Cherry Brownies
This vegetarian builds margarine, unsweetened cocoa powder and cream cheese into a weeknight-friendly meal you can have ready in about 70 minutes. Scroll down for the ingredient checklist, a serving scaler and unit converter, and the method broken into 8 steps.
You'll mainly reach for oven and whisk. At medium difficulty across 8 steps, it's manageable with a little attention. As written, it's meat-free.
What you'll need
Shopping list (5)
Pantry staples (you likely have these)
🔁 Unit converter
How to make it
- Preheat the oven to 175C and line a 20 cm square baking tin with parchment paper, leaving an overhang for easy lifting.
- Melt the margarine, then whisk it together with the sugar until smooth, beat in the eggs one at a time along with the vanilla, then sift in the cocoa, flour and salt and fold just until no dry streaks remain.
- Spread most of the batter evenly into the prepared tin, reserving a couple of tablespoons for swirling.
- Beat the softened cream cheese with the maraschino cherry syrup until smooth and pourable, then dollop it over the batter in spoonfuls.
- Drop the reserved chocolate batter between the cream cheese dollops and drag a knife through both in a figure-eight motion to create a marbled pattern.
- Press the drained maraschino cherries gently into the top, spacing them so each portion will get a few.
- Bake for 28 to 32 minutes until the edges are set and a skewer inserted near the centre comes out with a few moist crumbs.
- Cool completely in the tin, then lift out using the parchment and cut into squares to serve.
You'll use: Oven · Whisk
Ingredient substitutions
- Eggs
- ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce (baking) · 1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp water per egg
Tips & common questions
How long does Cherry Brownies take to make?
About 70 minutes from start to finish — an estimate based on the 8 steps and 10 ingredients. Times vary with your kitchen and how much prep you do ahead.
What can I use instead of eggs?
Try ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce (baking). See the substitutions section above for more swaps.
Can I scale this recipe up or down?
Yes — use the servings control above the ingredients and every quantity rescales automatically (fractions included). Cooking times stay roughly the same; very large batches may need a little longer.
Is Cherry Brownies vegetarian?
Its ingredients contain no meat or fish, so it's suitable for vegetarians. Check any cheeses for animal rennet if that matters to you.
Related recipes
Cherry Brownies is an original recipe developed in-house by Consomee. Photo: Brownie with cherry.jpg by Селтәр, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons. We add the serving scaler, ingredient tools, timing and structure on top — how we source recipes.