Food You Can Eat: Chocolate Cherry Chunk Cookies

This is an easy, forgiving recipe – you can shade the recommended mixing time, substitute ingredients*, and still produce delicious cookies. Keitel says that these are his favorite – but he says that about all the baked goods – he knows to keep the cook happy. One thing not to do is to lift your mixer too high in the bowl – I ended up with dark chocolate splatters all over the counter, dry goods containers, and stove (grrrr). Anyway, yummy cookies:

Preheat oven to 350°. Cream 1/2 cup softened butter and 3/4 cup sugar until light and fluffy, 5-7 minutes (I did more like 3 minutes, paused for the mixing disaster, then another 1 minute). Beat in 1 egg, 2 tablespoons milk ( I only had half & half, so I used that), and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, whisk 1 cup all-purpose flour, 6 tablespoons cocoa powder, 1/4 rounded teaspoon baking soda, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Mix in one bag semisweet chocolate bits or chunks and a small bag of dried cherries, at least 1/2 cup, I used a bit over that.

Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto baking sheets covered with parchment paper or lightly coated with cooking spray. Bake until firm, 12-14 minutes. In my elderly oven, 12 minutes was a little soft and 13 was a little long, so I watched the timer and pulled them at 12 minutes, 30 seconds. Cool for 1 minute.

These are extraordinarily rich. Even my son, who thinks he is funny, said “For chocolate spoiled by fruit, these aren’t half bad.”

*I expect that you could substitute milk chocolate or white chocolate bits, or M&Ms, and any soft dried fruit you have on hand.