Cherries!!

Aren’t they beautiful!? I have never purchased or even cooked/baked with fresh cherries, but they looked so good at the grocery store the other day that I couldn’t resist. Unfortunately I didn’t get around to popping them in the freezer quick enough, so I lost about half of them but I did make a pretty good cobbler out of the other half.
Here’s the recipe:
Fresh Cherry Cobbler
4 cups fresh pitted cherries (about 2 lbs uncleaned)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon corn starch
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon butter
FOR THE BATTER
1/2 cup butter
1 1/4 cups flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
Combine in a large saucepan the cherries, 3/4 cup sugar, corn starch and water. Let stand at least one hour and up to several hours, stirring occasionally. Cook and stir till slightly thickened and bubbly, about 5 to 10 minutes at a good boil. Add 1 TBS butter and set aside. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Put the 1/2 cup butter in a 9 X 13-inch glass baking dish and put the dish in the preheating oven. While the butter is melting, mix the batter by combining flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and milk. When the butter is completely melted, remove the pan and pour the batter into the melted butter. The batter will immediately begin to cook, which is what you want. Carefully spoon the cherry mixture evenly over the batter. Return dish to oven and bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until batter sets and is browned. As the cobbler cooks, the batter will begin to rise up around the cherry mixture. Serve warm (or at room temperature) with vanilla ice cream, if desired.

I also made Triple Chocolate Cherry bars. I’ve been slowly accumulating all the ingredients. I never had them on my shopping list at the same time, so it took a while for me to remember to get all of the ingredients. I did have to make a couple of substitutions because I didn't have the EXACT ingredients to follow the recipe.

Triple Chocolate Cherry Bars


1 box Devil's Food cake mix
1 can (21 oz) cherry pie filling
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 bag (12-oz size) semisweet chocolate chips (1 cup) I guestimated instead of measuring.
1 container Betty Crocker® Whipped chocolate frosting

Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Grease and flour 15x10x1-inch or 13x9-inch pan, or spray with baking spray with flour. In large bowl, gently mix dry cake mix, pie filling, eggs and chocolate chips with rubber scraper; break up any undissolved cake mix by pressing with scraper. Carefully spread in pan. Bake 15x10x1-inch pan 25 to 30 minutes, 13x9-inch pan 35 to 40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely, about 1 hour. Frost with frosting. For bars, cut into 8 rows by 6 rows.

**I made mine in a 9x13 glass pan and it really would have benefited from being in a 15x10 pan. They are pretty high like cake and it would have been nice for them to be thinner like bars. They are still delicious though. ;)