Cherry Chocolate Chunk Cookies

The other day I was talking to a friend and the topic of chocolate chip cookies came up and I realized that it had been far too long since I had last made any. Although the tried and true basic chocolate chip cookies are always welcome just like any other easy desserts, I like to play around with the recipe adding different things like nuts and/or dried fruit. I picked up a large bag of dried cherries a while ago and I remembered thinking that cherry chocolate chip cookies would be really good since chocolate and cherries are such a great flavour combination.

I started with my standard chocolate chip cookie recipe and I pretty much just added some dried cherries which can be topped with some ice cream recipes. At the last minute however I decided that I wanted the cookies to be a bit more chocolaty and I replaced some of the flour with cocoa powder. When I make chocolate chip cookies I prefer to use a good dark chocolate which usually comes in bar form which I cut into chunks rather than just using chips. The cherry chocolate chunk cookies turned out great! They were not as dark as I was expecting but the chocolate flavour was nice and strong and it paired well with the cherries that added a pleasant chewy texture to the cookies and can be used also on best recipes. The cookies were slightly crispy on the edges and soft and chewy in the center.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter (softened)

1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 cup dark chocolate chunks

1/2 cup dried cherries

Directions:

1. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl.

2. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.

3. Mix the flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa in another bowl.

4. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet.

5. Mix in the chocolate and the cherries.

6. Place the dough onto a cookie sheet one table spoon at a time.

7. Bake in a 350F preheated oven for 10-14 minutes.