Angie's Brittle - Happy Holidays

Oh man, It has been a rough few weeks! Traveling, work, Christmas shopping, more work, baking (and mailing), even MORE work, so many December birthdays, and not to mention I dropped a full bottle of vinegar on my toe (which is now bruised and probably broken). I kind of just want to throw my hands in the air and say "I give up world!" But, I can't because..............SANTA'S COMING!!!!

This is absolutely, hands down, my favorite time of year! Spending time with family, holiday parties, TONS of cooking and holiday treats, decorations, presents and best of all, traditions. We have several established traditions in our family, but we're always creating new ones. One of the best traditions though, are the holiday goodies that our families make. We always get delicious Italian Pizzelles from the Hubby's Mom and Spicy Chex Mix (aka Trash) from my Mom. One of my favorite traditions that crept into our family several years ago is Angie's Brittle.

Angie is an old family friend of ours who knows how to make brittle! My mom fell in love with the brittle and started making it every Holiday. I now have taken over the tradition and wanted to share with everyone! Salty, sweet and very chocolatey, it is a cracker-based brittle. Usually I make this with saltine crackers, however since going gluten free, I now use a basic GF cracker and had no issues. If you don't have a gluten issue, then go with the saltines. You can also top the brittle with a different type of nut like almonds, pecans or cashews. Sometimes I add on dried fruit, like goji berries.

On behalf of the Hubby, myself and our families, we wish everyone a wonderful  Holiday Season and many delicious treats!!

Angie's Brittle

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes


2 sticks butter (16 Tablespoons)
1 cup brown sugar
Cooking spray
1 sleeve saltine crackers (or gluten free crackers similar to saltines - I used these)
16 ounces favorite chocolate chips (dark, milk or bittersweet)
1 cup walnuts (toasted and chopped)
Sea salt (suggested if using GF crackers)

Preheat the oven to 350F and line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil. Spray the foil with cooking spray (the more you spray, the easier it will be to remove the brittle).
Spread the crackers in a single layer on the lined baking sheet.

In a small sauce pan, melt the butter and brown sugar over medium heat. Bring to a boil and continue to cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. This will start to thicken and turn brown like a caramel. Pour the butter mixture over the crackers and bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Be careful not to overcook as the brittle will burn easily.

Remove the brittle from the oven and pour the chocolate chips on top of this immediately. Let the chips sit for a minute, and as they melt, start to spread them out with a spatula. This will create the chocolate layer. Sprinkle the walnuts (or favorite nut) and sea salt. Let this cool for about 10-15 minutes and then place in the freezer to harden.

When frozen, carefully remove the foil from the brittle and break into pieces. Store in a freezer bag or container in the freezer until ready to serve. This keeps the chocolate from melting!

Chocolate Almond Oat Cookies (Gluten Free)

Christmas Cookie Time!!!

This is my third year participating in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap and I finally had the guts to participate in the gluten free category. I love receiving and buying gluten free cookies, but had not yet mastered the art of gluten free baking (except for my one go to recipe for Oatmeal Nut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies). Since I had already posted that recipe on my blog, I couldn't use it for the 2014 Cookie Swap. 

I started by testing a new version of the Oatmeal cookies. Instead of peanut butter, I used almond cocoa butter, which pretty much just resulted in a very flat, spread out crisp, so I kept testing. 

It took me about 5 tries, but I finally perfected the thin, crispy, chocolate-y cookies I like to call Chocolate Almond Oat Cookies! I was determined to make something good enough for my fellow gluten free food bloggers and stand up to the US Postal Service and their "delicate" shipping methods.

Regardless of the hurdles, I prevailed with a successful recipe and many cookies to spread around to friends, family and coworkers. 

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap is so much fun, something I look forward to every year. I love the camaraderie of the food blogger network and the encouragement and praise (and social media frenzy) of all the recipes and cookies! This year, I was extra excited to receive my cookies in the mail because I knew they were all going to be gluten free! This year I received:

• Triple Chocolate Fudge Cookies from A Rooster In The Kitchen
• Chinese Five Spice Ginger Cookies from Heartbeet Kitchen
• Candy Cane Brownies from The Tomato Tart

All I need now is a tall glass of cold milk!

