Recipe: Cherry Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

We had a get-together with our close friends this evening for homemade hot wings and beer.  Typically, we provide dessert and beverages while our friends provide the hot wings, sauce, and anything else and tonight was not unlike any other night in which we do this.  I did however, bring something new to the table to try: cherry double chocolate chip cookies!

I've been hankering for some homemade chocolate chip cookies lately, but that seemed kinda blah to me, so I decided to jazz things up a bit.  I had some leftover dried cherries from an earlier recipe this week (I'll post it soon, promise!) and I saw chocolate covered cherries on sale at my local Sprouts which made me practically drool over the weekly ad.  I love chocolate, and I love cherries.  So what could be better than combining the two into cookies?  Not much actually!

So here is the recipe for what I came up, I hope you like it.  You can increase the amount of cherries if you prefer; everyone thought the amount I had was good enough, but I kinda craved more.  I must also mention that I will not eat a chocolate chip cookie unless it is chewy and puffy, which these are, so this recipe is also loosely adapted from Alton Brown's Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.

Cherry Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 sticks of butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup of white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla (or cherry liquor if you have it on hand!)
2 cups of AP flour
1/2 cup of cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp of kosher salt
1 bag of semi sweet chocolate chips (about 12 oz)
1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped finely

1.  Preheat oven to 350F and line your baking sheets with parchment paper.
2.  In a large bowl, combine the melted butter and sugars and mix for about 1 minute.
3.  Add in the eggs and the vanilla, mix to combine.
4.  Add in the cocoa and salt until incorpaorated.  Scrape down the bowl as needed!
5.  Add in the flour and baking soda until flour is mixed in.  Fold in the chocolate chips and dried cherries.
6.  Roll into 1" balls, chill for about minutes in the fridge and then bake for 12-14 minutes.  Allow to cool on pan for about one minute and then remove to racks.

Enjoy with a tall glass of milk, or for an even more sinful treat, ice cream on top.  We had a Culver's Turtle ice cream cake with ours as well, and it was sooooo super delicious!

Some food for thought...

• Dried cherries can be expensive so to make them stretch a bit more and get more cherry in every bite, chop them finely.  I recommend tossing them in a pinch of flour first though to keep them from sticking.  Repeat as needed!  The amount of cherries here will lend a very subtle taste, you can increase the amount as desired, or skip them entirely for a different kind of dried fruit!  Strawberry, raspberries, even dried blueberries would be tasty in this cookie!

• The batter will be very soft and almost like thick brownie batter.  Allow it to chill for about 15 to 20 minutes before rolling it to ensure that you don't have too many problems with it sticking.
  

• Cookie dough always freezes well, so you can pre-roll the balls and place them on a cookie sheet, freeze them, and then put them in a bag for single baking as you desire.  If you're trying to cut out some of the calories, you might be able to get away with cutting out half a stick of butter and not adding the entire bag of chocolate chips, but these are so rich, that you probably will feel satisfied after eating just one of them!

Happy Baking,
Kelly

Dried Cherries