Chocolate-covered Cherry Cookies

The title pretty much says it all. These are Valentine’s Day-quality cookies: classic chocolate-covered cherries, served in a cookie instead of a heart-shaped box. The recipe comes from one of my favorite sources (from my high school days), BGH’s Cookie Classics. I have never made a bad cookie from this book.

This is basically a dressed-up drop cookie. The cookie dough is basic; the toppings require some extra steps and a few ingredients outside the norm. It takes a little over an hour to make, including bake time. The book claims you will get 48 cookies out of this recipe; I got 26. Then again, the book claims there are 48 cherries in a jar of maraschino cherries, and mine was closer to… 26. (Yes, I counted the cherries and apportioned my dough accordingly; however, 48 cookies would nevertheless mean your cookies were TINY). You will have some leftover maraschino cherry juice and sweetened condensed milk. I don’t know what to tell you; I don’t know what to do with them, either.

Chocolate-covered Cherry Cookies
Ingredients
1½ C flour
½ C unsweetened cocoa powder
10 oz jar maraschino cherries
½ C butter
1 C sugar
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 egg
1½ tsp vanilla
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ C sweetened condensed milk

Directions
1. First, prep ingredients: Sift flour and cocoa powder together in a small bowl. (If you don’t have a sifter, ignore this step.) Then spread your maraschino cherries out on a paper towel to drain (make sure you put something underneath to keep from staining your countertop!). Save the juice leftover in the jar.

2. In a medium mixing bowl, beat butter until softened. Cream butter, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Beat in egg and vanilla until creamy.

3. If you sifted the flour and cocoa powder together in the first step, add them now, a little at a time, to your cookie dough. If not, add the cocoa first, then add the flour by half-cups, mixing as you go. The dough will be on the stiff side.

4. Shape dough into approximately 1-inch round balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. The cookies do spread, so leave about two inches between dough balls. As noted above, I counted my cherries, then divided my dough into that many cookies. If you wish to be less precise, it won’t hurt to have a few cookies without cherries or a few cherries left over.

5. Pre-heat the oven to 350ºF.

6. Make the frosting. Put sweetened condensed milk and chocolate chips in a small saucepan on low heat. Add about 4 tsp of the leftover cherry juice. Stir until the chocolate is melted and everything is combined. Turn off stovetop heat and leave the pan on the stove for a moment while you finish assembling the cookies.

7. Make a small thumbprint in the center of each cookie.

8. Place one cherry in each thumbprint.

9. Top each cherry with a small spoonful of the chocolate frosting. If the frosting has begun to set, stir it first; if it is still stiff, you may want to use your fingers to sort of shape it around the cherry. It will soften in the oven, obviously, but if the frosting is not covering the cherry before you put it in the oven, it is not going to rise up and cover the cherry in the oven, either.

10. Bake 10-12 minutes or until the edges are firm and look a little dry. Let the finished cookies set on the pan for a minute before moving them to a wire rack to cool. Serve warm or cooled.