Chocolate Cherry Blossoms

Like chocolate? Like maraschino cherries? YES! Then there's no way you won't love these Chocolate Cherry Blossoms!

Today is my last Monday at day job! Just four more days to freedom! 

I'm sure you just grumbled. Probably cursed me a little in your mind. Or out loud. It's Monday. Why?! Why does she get to retire?! 

We call it retirement. It is and it isn't. I'll be doing more baking (I KNOW. STOP HATING) but I'll also be putting in the rest of my time on restoring our 1920s rowhouse. I'll be stripping paint off nearly every surface in the house, sanding, endlessly filling in one hundred year old nail holes in the window molding, priming, painting, installing crown molding. Glamorous, I know. 

I'm planning to put in a good 40 hours a week on home repairs. That's my "retirement." 

Add caption

I'm beyond thrilled by it. I love Nichole Curtis. She is my spirit animal. I watch Rehab Addict and think "Man. That's me! That's what I want to do!" 

And now I will. I really truly will. It's the cherry on the sundae!  

It'll be exhausting, but rewarding. 

But I'm not completely crazy. I will take a month off before I start in. A month of warmth in sunny Arizona. Lots of sleep and recuperation for the holidays!

My mother and I will actually start putting together a new project: our family cookbook! 

I've volunteered to cook and photograph all the recipes that are added to it. Can you say DAUNTING?! Do you know how many family members I have?!? 

And then my mom says "Oh, and be sure to pick out some of your favorites too!" 

Ummmmm....that could be a book by itself! 

But until then, I leave you with a new cookies I made over the weekend: Chocolate Cherry Blossoms!

I hope you love them!


Chocolate Cherry Blossoms

1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
2 tbs. dutch cocoa

3 cubes chocolate bark
40 maraschino cherries

Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Drain maraschino cherries and set aside to dry.

Cream butter and powdered sugar until fluffy. Stir in vanilla; add dry ingredients and mix well.

Put dough into cookie press and press onto the prepared baking sheets. Place baking sheets in refrigerator for half an hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).

Remove from fridge and bake for 10 - 12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Remove to a cooling rack.

Allow to cool before icing.

Microwave chocolate bark for 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until melted.

Dab a small bit of chocolate into the middle of the cookie. Dip a maraschino cherry into the chocolate and then place on the chocolate dab on the cookie.

Repeat for remaining cookies and cherries.

Allow to set for one hour.

Lemon Mascarpone Brulee with Cherry Compote

What does $700 mean to you? It could be rent, it could be a stinking nice car payment, or maybe it's what you spend on dining a month.  Now....if your landlord called out of the blue and said "hey, I haven't raised the rent in three years, I was thinking of raising it $700 a month." that $700 would mean choking, crying, and sudden onset depression. A 30% rent hike? Wow.

My landlord did this. Yesterday.

I love my house. You've seen the pictures when I've thrown parties. I am more than happy that he hasn't raised the rent on us in the three years and considered that a fair trade for the sake that he never fixes anything either.....this rent hike however puts me into some deep future plans re-evaluation.

My current life plan was that my life would stay exactly as it is for another two years. Then, with my "buoyed" savings account, I would relocate to the southern city of my choosing, live on my savings for a few months while I looked for work and blogged and baked my heart out......

Now my plan is to just figure out what on earth to do if we can't talk the landlord into a reasonable rent hike. Stay in DC? Try to find housing that isn't more than half my pay? Leave DC MUCH sooner than I planned? Start a new career in a new city? Which city? Should I move into my mother's cabin in the mountains for a few months and allow myself to fully indulge in this unforseen breakdown? Yes, that is how much I love my house. I can't imagine living in DC without it.

I used to live in a HOLE of an apartment in Foggy Bottom that I paid way too much money for, was near nothing, and thus made me spend as much time out of it as possible. That's my option. If you have to find housing in 30 or 90 days in DC it ain't going to be pretty or you're going to pay out your ears. I hear rumors of cheap places around $1000 a month with parking four blocks from work. I also hear five year old girls say unicorns exist.

So, I'm in the market for life plans, and in lieu of them I'm baking comfort food. This is a two to three day dessert. Day one make some mascarpone, day two make the filling and the shells, day three combine everything else.  In some ways, this is great. Less work per day, quick and easy. On the other hand, it takes forethought, but it's worth it...good things take time, find good places to live takes significantly more. Oh, life, you tricky devil.

Enjoy!