Chocolate Almond Oat Cookies 

Yields: 3-4 dozen 

Prep Time: 15 minutes 

Cook Time: 8-10 minutes

1 cup almond cocoa butter (used Trader Joe's)

½ cup sugar

½ cup brown sugar

1 ¼ teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup gluten free oat flour (used Bob’s Red Mill)

3 cups rolled oats (gluten free)

½ cup slivered almonds, toasted and chopped

1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper or a SilPat.

In the bowl of a standing mixer combine sugar, brown sugar and cocoa almond butter and beat until creamy. 

Add in the eggs, vanilla, cinnamon and baking soda and mix well before added in the oat flour. Turn the mixer off and stir in the oats, chocolate chips and almonds by hand. Cover the dough and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Using a teaspoon, form small balls of dough and spread out at least 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet. Keep a bowl of water near by to dip fingers in when forming the dough balls since the dough will be sticky.

Bake the cookies for about 8 minutes until they puff up. Remove from the oven and let sit on the cookie sheet for at least 5 minutes before removing and cooling on a rack.

If you like really crispy cookies, bake for a total of 10 minutes.

Birthday Cakes for the Hubby

It's the Hubby's birthday this week! He turns the big 3-0! So many wonderful surprises and so many wonderful presents have been revealed. Now that it is all wrapped up, I can finally share the exciting celebrations.

     

 
It was supposed to start with a trip to San Francisco to taste the exceptional Pliny the Younger at Russian River Brewing Company. The weather Gods had other plans for us though and dumped several inches of snow on Raleigh, preventing us from getting out there. So that was a HUGE disappointment, but we are already planning to go out next year.

Like a mature, almost-30-year-old, the Hubby lifted his spirits and moved on. What he didn't know is that I had a very large surprise party planned for him the following weekend! Friends and family gathered at his favorite craft beer store, Bottle Revolution, to surprise the hell out of him. Needless to say, it was a success!

The celebration continued with a new coffee setup for the Hubby the morning of his birthday. You haven't tasted a great cup of coffee until you have had a pour-over using Counter Culture beans! It has started our mornings off right this week!

Back to the focus of birthdays, the cake. Hubby had not just one cake this year, but two! I have been with the Hubby for 10 birthdays now and for each one, he always gets a yellow cake with chocolate frosting. He loves it. And yes, we have used the box kind forever and it works perfectly. BUT, since I have a food blog, I couldn't cheat this year, I had to make it from scratch. I had a little help from The Vintage Mixer and whipped this up after I found out our trip to San Fran was canceled. I thought a little yellow cake with chocolate frosting would cheer him up!

Then, for his surprise party, his mom took some inspiration from one of my favorite bloggers, The Beeroness and made an Epic Chocolate Stout Cake with Chocolate Bourbon Sour Cream Frosting. Amazing! This cake was a huge hit at the party and absolutely one of the best cakes I have ever eaten. Rich, chocolaty, bourbon-y and moist.

The celebrations will continue for a few more weeks with more family dinners and birthday cards, but we wanted to share the recipes for the birthday cakes we are enjoying this week. The Hubby deserves the best birthday, that is for sure!

Happy 30th Hubby!! I love you :)

Classic Birthday Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Recipe on The Vintage Mixer

Epic Chocolate Stout Cake with Chocolate Bourbon Sour Cream Frosting

Recipe on The Beeroness

Red Wine Chocolate Cake for My 100th Post

Chocolate? Yes!

Red wine? Yes please!

Cake? Uhh...Yea!

100th post....YAY!

It is amazing to me that the food gods have allowed two things to happen:

1. That chocolate, red wine and cake can come together in blissful harmony and 
2. That I am able to keep up this blog in the midst of my busy life. 

Hard to believe that I have cooked, experimented with and written 100 posts!! Yay, go Kettler Cuisine!! 

