Brownies happen to be my daughter Zuzu’s all-time favorite dessert and she is incapable of passing one up. Two summers ago, on a family trip to Nantucket, she repeatedly shocked my mother by ordering a brownie over any one of the amazing homemade ice cream flavors on our nightly trips to The Juice Bar — Nantucket’s beloved, hole-in-the-wall ice cream parlor. (Since my mother’s favorite dessert is ice cream, this was especially painful for her to watch.)

As for me, I have some issues with the brownie. First, I insist on fudgy, not cake-like, brownies. But even then, a plain fudge brownie is just too much chocolate for me. I like a little more complexity, a mix of flavors in my desserts. That’s one reason I like cheesecake brownies so much. The tanginess of the cheesecake cuts through the richness of the chocolate and gives your palate a reprieve from the overwhelming sweetness.

Look! It’s the most cliched brownie photo ever!

Another way to prevent your brownies from being cloyingly sweet is to combine them with something tart. I absolutely love the combination of chocolate and tart fruit. Recently I had the opportunity to sample some delicious, fair trade chocolate bars by Theo, and my favorite among them was the Raspberry with 70% Dark Chocolate because its rich chocolate flavor paired so well with the tart berries.

I wanted to come up with a brownie recipe that reflected my love of combining fruit and chocolate. I decided that the key was to have a tart element both in the brownie itself and as an accompaniment on the plate. I added dried tart cherries to the brownie because the combination of chocolates and cherry is classic. And because dried tart cherries are the perfect size to add into a baked good: not too small like raisins and not too large like dried apricots.

By adding a fruit purée, I elevated this brownie to dinner-party-dessert status. I opted for mango for reasons that I explain below, but any tart fruit puree would work well. Sure, if you want something to pack into a lunch box or eat standing up over the kitchen sink, these chocolate cherry brownies are fudgy and scrumptious on their own. But take a few extra minutes to plate them up with the mango purée and you really have something special. Yet both the brownies and the mango puree are incredibly easy and quick to make.

In fact, this mango puree is worth making whether or not you have plans to bake brownies. I made it initially out of some combination of desperation — what am I going to do with those ripe mangoes? — and desire to play with my new Vitamix. But what a find! I went out and bought more mangoes so I could make it again. I’ve been mixing it into smoothies, spooning it into yogurt and just eating it straight. It would even be good on savory dishes like grilled fish or chicken.

So, if you are looking for a great brownie recipe or a dinner party dessert that is easy to whip up, give these chocolate cherry brownies a try, with or without the mango puree.