I only recently discovered Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream, which must make me the last person on the planet to do so as it is their number one selling flavor. A few weeks ago on a particularly hot summer day the husband and I roamed over to the nearest 7-11 to pick up some ice cream treats and I paid a whopping price for a Cherry Garcia ice cream bar. While stupidly over-priced, it was also stupidly delicious. When a big box of bing cherries found their way to my doorstep (Thanks, Harry & David!) I decided that they needed to be sacrificed to the Cherry Garcia gods. I took what was left over after making the Elderflower Sangria and spent the next hour painstakingly halving and pitting every last cherry. Okay, I’m back. After my fingers were stained blood red and I’d successfully developed a case of carpal tunnel, the cherries were prepped and ready to go. I made a shortbread crust and a brown butter filling to contain all of the ooey-gooey cherry-chocolate madness. The brown butter flavor really adds a layer of complexity to these bars and plays up the flavor of the fresh cherries. Waiting for these babies to cool was by far the most difficult part of the process. Ohhhh yeahhhh (make sure you read that with the Kool-Aid man’s voice). The delicate buttery flavor of the shortbread works so well with the complexity of the brown butter. I’m considering making a cranberry and cream cheese version with a graham cracker crust when the holidays come back around. Be still my heart! Makes: 1 serving (just kidding…. or am I?) Makes one 9×13 pan, typically 24 bars.