100th Post on Kettler Cuisine

I was so excited when I noticed that I was approaching my 100th post that it was hard for me to decide on what to write about. One thing was obvious, write a huge THANK YOU! I have so much in store for all my followers, and can't wait to keep this blog going for many more posts. I can't express how grateful I am to many people in my life that encourage me, my love for cooking, and this blog. So thank you to my family, friends, and the culinary community for all your support. And what better way to say thank you, than with cake?

       

I've made Smitten Kitchen's Red Wine Chocolate Cake in the past and for some odd reason, waited an entire year to make it again. I DO NOT know why, for the life of me, I waited another year to try this recipe again because it is so easy and delicious!! My 100th post seemed like the perfect opportunity!

The website recipe for Chocolate Red Wine Cake is a bit different than the cookbook recipe, but they're both delicious! This has become my go-to cake for all occasions. Not only is this an extremely easy recipe, it gives a nice excuse to open a bottle of red wine. :)

So, raise your glass (of red wine or preferred libation) and cheers with me....Here's to many more posts on Kettler Cuisine! 

Do you have a favorite recipe? Do you have recipes you want me to write about? Email me or "like" me on Facebook and let me know.

Red Wine Chocolate Cake

Slightly adapted from Smitten Kitchen Red Wine Chocolate Cake 

Yields: 9-inch round cake
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 20-25 minutes

8 oz unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

1 egg + 1 egg yolk, room temperature

3/4 cup red wine (I use a Cabernet Sauvignon)

1/4 cup milk (any kind)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup + 1 T all-purpose flour

1/2 cup raw cacao powder (or unsweetened cocoa powder)

1/8 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Favorite frosting or whipped cream to top - I like Mascarpone Frosting 

Preheat the oven to 325F and line the bottom of a 9-inch cake pan with parchment paper (I use a pencil to trace a circle around the cake pan on the parchment paper and cut the exact size). Butter and flour the sides of the pan and parchment paper well.

In a large bowl of a standing mixer, cream the butter until smooth, then add in the sugar and beat for about 3 minutes. Add the full egg and additional egg yolk and beat well. Add in the red wine, then vanilla and mix well. The batter might seem a bit uneven - no worries according to Smitten Kitchen (and Kettler Cuisine kitchen)!

Over a separate medium mixing bowl blend the flour, cacao, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together. Pour into a sifter and sift about 3/4 of this mixture right over the wet ingredients. Then fold in the rest with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 20-25 minutes. Test the cake (insert toothpick into the center, should come out clean) after 20 minutes. The cake will overcook fast, so watch it carefully!

Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then carefully flip the cake out of the pan and cool the rest of the way on a cooling rack. Once the cake is fully cooled, dust with powdered sugar right before serving or serve with fresh whipped cream or Mascarpone frosting...and of course, a glass of red wine!

Chocolate Velvet Birthday Cupcakes

Happy (belated) Birthday Hubby! 

Words can't begin to express how lucky I am to have such an amazing man in my life. He is kind, caring, supportive, everyone loves him and most importantly, he LOVES my food! As Ryan dives into the last year of his 20's, he celebrates friends, family and things that are important to him. It is amazing how things come into perspective as you grow older.

We have been together for nearly 10 years, something that we find hard to believe. We met in college during our freshmen year through mutual friends. The journey has been unforgettable, going from this....

After 6 months of dating!!

to this...

After 1 year of marriage and 9 years together!!

Chocolate Velvet Cupcakes

His birthday just happened to also be Oscar day!! We decided to throw a little Oscar party to celebrate. The champagne was flowing, bets were made for the "Oscar Pool," and "red" velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting were consumed. I say "red" because I was unaware of how much food coloring was required to actually make them red. In my mind, I just thought there was some sort of red ingredient that naturally turned the batter red....but, no! That is fine with me, because food coloring creeps me out. So I made chocolate velvet cupcakes instead with cream cheese frosting. Hop on over to Foodiecrush, where she admires the recipe from Cucina Marie.

Red Velvet Cupcakes from Cucina Marie

Cream Cheese Frosting from Cucina Marie

Chocolate Baked Doughnuts

2400 calories, 12 doughnuts, 5 miles, 1 hour. That was the challenge.

