Chocolate Covered Cherry Brownies

What's better than chocolate covered cherries? Chocolate covered cherry BROWNIES! And you need just TWO ingredients for this recipe - brownie mix and cherry pie filling! Fudgy, bite-size brownies with a sweet, chewy cherry in the middle... Insanely awesome.

Funny story about these brownies... Luke made a bet with his teacher and he lost the bet. The wager was, if Luke lost, he had to bring brownies into class. As in, store-bought brownies. You know me, I couldn't possibly BUY brownies for his class - not when homemade brownies are SO MUCH MORE delicious. I told Luke my thought, "I plan to MAKE the brownies, and I want to do something unique". He quickly responded, "NO mom, please just do something normal; plus we have nut allergies in our class".

Normal? Since when do I make food that's not "normal"? Anyway, I assured him I would jazz up a boxed mix, to be safe. When he saw these cherry-stuffed brownies, he looked worried. "I hope everyone likes cherries...". Off to school he went, with a huge container of Chocolate Covered Cherry Brownies.

When I picked him up at the end of the day, he came running up to the car with a big smile and a VERY empty container. He said, "The brownies were devoured, everybody loved them, even one girl who said she doesn't like cherries".

Success. I hope you are as open-minded as the girl in Luke's class...

About the brownie mix: I used a 18.3-ounce box of fudge brownie mix and made 32 brownies. The package called for 1/2 cup of oil, 2 eggs and 3 tablespoons of water. Use any brand you want, including gluten-free. Just read the package to make sure you have what you need!

About the cherry pie filling: I'm talking about the canned variety you find with the baking goods and other canned fruits. You don't need the entire can for this recipe, so reserve the rest for spooning over pancakes and waffles, or into homemade crepes. Or use it in my Black Forest Poke Cake. Store the leftover pie filling in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

These brownies are super fudgy, so make sure you let them cool completely before removing them from the pan. And make sure you coat your muffin pan generously with cooking spray. I found that using my offset spatula was the best way to get the brownies out of the pan - run the spatula around the edges of the brownie to loosen it, and then scoop it out. Since they're so fudgy, if any brownie clings to the bottom of the pan, you can press it back in!

Chocolate Covered Cherry Brownies

Cooking spray
1 package brownie mix, plus the ingredients needed to make the brownies (typically oil, egg and water)
1 can cherry pie filling (you'll have some leftover for another use)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat 32 cups of mini muffin pans with cooking spray - coat them very well; these brownies are fudgy and tend to stick to the pan.
Combine the brownie ingredients as instructed on the package.
Spoon 1 tablespoon of the batter into each cup of the prepared pans.
Use a fork to remove the cherries from the can of pie filling and place the cherry in the center of the brownie (it's OK if a little of the pie "gel" gets in there too!).
Bake for 16 minutes, until a wooden pick inserted into the brownie (not the cherry) comes out clean or with little moist bits clinging to it.
Cool completely before removing the brownies from the pan (using an offset spatula is the best way to get the brownies out of the pan).

Makes 32 brownies