Cherry Chocolate Almond Bar
Chocolate with Cherries and Almonds – a classic combination baked into delicious bars. They were really really good. Moist and cherry dimpled chocolate delicately sat on a crumbly almond base.
Don’t you love it when your hands are stained with cherry juice. I do not have a fancy tool to pit my cherries, but I really do not mind pitting them the old way at all. I love the color and once in a while I can scare the kids pretending to be a witch with bloody hands! The blessed summer that we have- all vibrant and juicy. We got to be thankful for. Enjoy the fruits of the season and make the best of it. Yes I am enjoying my summer and probably….
… mismanaging my time too. It could be the heat, the hundreds of to do”s or whatever but nothing is an excuse good enough. Nothing much today as I am finishing this post in a hurry. I had been wanting to make some kind of bar for a long time, esp. after the miserably failed attempt to make some date bars last year. I do not still know where I went wrong last time, for I followed the recipe to the T as I usually do when I am baking something I haven’t done before.
When I saw Susan was hosting the Sugar High Fridays and the theme was “Bars” I had planned to give the “Bars” another try, only now to realize I missed the deadline. Susan however graciously extended the time and I am rushing, hoping to complete this.
I am glad to say that nothing went wrong this time other than time itself. They were almost gone in one short evening before I could grab some uneven pieces for some quick pictures. Please please do not judge them by how they look – they were delicious and way better than they appear here. Everyone loved it and they are waiting for me to make them again. Here Susan have them all for the SHF 67.
Cherry Chocolate Almond Bar
Ingredients:(makes about 14 bars)
For the base:
- 1 cup almond meal
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
For the top layer:
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 5 tablespoons water
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup self rising flour
- 3/4 cup cherries, pitted and halved
- 3 tablespoons slivered/shaved almonds
- confectioner’s sugar for dusting
- pitted and sliced cherries for garnish
Preparation:Pre heat oven to 350 degree F. Grease the base and sides of a 8 inch baking pan. (I used a 9″ loaf pan as I needed the bars taller)
Grind the sugar. In a bowl combine almond meal, flour and lemon zest and rub the zest between your fingertips along with the flour to release the essential oils; combine the sugar along with the flour. Add the chilled butter and with your fingertips rub the butter till the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs, or process the flour and the butter in a food processor.
Pat the mixture onto the base of the baking pan in an even layer and gently press it down; bake for 25 minutes.
Preparing the top layer:
Heat butter along with water in a pan over medium heat. When the butter has melted, whisk in the cocoa powder and sugar. Let cool for 5 minutes. Add the salt and the vanilla extract. Whisk in the eggs and fold in the self rising flour.
Dust the cherries and nuts with flour.Pour the batter over the pre baked crust. Spoon in the cherries and the nuts from the top in small amounts as evenly as you can. Some of them will sink, but it is okay.
Return baking pan to the oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until set.
Transfer pan to wire rack and let cool for for 5 minutes. With a sharp knife slice into desired number of bars.
Let cool completely and separate bars and transfer them to a wire rack. Dust with confectioners’ sugar.
Serve with fresh sliced cherries.
Recipe adapted from Chocolate Walnut Bars (The Cook Encyclopedia of Chocolate)
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Liquor soaked Chocolate Fingers
Oooh! Those look like lush Rainier cherries. Beautiful dessert Soma.
Cherry and chocolate is a good combo, looks yummy to give a try. Best wishes.
I think they look great. I am into all things cherries with loaded trees at the farms for me to pick. Thank you for a great recipe idea.
yummy. One can never go wrong with cherry and chocolate!
They look lovely to me, just what home baking is all about. Cherries, chocolate, and almonds are a winning trio. It’s no wonder everyone’s waiting for that second batch. ; )
Thank you, Soma, for making the time to join SHF!
Lovely presentation…the desert looks fantastic…:)
Those bars are splendid! I love that combination.
Cheers,
Rosa
Love cherry and choco combo…bars look delicious!
Looks super delish!!
Sounds delicious and lovely presentation. I made a cherry cake yesterday and changed my mind last minute and didnn’t add chocolate. Pity!
These look luscious Soma! Your presentation, as always, is lovely. Cherries and chocolate are fantastic.
Beautiful recipe and pictures Soma! And now that I am done with lunch would not mind having these for desserts.
I love how you like having the cherry red on your hands and scare the kids. I do that too with beetroot, one day I put some beetroot juice on S’s hands and told him it was blood. He cried for a long time saying he was in pain and demanded band-aid pronto as he was hurt ;-)) Kids!
That’s is a classic combo…i like the fact that almond meal is twice the amount of all purpose flour…
A very delicious combination. Looks great 🙂
Hi Soma,
I don’t see any cocoa powder or chocolate in the ingredient list. How do we create the chocolate layer?
Thanks a ton,
Ruma
Thanks for pointing that out. I had missed the cocoa powder in the ingredient list, tho I have mentioned it in the process. Updated the post.
Cheers
Soma
These look quite delicious. I love real-cherry in desserts! 🙂
What a delicious way to enjoy your summer! Cherries and chocolate are an excellent combination – always!
Cheers,
Gera
Oh, I can read your blog again! I’m using crome now, is it possible that firefox has some problem with your blog?
Wow Nice recipe and lovely pictures!!
They do look exceedingly good. I am very impressed and want to try one 🙂
I do like pitting cherries! I use a pitter tool, and it’s so fun and I don’t mind the juice running all over my hands. Your bars look great! The almond base sounds delicious with the chocolate cherry topping.
Hi Shoma
Cake ta Ki darun dekhte hoyeche. Puro cake ta Especially Cherry Topping suddhu khub khete icche korche. In this preparation, you are undisputed queen.
deepa
Hamaree Rasoi
Delicious….nice
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Hope to see you there!
By the way, I love this one. Cherry plus chocolate..yumm Looks so tempting!
Keep on blogging. 🙂
cherries have always been my very favourite!! surely gonna try this as choclate and cherries seem to be a great combo 🙂 m loving this presentation!! keep it up!! lovely photography as usual 🙂
cheers and have a great summer!!
nora@ffr
Oh! Cherries and chocolate…great combination…not only look so pretty it is tasty as well 🙂 Nice pictures!
These look and sound like heaven to me, Soma!
I love all things cherry! I am gathering ingredients to make these! Yum!
What kind of cherries did you use? Those in the photos look like Bing, rather than “cooking” cherries.
These are not cooking cherries. They are the Bing cherries.
hi!
came over from meeta’s…. lovely space you have here….
these bars are amazing 🙂
cheers,
The Variable, Crazy Over Desserts – Nachiketa
Catch me on facebook @ Crazy Over Desserts
These look fabulous! I’ll be trying these with cherries, and might also give them a whirl with apricots once the local ones are in season.
Made these and loved them so much that I’m putting them on my chocolate blog today with trackbacks and kudos to you! Thanks!
These bars are calling my name! With three of my favorite ingredients: almonds, chocolate and cherries, how could I resist? It’s not cherry season here, but luckily I have some frozen cherries in the freezer from the summer!