When you live with a runner, it's only a matter of time before you become a runner. Ryan jumped on the bandwagon last fall and finished his first race this weekend! Yay! Go Hubby!!

This race didn't only involve running, but eating as well. The Krispy Kreme challenge is an annual event held in Raleigh that challenges not only your physical ability, but your stomach strength as well. 

Probably the worst idea for a race, but it started with a few NC State students on a dare.  The race is now one of the largest charity races in North Carolina (not to mention a great shout out for Krispy Kreme).

Two of our closest friends drove up to run in the race with us. Jordan decided to partake in the dozen doughnut consuming aspect of the race, but Nancy and I were smart, we just ran and watched everyone be miserable!

Since Nancy and I stick to a gluten-free diet, it was only fair that we get doughnuts too! So I made these chocolate gluten free doughnuts for us to enjoy! I know, most people hear gluten free and run, but honestly these were amazing!

Since this was my first time making doughnuts (thanks for the baking dish bro), I did a little research to get started. I found inspiration at Running To The Kitchen, another fantastic healthy food blog that provides a lot of raw, gluten free and Paleo recipes. I started with a recipe for Chocolate Baked Donuts and went from there.

These were a great guiltless treat after the race. Here's to having your doughnuts and eating them too!

Chocolate Baked Doughnuts (Gluten Free)
Adapted from Running to the Kitchen Chocolate Donuts
Yields: 10 doughnuts
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 10-12 minutes
3/4 cups almond meal/flour
1/4 cup raw cacao powder (or unsweetened cocoa powder)
1/4 tsp baking soda (gluten free)
pinch of salt
3 eggs (separated)
3 T melted coconut oil or melted butter
4 T honey (add more for sweeter doughnut)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp espresso powder

Preheat the oven to 350F and lightly grease a donut pan.

In a large bowl, combine the almond flour, cacao, baking soda, espresso powder and salt. In two smaller bowls, separate the eggs putting the whites in a slightly larger bowl. Set the whites aside and add the melted coconut oil, honey and vanilla to the egg yolks. Whisk to combine and add to the dry ingredients bowl, stir to combine.

Beat the egg whites with a hand held mixer until light and fluffy. Fold the egg whites into the batter until just combined. Pour the batter into a large Zip-loc bag or piping bag and squeeze the batter into the donut pan, about 2/3 full. Bake for 10-12 minutes, remove from the pan and cool before eating.

Valentine's Day Menu Ideas

Ryan and I don't like to go out for Valentine's Day anymore. Restaurants tend to be more crowded and there is so much pressure to have the perfect meal. Instead, we discovered a few years ago that we have much more fun coming up with our a menu together to cook at home.

Much like our One Year Anniversary meal, we like to make it special, but simple. Our meal planning always starts around the protein, which in this case will be Alaskan King Crab Legs if we can find them. Don't worry, we will share pics and recipes!!

Here are a few menu ideas for a nice home-cooked date night.

Cocktails

Valentine's Day usually involves a drink of some sort. Whether it be a really good bottle of wine from the cellar, crisp champagne or a fancy cocktail, it is nice to begin the meal with a wind-down and toast to your relationship. Since I am starting to find blood oranges around, Ryan requested that we start with a Blood Orange Martini or Old Fashioned.

We will probably pull out a bottle of wine to finish the night and hope to not be feeling it the next morning! 

Appy

Next up is a nice appetizer to keep your appetite at ease while making dinner. This is also a good way to prolong the evening and slow the meal down. We just picked up some yummy goat cheese from the Farmers' Market, so we will probably make Roasted Grapes with goat cheese and crostini. 

A simple cheese and crackers are a good choice too, but don't eat too much and ruin the star of the show! 

Main Course

We usually like to get seafood, something that we don't purchase a lot. We are straight up seafood snobs, and not afraid to admit it! My regular readers know from previous posts that I rarely spice up seafood. If it is fresh, then none is needed! Lobster tails are a great idea for main course because they take very little time to cook. The prep work (cutting of the shell) can all be done ahead of time, so your attention can be on your date or loved one and not the food! 