Lemon Mascarpone Brulee with Cherry Compote

1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/2 tspn lemon juice

1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 stick unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
3 whole large eggs
3 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest
3/4 cup of your freshly made mascarpone
6 tablespoons heavy cream

1 1/2 cups fresh or thawed frozen cherries
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup superfine granulated sugar

To make Mascarpone:
Heat cream in saucepan until small bubble form at edge (do not boil!), add lemon juice and leave on the heat for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. If the cream hasn't thickened return to heat and add more lemon juice.

Place a sieve over a bowl, line the sieve with cheesecloth. Pour the mix into the sieve. Place in fridge and allow to drain overnight.

To make Tart Shells: 

Preheat oven to 400F.

In a stand mixer, cream together sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Beat in flour, kosher salt, cream and vanilla, until mixture is moist and crumbly.

Press dough into four 4-inch tart pans (or one 9 or 10 inch tart pan) and press it up the sides, making sure the layer on the bottom is even.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until crust is set and firm at the edges. Cool, and store in an airtight container until use. 

Make filling:
In a heavy saucepan combine butter, 3/4 cup sugar, and lemon juice over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally until butter is melted. Bring mixture to a boil, stirring, and remove pan from heat. In a bowl whisk together whole eggs, yolks, and remaining 3/4 cup sugar until thick and pale. Add hot butter mixture in a stream, whisking constantly, and transfer to pan. Cook mixture over moderate heat, stirring constantly, until thick and just beginning to boil. Pour mixture through a fine sieve into a heatproof bowl and stir in zest. Cool lemon mixture completely, its surface covered with buttered wax paper, and chill at least 8 hours and up to 1 day.

In another bowl with an electric mixer beat together mascarpone and cream until thick and smooth. Fold in 1 1/2 cups lemon mixture, reserving remainder for another use, until combined well.

Divide filling among shells, smoothing tops. Chill tarts, loosely covered, at least 1 hour and up to 1 day.

Make sauce:
Throw all sauce ingredients into a sauce pan. Cook until desired constancy is reached.

Sprinkle about 1 tablespoon superfine sugar evenly over each tart and caramelize with a blowtorch, moving flame evenly back and forth over sugar until melted and caramelized, about 30 seconds.

Serve tarts with cherry sauce.

Cherry "Ripe-Off" Candy Bars

Cherry preserves, chopped sour cherries and coconut formed into bars and covered in chocolate: our spin-off of the Australian candy bar Cherry Ripe.

Butchie is back! It's about time. In case you have no clue who Butchie is, or your memory doesn't the span the last, oh, say......two months.....Butchie is one of my best friends....who coincidentally fell off the face of the planet when she got herself a wonderful boyfriend. I want to blame her but I can't. He's a good man, and a good man can really outweigh baked goods.....well.....now and then. *wink* [Sorry, guys. It's all his fault. Then again, there was also Christmas in there, and various trips to Arizona, London and Oregon on the part of both J. and I, so we can't blame it ALL on the poor manly soul. --B.]

So, I had to lure her back. I was thinking candy bars might do the trick, so I posted a call to my Facebook fan page: "brainstorming candy bar ideas. :) what would you do if you made your own?" One comment from Felice at All That's Left Are The Crumbs and we had a fool-proof way to lure Butchie away from her man for a night and back to baking with me. [And who said social media couldn't solve real-world problems? --B.]

Felice recommended the Australian Cherry Ripe, a Cadbury confection complete with cherries, which dear Butchie loves. [More than men. More than Sichuan. More than my hypothetical first-born child. --B.] Especially sour cherries.

Disclaimer: We had no clue what we were doing. We don't live in Australia, have never been to Australia, and have no access to the actual Cherry Ripe bar. So....I can in no way vouch that this recipe will give you anything tasting like the original 7-inch "plank" of dark chocolate, coconut and glace cherries. To the best of our guess, it's a reasonable approximation of the flavors you'd find in the Cadbury bar. [Note that we made ours small, about two bites' worth, and instead of a Bounty-like cooked coconut filling, ours is raw, very finely shredded coconut held together with cherry preserves. --B.]

Cherry "Ripe-Off" Candy Bars

1 cup shredded coconut (we used unsweetened)

3/4 cup cherry preserves, pureed
1/4 cup finely chopped dried cherries (sour if you have them)

1 cup dark chocolate chips

Mix coconut, cherry preserves, and dried cherries together. Adjust dry to wet ratio as needed until you have a paste that can be molded into candy bars. Mold into a quarter inch thick rectangle. Place in freezer for half an hour, then cut into bars.

