Dark Chocolate Cherry Blondies

Once again I found myself busy with a bunch of other things today so when it came time to make a recipe to share with my friends and coworkers I wanted something as easy as possible. I ran across a recipe for dark chocolate cranberry blondies on baking bites and decided that would do. I was actually out of dried cranberries though, so I substituted dried cherries instead. I suppose I could call them Cherry Garcia Blondies...

These blondies are not as good as the Dorie Greenspan blondies that I made a few days ago, but they are still good. Actually, the Dorie blondies are so awesome because they have a ton of add-ins -- chocolate chips, heath bits, coconut, nuts and whatever else you might have handy -- ensuring a lot of texture and flavor in each and every bite. The cherry blondies have a mere 1 1/2 cups of dark chocolate and dried fruit (compared to about 4 cups stuff for the Dorie ones) which means some of the bites are a bit plain. I also didn't mix the chocolate and cherries as thoroughly as I should have which means clumps of cherries and chocolate instead of evenly distributed. Next time I will add more stuff, and make sure I mix it in better.

I actually made a Bourbon Pumpkin Cheesecake tonight too -- but that's for a Christmas party tomorrow at work so I will blog about that tomorrow...

Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate covered cranberries, chopped
(or 1 1/2 cups of a mix of chopped dark chocolate and dried cranberries)

Preheat oven to 350F.

Lightly grease the Baker’s Edge pan (or a 9×13-inch baking dish).
In a large mixing bowl, stir together butter and sugars. Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by vanilla extract. Stir in flour and salt, mixing just until no streaks of flour remain, then add in dark chocolate covered cranberries. Pour into prepared pan and spread evenly with a spatula.

Bake for about 27-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the top is a light golden brown. If using a 9×13, the brownies may be slightly thinner, so be sure to check them early; it is better to check once or twice than to have overdone blondies.
Cool on a wire rack before slicing.

Makes about 20 blondies.