Try saying that in breakneck speed.

When you’ve cooked the same recipe again and again it’s easy to just forget the recipe and freestyle like crazy in the kitchen. Forget the measuring utilities… and just who really needs to measure chocolate anyway? You do need to remember the basic guidelines/ rules though otherwise you’ll be crying over split brownie. Rules always spoil things though don’t they?

Once you do have the basic brownie recipe cemented in the back of your mind (see Martha Stewart’s Double Chocolate Brownies), and to also check the oven 5 minutes before the minimum cooking time to ensure a fudgy chewy brownie, you can restyle to your hearts content.

What’s amazing about Brownies is that Gluten doesn’t really play a big part in making them successful, it’s all about the butter, sugar, eggs and chocolate working their magic.

So in my instant need for a chocolate treat, and I didn’t want the husband to see my obsessive craving antics, I forgot the recipe and freestyled off this Martha one that I’d memorised. You know. For times where I may be stuck on a dessert island with chocolate, butter,  sugar and eggs…

My name is Sarah Kreczmer and I am a chocoholic.

I bought these preserved Sour Cherries from the posh supermarket and the classic combination of cherry and chocolate seemed an obvious but unavoidable one. I also had some of the Charbonnel et Walker fine dark chocolate left over from the Sticky Ginger, Chocolate and Orange Financier Pudding Cakes recipe, so what better way to use it?

These really do take under an hour- 45 minutes for me exact- to whip up.  But you better get memorising that basic brownie recipe for your own safety..for when you’re stranded and hiding in the Winchester Pub during a Zombie Invasion.

Under an Hour Sour Power Gluten Free Brownies

(Sour Cherry Double Chocolate brownies)

Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Double Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients

         100g unsalted butter

            150g coarsely chopped Charbonnel et Walker dark chocolate

            55g Unsweetened cocoa powder

            90g Gluten free plain flour

            1/4 Teapoon of Baking Powder

            1/4 Teapoon of Salt

            200g Caster Sugar

            2 Large Eggs

        Half a jar of pitted Sour Cherries

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line a buttered 8-inch square baking pan with baking paper, allowing it to hang over the sides. Butter the lining.

Put the butter, chocolate, and cocoa in a heatproof medium bowl set over a pan of simmering water; stir until butter and chocolate are melted. Let cool slightly.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl; set aside.

Put sugar and eggs in the bowl and whisk until combined.

Add the melted chocolate mixture to the sugar and eggs; beat until combined. Add flour mixture; beat, scraping down sides of bowl, until well incorporated.

Stir in half of the pitted Sour Cherries

Pour batter into prepared pan and even out with the back of a spoon.

Dot the rest of the sour cherries on top.

Bake until a cake tester inserted into brownies comes out with a few crumbs but is not wet, about 35 minutes.

Let cool slightly in pan, about 15 minutes. Lift out brownies; let cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into squares.