Browned Butter Cherry Bars

I’m having a hard time keeping up with all the beautiful produce this summer. Well, that might not be an accurate statement… We’ve been eating amazingly this summer. But I haven’t been baking very much. When I found a bag of cherries in my cart at the store, I knew I’d be baking with them.

Browned Butter Cherry Bars

Hubby snacked on a quite a few of the cherries, but he didn’t get his way through all of them before I whipped up these Browned Butter Cherry Bars. As with anything you put browned butter in, these bars had a great caramely nuttiness from the browned butter.

Browned Butter Cherry Bars

The cookie crust on these bars is buttery and crisp. the cherries really shine through their ripeness. I went ahead and cut them into smaller rectangles as opposed to regular sized squares. I honestly couldn’t stop snacking on these little bars.

Browned Butter Cherry Bars

Three Years Ago: Family Favorites Cookbook
Four Years Ago: Banana Nut Bread Mini Muffins and Breakfast Pizza
Five Years Ago: Blueberry Lemon Basil Cupcakes

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Browned Butter Cherry Bars

Yield: 16 bars

Ingredients:

For the Crust
7 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup plus 1 Tbsp flour
Pinch of salt

For the Filling
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, diced
1 pound sweet cherries

Directions:

For the Crust
Preheat over to 375°F. Cut two 12-inch lengths of parchment paper and trim each to fit the 8-inch width of an 8×8-inch square baking pan. Press it into the bottom and sides of your pan in one direction, then use the second sheet to line the rest of the pan, perpendicular to the first sheet. (It should look like this.) Congratulations! You’ve just faked a square tart pan.

Using rubber spatula or fork, mix melted butter, sugar, and vanilla in medium bowl, or if you’re Deb, in the bottom of the small saucepan you used to melt the butter. Add flour and salt and stir until incorporated. Transfer dough to your prepared pan, and use your fingertips to press the dough evenly across the bottom of the pan. Bake the crust until golden, about 18 minutes (it will puff slightly while baking). Transfer crust to rack and cool in pan. Maintain oven temperature.

Make the Filling
Cook butter in heavy small saucepan (a lighter-colored one will make it easier to see the color changing, which happens quickly) over medium heat until deep nutty brown (do not burn), stirring often and watching carefully, about six minutes. Immediately pour browned butter into glass measuring cup to cool slightly.

Whisk sugar, eggs, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Add flour and vanilla and whisk until smooth. Gradually whisk browned butter into sugar-egg mixture; whisk until well blended.

Arrange pitted cherries, or the berries of your choice, in bottom of cooled crust. Carefully pour browned butter mixture evenly over the fruit. Bake bars until filling is puffed and golden and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes (though, of course, this took less time in my hyperactive oven so please watch your baking times carefully). Cool bars completely in pan on rack.

Use the parchment paper overhang to carefully remove cooled bars from pan and place them on a cutting board and cut them into squares with a very sharp knife. The cherries, if they fall over your slicing lines, will want to give you trouble but if you saw a sharp knife into them slowly before pressing down, they’ll cut neatly and with minimum carnage.

Recipe from Smitten Kitchen

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12 Responses to “Fig, Goat Cheese, and Caramelized Onion Crostini”

  1. #
    1
    Lauren — September 3, 2010 at 12:02 pm

    Looks delicious! Goat cheese & fig is a timeless flavor combination :).

  2. #
    2
    Eliana — September 3, 2010 at 3:25 pm

    Everything about these cute little bites looks amazing. I’m dreaming about all the wonderful flavors as I type right now.

    Wandered over here from the Indecisive Baker blog and love it. Looking forward to reading more of your blog posts.

  3. #
    3
    kitchenmisfit — September 3, 2010 at 11:50 pm

    I love everything about this recipe!

  4. #
    4
    We Are Not Martha — September 4, 2010 at 1:15 am

    I love ANYTHING with caramelized onion! And I’m so excited to cook with figs 🙂 These look awesome!

    Sues

  5. #
    5
    Fun and Fearless in Beantown — September 4, 2010 at 4:59 am

    Figs, goat cheese and caramelized onions? Three of my favorite ingredients!

  6. #
    6
    Cara — September 4, 2010 at 1:40 pm

    So you lost your fresh fig virginity! See, that wasn’t so bad! jk 🙂 I hope fresh fig season doesn’t fly by too quickly, I have some ideas I’d like to get to before they go away!

  7. #
    7
    newlywed — September 4, 2010 at 2:15 pm

    These look both beautiful and delicious! A great appetizer recipe to impress guests.

  8. #
    8
    tobiascooks! — September 5, 2010 at 5:46 pm

    Beautiful combo of ingredients. I love this kind of snack!

  9. #
    9
    nutmegnanny — September 7, 2010 at 2:55 pm

    As soon as I saw goat cheese I knew I would love these! Yum!

  10. #
    10
    Justin — September 7, 2010 at 5:35 pm

    sounds like a nice combination of flavors

  11. #
    11
    MamaFeelgood — September 23, 2010 at 9:16 pm

    I just found all these goat cheese recipes and fainted.
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  12. #
    12
    Julie — November 1, 2010 at 2:04 pm

    I made this for a party this past weekend and it was a huge hit! Although, I did notice the fig flavor was almost non-existent. I couldn’t find black mission figs in the markets, so I used green. I think green figs are much more bland than black mission figs, so I wouldn’t recommend making this dish unless you can find black figs.

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