We tend to stay away from attention seeking dishes that fall into the "labor of love" category, like risotto. Same goes with the side dishes. A simple vegetable or rice pilaf works great. Occasionally we will spruce up something with a sauce, but most of the time we keep it light so we aren't painfully full at the end of the meal either. This just better prepares us for the best part - dessert! 

Sweets for my Sweet

Yes, I love saying that and LOVE making desserts for Ryan. I always offer to make the dessert for our special meals. This year we are going to take a crack at a chocolate soufflé. My advice would be do any chocolate dessert such as:

• Chocolate Cherry Brownies
• Chocolate Stout Cake with Macerated Blackberries or Raspberries
• Chocolate Raw Brownies (for the gluten free fare)

We are looking forward to having a nice date night at home with delicious food. Hopefully we can find the Alaskan King Crab legs! 

Happy Valentine's Day :)

Pumpkin Recipe Roundup: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

I thought it might be fun to try out a series on the blog, and what better theme than pumpkin! I think it is apparent from my recent post how much I love pumpkin. Fall is my favorite season, the brutal NC heat and humidity fades away as the vibrant earthy tones start spotting the landscape. Fall is also a great time for some of my favorite produce, very hearty, rustic produce like butternut squash, figs, brussel sprouts and pumpkins!

Last weekend, I made an obscene amount of pumpkin puree to freeze for the season. Every Friday in October I will be posting a new fall-inspired recipe that features pumpkin - I call this my "Pumpkin Recipe Roundup!"

First up, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread. This is a great recipe that I tweaked from the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Donut Muffins on You Made That. I love pumpkin muffins too, but breads are easier to travel with and store.

Treat Yo' Self

The great thing about this bread, is that it has a cakey consistency, which Ryan loves. And the large chunks of organic dark chocolate are a nice little surprise in every bite! Even though I made a few health-conscious ingredient swaps, this still is not the healthiest recipe on my blog. But my philosophy is sometimes you just have to Treat Yo' Self (In the words of my favorite character on Parks and Rec)!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

Adapted from You Made That Yields: 2 loaves Prep Time: 20 minutes Cook Time: 40-50 minutes 1/2 cup coconut oil 1/2 cup room temp. butter 3/4 cup light brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups pumpkin puree

2 large eggs

1/3 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup honey

3 cups white whole wheat flour, I used organic

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 cup dark chocolate chunks

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and rub butter on the inside of two bread loaf pans. I like to use a paper towel to spread the butter.

In a large bowl of a standing mixer, beat the coconut oil, butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs, one at a time, scraping the side of the bowl if needed.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, pumpkin puree, vanilla extract and honey. Add this pumpkin mixture to the butter mixture and mix on low. Clean the bowl out and dry. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice. With mixer on low, add flour mixture in three additions. Fold in the chocolate chunks until well distributed.

Divide the batter evenly into the two bread loaves. Bake for 40-50 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the loaves cool for about 10 minutes, then remove from the pans and cool the rest of the way on a wire rack.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites

We all love the men in our lives, but let's get real for a second ladies....we LOVE our girl time! This past weekend myself and 5 other girls headed for the coast for a fun-filled weekend of good food, drinks and noodling!

Noodling?? This was a new concept for me as well. It involves a noodle flotation device, a can of beer and sunglasses.....oh, and of course, a large body of water. (The beer is optional, but highly suggested)!

You can probably also imagine that with 6 girls in the house, we were bound to eat and drink well. That we did my friends! Everyone contributed to the stockpile of food and drinks, but this time there was a standout - Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites!

I seriously had to hide the two in the picture above so I could get a picture before we ate them all! Katie and Nicole outdid themselves on these - we couldn't stop eating them! And the common quote of the weekend was, "I know I shouldn't have a second one, but I'm on vacation." It really was hard to just stop after one! 

I know that I preach healthy recipes and eating, and that my blog focuses on whole foods and organic ingredients, but healthy, smealthy!! There are always exceptions. You can't eat healthy 100% of the time, so when you cheat, you might as well cheat WELL. 