Melt chocolate chips and pour over bars to cover. Place back in the freezer for five minutes until chocolate is fully set. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Cherry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Here goes the last of my red white and blue desserts for the year! If you love Cherries Garcia, you're going to LOVE the cherry almond ice cream! It's a pretty decent replica. Sweet and creamy with chunks of bing cherries and chocolate!  As seen on Photograzing!

cherry chocolate chip ice cream 

What a week! DC and the the Fourth of July....I'd love to tell you its awesome, but for those of us who live here it's a little hard to keep our routine amongst the miles and miles of tourists. Being in the US Capitol for the biggest day of American patriotism can be scary. Three hour long lines at the metro, crowded streets and strict security....oh such a joy for those of us who live here and think of the National Mall as a running track.

So, if you can't beat them...join them!!! This weekend I'm heading to the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival, the Capitol Fourth Concert, and of course the fireworks on the National Mall. I'm very excited to count the fanny packs along the way. I'm not sure how they managed to survive all these years, but fanny packs are alive and well amongst DC tourists. 

I hope you have a wonderful Fourth of July weekend! Enjoy the fireworks and BBQs! 

cherry chocolate chip ice cream

Cherry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

¼ cup semisweet chocolate chunks

½ cup fresh bing cherries, halved and pitted

2 large eggs

¾ cups sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

2 cups whipping cream

1 cup whole milk

In a stand mixer combine the eggs and sugar. Beat for one minute until light and fluffy. Gently mix in the cream and milk. Do not whip!

Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

About two minutes before it is done, add in the chocolate chunks. (I actually used a chocolate toasted almond bar!)

If you prefer pink ice cream, also add in the cherries. I wanted white ice cream, so I withheld them and added them in layers when packaging the finished product.

Pour ice cream into a suitable container (layered with cherries if preferred) and freeze until hardened fully.

Enjoy! Happy Fourth to the USA! 

The Oatmeal Cookie Bake Off!!!

As seen on Photograzing and FoodPornDaily!

cranberry triple chocolate chunk oatmeal cookies

Misery really can be inspiration. Okay, okay, so that’s way too dramatic. My boyfriend, Stephen, moved to Kansas for med school. There are worse things in life. But his departure did make me change our baking plans into what I think should be a monthly tradition.

A few days before our normal baking night, I told Butchie I wanted to scrap our original pavlova plan. Why the change? With Stephen leaving I decided I’d be much happier surrounded by cookies and friends than I would muddling through a second attempt at a previously failed dessert. Less stress. More cookies. This might be my new life motto. [Seems solid to me. –B.]

I had each of us pick a different oatmeal cookie recipe and we had a little bit of a bake-off that gave us a chance to really look at the differences between the recipes and what we liked about each. I picked a tart cherry version, Butchie wanted to do salted white chocolate, and JP and Claire chose a triple chocolate chunk with cranberries. How could we go wrong?

My personal fave? The triple chunk cranberry! They baked up EXACTLY how I wish mine had: buttery and soft and yummy. The tart cherry, while it had a delicious combination of flavors, looked like a tuile cookie, with little holes throughout, and an intriguing chewiness that was delicious, but not what I was expecting. As a test, we added a little more flour and refrigerated the cookie dough. It came out significantly prettier, with a smooth, cookie-looking surface, but not as tasty. [I thought the second version was dry. Plus, they didn’t caramelize nearly as well as the first batch. –B.] Now I want to try a hybrid: JP and Claire’s dough with different additives: maybe the tart cherry and dark chocolate from my recipe.

Butchie’s cookies were easily my second fave, but by a very close margin. Let me tell ya, that’s one “sturdy” cookie. Very filling. [They have oats, what do you expect? –B.] Smitten Kitchen describes these as cookies that “shatter” rather than remaining soft, which is accurate. They’re much crispier than a lot of oatmeal cookies, with a beautiful sweet/salty thing going. [Normally I hate white chocolate, because what you buy at the store that’s called white chocolate actually has no chocolate components in it whatsoever. White chocolate is supposed to be melty and vanilla-like, made primarily of cocoa butter, sugar, and dried milk. I recommend Green & Black's organic White: it’s the only kind I’ve had that’s worth it. –B.]

All in all, the more than 11 dozen cookies that came out of the kitchen that night surely did take my mind off of Stephen moving to Kansas. It’s hard to think of anything else when cookies are that plentiful.

Enjoy!

tart cherry and chocolate oatmeal cookies

Tart Cherry and Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Adapted from Epicurious

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2 cups old-fashioned oats

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups dried tart cherries (6 ounces)

1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Blend first 4 ingredients in a stand mixer. Add eggs one at a time. Continue to mix.

Add next 4 ingredients and continue to mix. Transfer to large bowl. Mix in cherries and chocolate chips. Chill covered in the refrigerator for at least two hours.

