• Heat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 7×11-inch baking pan or line it with unbleached parchment, leaving enough parchment extending over the sides to use as handles for lifting the brownies from the pan.

  Pit and quarter the cherries. Set them aside while you prepare the batter, allowing any excess juice to drain off.

  Melt the butter. While it is still warm, whisk in the cane sugar and brown sugar until well combined. Let the mixture cool for a couple of minutes.

  Whisk in the eggs and vanilla until the mixture is smooth and glossy.

  Sift the cocoa powder and flour together into the wet ingredients. If you don't have a sifter, a fine-mesh strainer works just as well. Add the espresso powder and kosher salt, then fold everything together just until no dry streaks remain.

  Gently fold in the quartered cherries and the chopped dark chocolate or chocolate chips, if using.

  Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan. Bake for 25–32 minutes, beginning to check at 25 minutes. Insert a tester into an area of brownie without a cherry. The tester should come out with moist, fudgy crumbs attached but no raw batter.

  Place the pan on a wire cooling rack and let the brownies cool in the pan for about 20 minutes. Using the parchment as handles, carefully lift the brownies from the pan and transfer them directly to the wire rack to cool completely before slicing.

Notes

• Sifting the cocoa powder and flour helps remove lumps from the cocoa and makes the dry ingredients easier to incorporate without overmixing. A fine-mesh strainer works well if you don't have a flour sifter.

  Allow any excess juice from pitting and quartering the cherries to drain off before folding them into the batter.

  For fudgy brownies, remove them from the oven when a tester still has moist crumbs attached. Baking until the tester comes out completely clean can lead to dry brownies.