The last thing I will say about these delicious little bites is that they reminded me of the Take 5 candy bar. So if you like those - make these....

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites (a.k.a. Take 5 Bites)

Recipe from Two Tiny Kitchens
Yields: 45-60 treats

1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tablespoons softened butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar (maybe more)
3/4 cup brown sugar (maybe more)
Small pretzels
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine peanut butter and softened butter in a large bowl with a fork or whisk, or in a stand mixer. Add the sugars and mix to combine. If the filling rolls easily into a ball without sticking, they are ready. If not, add a little more of each sugar until a consistency is reached that is easy to roll.

Use a teaspoon measure to scoop the filling. Roll each portion into a small ball, then sandwich them between two whole pretzels. When all the balls are rolled and successfully sandwiched, stick the whole tray in the freezer for about half an hour.

Pour the chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl and heat at 30-second intervals, stirring occasionally until completely melted.  Remove the pretzel sandwiches from the freezer and quickly dip each half-way into the melted chocolate.  Return to the tray and repeat with remaining sandwiches.  When all are dipped, return the tray to the freezer to set up completely.  Store the sandwiches in the refrigerator until serving time.

Chocolate Cherry Brownies with Whole Wheat

We all know my love for Pinterest! The Hubby laughs at me when I come home claiming I am going to try a new recipe I found on Pinterest. What did we do before pinning??? Magazines, Food Network, maybe a quick search on MyRecipes.com. But Pinterest is transforming the culinary world, and the amount of people interested in it. Yes, the site has other focus areas, but Food and Drink tend to take the top used category according to  Repinly.com.

Screenshot of my Pinterest profile - so fun!!

If you have not heard of it, go to Pinterest.com and welcome yourself to 2012!! You can follow my boards, which are all dedicated to food and drinks, with a random board here and there for cute kitties and books.

Anyways, back to the issue at hand - a new fan-freaking-tastic recipe that I found on Pinterest. Cherries are everywhere, and there is no such thing as buying a small bag of cherries in the market. Every time I commit to purchasing these pricey little fruits, I have to commit to also making something with them in addition to eating alone. I have done a cherry tart, cherry crumble, cherry sauce for pork tenderloin, bourbon soaked cherries (those were good) and also just sharing with my neighbors. This time though I had a perfect recipe in mind - Chocolate Cherry Brownies!

I came across this recipe on Pinterest from a fellow food blogger, Texanerin Baking. It wasn't the fact that there was less sugar in these brownies, or that they were made with coconut oil and whole wheat flour. It was the fact that this recipe used whole fresh cherries and not the canned kind!

I made a few small tweaks to the recipe to accommodate my baking style and changed the baking time completely. These are very rich and fudgy, so have a glass of milk ready!

Chocolate Cherry Brownies

Adapted from Texanerin Baking 
Yields: 16 brownies
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30-40 minutes

3 tablespoons refined coconut oil (can substitute normal unsalted butter)
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup coconut sugar or turbinado sugar (raw sugar)
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup low fat milk
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cocoa powder
Heaping 1 cup pitted fresh cherries
1 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350F, and line an 8x8 inch baking dish with parchment paper.

In a large microwave safe bowl, melt semisweet chocolate chips and coconut oil in 20 second increments. Stir after each increment and watch carefully so not to burn the chocolate.

In a large standing mixer (or large bowl), mix the sugar, eggs, vanilla, milk and oil together until just combined. In a separate medium sized bowl, mix the flour, salt and cocoa powder and add to the wet ingredients. Mix until combined, then stop!

Fold in the cherries and dark chocolate chips into the batter and pour into the prepared baking dish. Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick sort of comes out clean (there will be gooey, melty chocolate chips in the matter too remember)!

Note - check the brownies after about 20 minutes, the original recipe calls for only 15 minutes in the oven, but mine took 32 minutes. Ryan commented that they were still a bit gooey, but I kept them in the fridge and they were delicious that way. So if you like more set cakey brownies, bake them for longer.