Position 1 rack in bottom third and 1 rack in top third of oven; preheat to 375°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Spoon batter by rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart (cookies will spread). Bake until tops of cookies are golden brown, rotating baking sheets after 5 minutes, about 10 minutes total. Transfer cookies to rack; let cool. Repeat with remaining batter.

cranberry triple chocolate chunk oatmeal cookies

Cranberry Triple Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies

Adapted from Epicurious

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup old-fashioned oats

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh or frozen cranberries

Whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat butter and both sugars in large bowl until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add flour mixture and oats and stir until blended. Stir in all chocolate chips and cranberries.

Flatten cookie dough into a one inch thick rectangle. Cover with plastic wrap and chill until firm, at least two hours, or overnight.

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F.

Just before baking, cut dough into one in squares and place three inches apart on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until edges are light brown, about 12 minutes. Cool on sheets 5 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool completely.

crispy salted oatmeal white chocolate cookies

Crispy Salted Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated and Smitten Kitchen

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt
14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

6 ounces good-quality white chocolate bar, chopped

1/2 teapoon kosher salt or fluer de sel

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper or Silpat. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and table salt in a medium bowl.

Beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Scrape down bowl with rubber spatula, then add egg and vanilla and beat until incorporated. Scrape down bowl again. Add flour mixture gradually and mix until just incorporated and smooth. Gradually add oats and white chocolate and mix until well incorporated.

Divide dough into 24 equal portions, each about 2 tablespoons. Roll between palms into balls, then place on lined baking sheets about 2 1/2 inches apart. Using fingertips, gently press down each ball to about 3/4-inch thickness.

Sprinkle a flake or two of sea salt on each cookie

Bake until cookies are deep golden brown, about 13 to 16 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack to cool.

No Bake Cherry Pie with Buttermilk Pie Crust

I'm starting off my countdown of red, white and blue desserts for the Fourth of July! Starting off with Cherry Pie! I’m not big on baked cherries, so I thought we’d see what happens if you make a cherry pie just like you would a fresh strawberry pie! It’s Tasty! I love the buttermilk crust. It’s becoming a favorite! As seen on Photograzing. 

My mama’s been in town and one thing my mama has wanted to do is go and pick berries. When I’d told her that Butchie and I went strawberry picking she was incredibly jealous. Since we’ve already done all the touristy things in DC, it was an easy call!

We drove out to Butler’s Orchard to go pick some strawberries. Awesomely, there were cherries and peas to pick too! I was hoping for blueberries but I’ll have a wait a few weeks for those. I’ve already started plotting.

As soon as I saw the tart cherries I thought of Butchie. Talk about a love of tart cherries! [All things tart, really. Cranberry, lemon, kiwi…. –B.] But rather than call her up and brag – though I did consider that – I decided to pick a lot more cherries for us to make a pie! [Good thing too. A gloating phone call with no promise of pie might have destroyed our friendship. –B.]

Baking was a little messy. Did I say a little? That’s a lie. It was so messy I have already blocked it from my memory. Pitting cherries had my hands so stained I felt like I was in a low budget horror film. Between that and the torrential downpour I was ready for Alfred Hitchcock to make a cameo appearance. And poor JP and Claire were on a motorcycle! But it was an interesting evening. I’m still laughing over watching the boys try to figure out how to add ingredients to the stand mixer while it was running. Nothing better than sitting back with Butchie and Claire and watching the menfolk attempt to bake on their own. [In their defense, they eventually figured it out. –B.]

Buttermilk Pie Crust

Adapted from Epicurious

2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup chilled unsalted butter, diced

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk

Combine flour, sugar and salt in large bowl. Add butter. Cut in using hands or pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal. (Or you could use a stand mixer or food processor if that's your preferred method!) Add buttermilk and stir with fork until moist clumps form.

Press together to form dough. Divide dough in half. Gather dough into balls; flatten into disks. Wrap separately and chill 1 hour.

Place a piece of parchment paper inside the pie shell. Bake at 400°F for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the edge are golden brown. Remove the weights and parchment after 5 minutes of baking.

Fresh Cherries Pie

Buttermilk pie crust or your favorite!

4 cups fresh cherries, pitted

1 cup white sugar

4 tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 cup water

Roll out dough and mold into either a 9 inch pie pan or a rectangular tart pan as I used. Bake as you normally would for your pie crust recipe.

Pit the cherries, then arrange most of them in the baked crust. Leave out about 1/3 cup.

Mash remaining berries, and combine with sugar in a medium saucepan. Place saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil, stirring frequently.

In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and water. Gradually stir cornstarch mixture into boiling the boiling cherries. Reduce heat and simmer mixture until thickened, about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Allow to cool slightly and then pour mixture over berries in pastry shell.

