Cherry Blondies

The last thing I made with our freshly-picked cherries was this pan of cherry blondies. 

Ingredients (adapted from Chiles Peach Orchard):

• 1-1/3 c. flour
• 1-1/3 c. packed light brown sugar
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 c. coconut oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 c. pitted and halved fresh sweet cherries
• 1/2 c. chopped pecans (optional)

To make:

• Preheat oven to 325*
• Combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, oil, eggs and vanilla; mix on low speed of electric mixer until blended
• Mix 1 minute on medium speed (batter will be thick)
• Spread half of batter in oiled and floured 8x8-inch baking pan.
• Toss cherries in small amount of flour and scatter cherries over batter
• Spread remaining batter over cherries
• Sprinkle pecans over top
• Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted near center comes out clean
• Cool on rack and cut into 16 pieces

Taste-wise, they were pretty good, though they were a bit weird texture-wise because I'm just not used to fruit in blondies/brownies.  My only real issue was determining whether they were done.  I think the juiciness of the cherries kind of threw things off a bit.  I think they'd be even better with chocolate or white chocolate in addition to/instead of the pecans.