Double Chocolate Cherry Cookies and a Journey into Cookies Bitchdom

Who knew? It seems I’ve become a little cookie bitch – complete with a cute frilly apron and a wooden spoon.

It all started innocently enough with a simple batch of chocolate chip cookies, from the recipe on the back of bag Nestle chips. But one batch leads to another. What followed in no particular order were: my Aunt Betty’s famous oatmeal cookies; beautiful lemon cookies with a coarse Turbinado sugar finish; chewy molasses cookies, coconut macaroons; and others.

All innocent enough by themselves, but it’s where these things inevitably lead – and who knew. I think my journey into cookie bitchdom reached the point of no return when I entered the local baking paraphernalia shop, (and who would have thought such stores existed,) and bought a miniature cookie scoop. And these come in several different sizes. Again who would have thought?

In time it got to point where commercial store bought cookies wouldn’t do and worse I began thinking maybe the standard cookie recipes could be improved upon, and maybe for example, malted milk powder might be a fine addition to Toll House chocolate chip recipe. (It is.)

Now often, late at night for hours on end, I’m obsessively glued to my computer searching cookie recipes – both for varieties I’ve never made and comparing various recipes in a quiet quest for perfection.

It’s gotten to the point where in social settings no longer capable of engaging in pleasant manly conversation. While the other guys are happily talking about the NFL draft or the NBA playoffs, I’m apt to spout off at great length about the magnificent recipe for double chocolate, cherry cookies I created.

This isn’t jest. Here’s the recipe and it turned out better than even in my dreams. It’s an adaptation of a Martha Steward recipe.

2 Cups all-purpose flour

½ Cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/8 Cup zested bakers chocolate

¼ Cup malted milk powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup, (two sticks), unsalted butter at room temperature

1 ¼ cups of granulated sugar

½ cup brown sugar

1 egg

2 table spoons of heavy cream

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 5 oz. Bags of sweetened dried tart cherries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Put on frilly apron.

In a mixer whip the butter then add the sugars, add the malt, chocolate zest and cocoa powder. Beat in the egg, vanilla extract and cream. Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda and gradually add it to the mix.

Add the cherries when the dough is thoroughly mixed. This will require some hand mixing with a wooden spoon so that the cherries are evenly distributed in the dough.

Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Scoop rounded table spoon size portions to the sheet pan spaced about three inches apart. (A cookie scoop works well for this if you have one.)

Bake 12 to 15 minutes until the tops begin to crack and transfer to wax paper or parchment paper to cool.