Chill for several hours before serving.

Enjoy!  

Cherry Chocolate Cupcakes

I made these for a Memorial Day barbecue and really enjoyed them. The cherry flavor is subtle and complimentary for the dense chocolate. You can either use a cake mix as I used in a hurry, or you can use my chocolate pound cake recipe and substitute the maraschino cherry syrup for the water. As seen on Photograzing. 

cherry chocolate cupcakes

Every year the majority of my friends in DC go down to spend Memorial Day weekend in Duck North Carolina. It’s a great weekend full of karaoke, bocce, sun tans and luaus. Normally I go down too, but this year the trip down to Low Country with Butchie was something I just couldn’t pass up…though waking up at 6 am to drive back that morning from Durham, NC was not my ideal, it did put me back in DC in time to have a barbecue with the other of my friends and Stephen, who were in town for the holiday weekend.

Stephen sweetly thought to tell me not to worry about the potato salad (that I’m addicted to) and that he’d take care of it. He wanted me to “take some time to relax after the long drive. Doctor’s orders!”…instead I made cupcakes. I’ve never been very good at following a doctor’s instructions. But the cupcakes I made were just an enhanced cake mix so that can hardly detract too much from my relaxation.

I love chocolate-cherry everything, and thought to try out a different rendition of my chocolate covered cherry cupcakes. The cherry flavor is light and contrasts nicely with the density of the chocolate cake.

cherry chocolate cupcakes

Cherry Chocolate Cupcakes

1 package devils food cake mix

1 package pudding mix

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

3 large eggs

1 6 oz. jar maraschino cherries

Preheat oven to 350 and prepare cupcake tins. Measure out 2 tablespoons of the maraschino cherry syrup and reserve for the glaze.

Pour remaining cherry syrup into a 2 cup liquid measuring cup. Add water until the mixture is 1 1/3 cups full.

Pour cake mix and pudding mix into a stand mixer. Blend slightly and then add the cherry water. Continue to mix in vegetable oil and eggs one at a time.

Pour cake batter into prepared cupcake tins and bake for 20 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out cleanly. Remove cupcakes to a wire rack to cool before frosting.

Cherry Chocolate Glaze

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

3 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons maraschino cherry syrup

Measure all ingredients into a bowl. Microwave in 20 second intervals, stirring well in between each session until smooth and glossy. 

Spread warm glaze over tops of each cupcake and garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Enjoy! 

Cherry Madeleines

It's about time I actually had a cherry inspired tea cake on here! Madeleines are one of my favorite "cookies." Light, airy, delicate and just plain adorable. I adore the added flavor and color of the chopped cherries.  It's a great new twist on an old classic! As seen on Photograzing. 

cherry madeleines

This last week has been far too busy. I finally did get a night off to try to catch up on sleep. I've needed it. Though I don't get to complain much. If I do, my boyfriend Stephen, the doctor, will start the endless teasing about how hard I work. Sure, he works a 30 hour shift, and I had work, baking, and kickball....okay, he's right. I'm not allowed to complain. My life is pretty good. 

This weekend I got to have two of my good friends in town, Jenny and Yovhane. We met as juniors in High School on a trip out the DC. After a week of no sleep, laughing until 4 am in our hotel rooms we were too close to be split up. This weekend we had our second DC reunion and brought along the menfolk. Our poor men had never seen the three of us in action. They didn't stand a chance. 

By the time Sunday evening rolled around I was so exhausted I was just about ready to call it a day at 5 pm and go to sleep obscenely early, but was invited over for a game night. I just can't resist. I needed a quick treat and thought that it was high time I made some Cherry Tea Cakes. Et voila! I mustered up the energy and am so glad I did! The cherries add a rich but mellow sweetness that is very refreshing. 

cherry madeleines

Cherry Madeleine Tea Cakes

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

3 large eggs

1/4 cup whole milk

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 (6 ounce) bottle red maraschino cherries, drained,
    blotted dry and finely chopped (about 1/3 cup) 

1 3/4 sticks (14 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus additional for brushing molds

Put racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 350°F.

Sift together flour and baking powder into a large bowl.

Add sugar then whisk in eggs, milk, vanilla, almond extract, and remaining 1 3/4 sticks melted butter. Fold into flour mixture until just combined. Fold in cherries gently

Brush molds with melted butter. Spoon or pipe a rounded tablespoon of batter into each mold, filling it about two-thirds full.

With two pans per rack, bake switching position of pans top to bottom halfway through baking. It will be about 10 to 12 minutes total or until the edges are golden brown and a tooth pick inserted comes out clean. 

Enjoy!