Cherry Chocolate Truffle Bars with Cherry Syrup -- #recipe by @Leslie Budewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: A few weeks ago, I was in a stuck spot with the WIP (work in progress) and a friend suggested brownies. With cherries, I thought. I usually keep a box of Ghirardelli brownie mix – so many fun combos! – in the pantry for brownie emergencies, but no luck. Then I remembered this cookbook, A to Z Bar Cookies by Marie Simmons. I’ve had it for years and loved everything we’ve made from it, but it still holds a few untried recipes. Was there a cherry chocolate brownie recipe in it? There was! 

Some chopping is required, so it’s nice to have another cook in the kitchen. Mr. Right’s gotten quite adept at toasting and skinning hazelnuts. (BTW, both the hazelnuts and dried Morency cherries are available at Trader Joe’s. We don’t have access, but a visitor brought them at our request.)

A patient of Mr. Right’s runs a cherry juice company based at an orchard on Flathead Lake and had recently dropped off a bottle of juice. A syrup poured over ice cream seemed like the perfect companion to these brownies. It’s really just a simple syrup made with cherry juice instead of water. If you’re making the syrup without the brownies, simmer with a sprig of thyme or rosemary for an herbal accent, or a slice of peeled ginger for a bit of sparkle on your tongue. 

These brownies are fabulous on their own or with ice cream and cherry syrup. No emergency required. 

Cherry-Chocolate Truffle Bars 

(adapted from A to Z Bar Cookies by Marie Simmons)

1/4 cup hazelnuts

4 large eggs

2 cups light brown sugar, packed

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks

4 ounces unsweetened or bittersweet chocolate, or a mix

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

3/4 cup dried tart red cherries, chopped

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place hazelnuts on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until nuts are golden and skins are split, about 10-12 minutes. Place them on a dish towel and rub to remove the skins. Discard skins. Coarsely chop the nuts. 

Spray or butter a 9X13 baking pan.

In the bowl of your mixer, combined the eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy, about 10 minutes.

In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and chocolate, stirring regularly to melt and to avoid burning or sticking. Cool slightly.

Beat chocolate mixture into egg mixture. Add the flour and salt. Stir until blended. Stir in the cherries and chocolate chips. 

Spread batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over the surface. Bake 32-35 minutes, or until the edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan and a cake tester comes out clean.

Cool on a rack before cutting into bars. 

Cherry Syrup 

¾ cups tart cherry juice (if you’re using sweetened cherry juice, reduce the sugar)

¾ cups sugar

1/4 teaspoon lemon juice (optional) 

1 cup fresh or frozen pitted cherries (optional; if frozen, thaw and pour off any watery liquid) 

Combine juice and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar and prevent sticking. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 15-20 minutes, until syrup begins to thicken. (Remember that it will thicken as it cools.) Add the lemon juice and cherries. Adjust sugar and lemon juice to taste. 

Serve warm or at room temperature, with brownies, ice cream, pound cake, or whatever you're craving! 

Refrigerate leftovers in a glass container up to 3 weeks. 

What, dear friends, is your emergency treat? 

BETWEEN A WOK AND A DEAD PLACE: A Spice Shop Mystery (July 2023, Seventh St. Books)

From the cover: 

It's the Lunar New Year, and fortunes are about to change. 

 

Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle's Pike Place Market, loves a good festival, especially one serving up tasty treats. So what could be more fun than a food walk in the city's Chinatown–International District, celebrating the Year of the Rabbit?

 

But when her friend Roxanne stumbles across a man's body in the Gold Rush, a long-closed residential hotel, questions leap out. Who was he? What was he doing in the dust-encrusted herbal pharmacy in the hotel's basement? Why was the pharmacy closed up—and why are the owners so reluctant to talk? 

 

With each new discovery, Pepper find herself asking new questions and facing more brick walls. 

 

Then questions arise about Roxanne and her relationship to Pepper's boyfriend Nate, away fishing in Alaska. Between her worries and her struggle to hire staff at the Spice Shop, Pepper has her hands and her heart full. Still, she can't resist the lure of the Gold Rush and its tangled history of secrets and lies stretching back nearly a century. 

 

But the killer is on her tail, driven by hidden demons and desires. As Pepper begins to expose the long-concealed truth, a bigger question emerges: Can she uncover the secrets of the Gold Rush Hotel without being pushed from the wok into the fire?

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Spice Shop Mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody, standalone suspense, most recently Blind Faith. She is the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories: Best Nonfiction (2011), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Short Story (2018). Between a Wok and a Dead Place, the 7th Spice Shop mystery, will appear in July 2023. 

A past president of Sisters in Crime and national board member of Mystery Writers of America, Leslie lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.

Swing by Leslie's website and join the mailing list for her seasonal newsletter. And join her on Facebook where she shares book news and giveaways from her writer friends, and talks about food, mysteries, and the things that inspire her.