Smitten Kitchen's Cherry Brown Butter Bars

David was going through the Kroger ad over the weekend, and asked me to get him some fresh cherries, since they were only $1.77/lb. Once I got to the store, the price posted was 99 cents a pound! Yee haw...so I got two big bags ;-).

We love cherries just by themselves, but I saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen, and I really wanted to try them. Anything with nearly 2 sticks of butter in it has got to be good, right?

I don't have a cherry pitter, but I knew I didn't need one. After reading some tips on the web, I simply used a glass bottle with a very small opening and a chopstick.

Just put the cherry on top of the bottle, use the chopstick or a pencil without the eraser to push the pit out (it will fall into the empty bottle), and that's it...one perfectly pitted cherry, ready to eat or use in your favorite recipe.

I also don't have a brownie pan with a removable bottom, or parchment paper, so I used a glass 8x8 pan, lined it with aluminum foil...and it was perfectly fine. Make do with whatcha got, right?

While I was digging in the pantry for the flour, I found a partial bag of sliced almonds, so I measured out 1/4 cup, and processed them in my mini-food processor until they were very fine.

I added them to the mixture for the crust...because I hoped for a nice almond flavor to complement the sweetness of the cherries. I think added a nice crunch too :-).

When you cook the butter to brown it (which I had never done before) ...watch it very carefully, it really does start turning brown in the blink of an eye. I had some dark brown bits after my butter was done, and didn't want it in the filling, so I carefully poured all the browned butter into the filling mixture and left the bits behind.

The butter should taste very nutty...if you burn it, you'll know (and have to start all over again).

If you want to check out the original recipe, click here. I just took a few pics of the bars in progress...

And yes, these are DIVINE! You simply must make some...and you don't have to use cherries. Deb from Smitten Kitchen says blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, or even thinly sliced pears or peaches would be great too.

Enjoy...we've already eaten half the pan, lol! God bless your table tonight!