Chewy Chocolate Cherry Cookies

[fitfool]

Excellent cookies though they weren't chewy for me. Chocolate cookies with bursts of cherry flavor. I had used a tiny bit less butter than called for and made small tablespoons of dough for the cookies. Michael liked these a lot though he would’ve liked more cherries. Another friend thought the cherry flavors overwhelmed the chocolate. Next time I think I’ll chop up the cherries to spread the bits out more evenly throughout the dough and maybe add more chocolate chips. Also will try to cut back a little on the sugar, add more butter, and bake it a little less because these were more on the crunchy side than chewy (though that might also be because I made the cookies small). I used the electric mixer which made things so much easier. (thank you to everyone who helped me get over my fear of the mixer!) Finished in about 75 minutes and ended up with 43 cookies instead of the predicted 30. (Would bigger cookies have helped keep them chewier?)

Chewy Chocolate Cherry Cookies
“The tartness of the cherries contrasts with the cocoa and semisweet chocolate chips.”
(recipe from Cooking Light)

1 cup all-purpose flour (about 4 1/2 ounces)
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
2/3 cup dried tart cherries
3 tablespoons semisweet chocolate chips
Cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
   
   
2. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.
   
   
3. Place sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until well blended.
   
   
   
   
4. Add vanilla and egg; beat well.
   
   
   
   
5. With mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture. Beat just until combined. Fold in cherries and chocolate chips.
   
   
   
   
6. Drop by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray.
   
   
   
   
7. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or just until set. Remove from oven; cool on pans 5 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely on wire racks.
   
   
   
   Yield: 30 cookies (serving size: 1 cookie)
   

CALORIES 80(30% from fat); FAT 2.7g (sat 1.3g,mono 1.1g,poly 0.1g); PROTEIN 1.1g; CHOLESTEROL 12mg; CALCIUM 10mg; SODIUM 56mg; FIBER 0.8g; IRON 0.4mg; CARBOHYDRATE 13.4g
Cooking Light, DECEMBER 2005

Thread at food_porn
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Edited to add: tersa remembered Alton Brown had talked about how different ingredients affect the cookie's texture. The show's transcript is here: http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/Season3/Cookie/CookieTranscript.htm

Comments

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

You happen to have dried cherries hanging around the house? I had to hunt all over the grocery store trying to figure out where they kept them. I almost settled for cherry-flavored dried cranberries before spotting the real dried cherries on a stand over by the nuts. (no idea why they didn't shelve them next to the other dried fruits). Worth the hunt though.

[callistra.livejournal.com]

I have the glace ones, but I was planning to use the dried cranberries we had.
:-)

Me <-- sneaky sometimes.
:-)