 baking pan (approximative 32 bars)
Chocolate cookie base, rich chocolate fudge, cherries and cherry flavored M&M's - all in one irresistible bar! A scrumptious way to start the summer!
15 minPrep Time
45 minCook Time
2 hrTotal Time
Save RecipeIngredients
- 1 3/4 cup (210 grams) all purpsoe flour
- 1/4 cup (20 garms) cocoa powder
- 1 cup (200 grams) sugar
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 egg
- 1 X 14 oz can (396 grams) condensed milk
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 2 cups drained, thawed frozen cherries (optional, you can use pitted fresh cherries)
- 1 bag cherry flavored M&M's
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350F. Line a 13X9" baking pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a food processor add the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, butter and egg. Pulse for about 2 minutes until it comes together in a ball.
- Reserve 3/4 cup of the dough. Press the remaining dough evenly on the bottom of the prepared baking pan.
- Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes.
- In the meantime, in a small saucepan combine the condensed milk with the chocolate chips, heat over medium heat until the chocolate chips are melted, stirring constantly to combine.
- Pour the chocolate mixture over the half baked cookie crust. Top with the cherries, M&M's and crumble the reserved cookie dough.
- Return to the oven and bake for an additional 30 - 35 minutes.
- Leave to cool completely in the pan before removing and slicing into bars.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Recipe adapted from Hershey's Chocolate Cookbook
Curious about our monthly chocolate party? Here’s how you can join me and my wonderful hosts Emily of Life on Food, Veronica of My Catholic Kitchen, Pam of Blueberries and Blessings, Liz of That Skinny Chick can Bake, Kim of Ninja Baking, Denise of From Brazil to You , Laura of Tutti Dolci, Karen of Karen’s Kitchen Stories and Becky of A Calculated Whisk
Our recipes will be shared on the first Monday of each month and you can submit your own recipes by the end of the month. You can submit up to 3 recipes each month.
To make sure everyone is having fun, there are a few rules you’ll have to follow.
1.) Blog about your chocolate treat. Your recipe must include the two ingredients we choose. It can be a simple no bake treat or a sophisticated layer cake, the complexity level of the recipe is totally up to you.
2.) Include a link back to a monthly round-up or the Chocolate party page. Optionally, add the Chocolate Party logo in your blog post or on your sidebar.
3.) Your recipe must be published during the current month. Please do not link old recipes, they will be deleted.
I hope you’ll join our party and bake along with us. Also, if you’d like to know what are we up to and what ingredients we pick for the next parties, join our Facebook group.
All submitted posts will be pinned to the Chocolate party Pinterest board and will be promoted on other social media platforms using the #chocolateparty hashtag.
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