Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies
Ingredients
- For the Cookie Dough
- About 2 dozen maraschino cherries
- 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. baking soda
- For the Chocolate Frosting
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels
- 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1-2 tsp. reserved cherry juice
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a couple baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- Drain the cherries, reserving some of the liquid. Remove and discard the stems. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, sugar, egg and vanilla extract. Beat until well combined and the mixture is light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
- In a medium bowl combine the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and baking soda. With your mixer on low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients, mixing until everything is just incorporated.
- Scoop out rounded tablespoons of cookie dough and roll into balls. Remember you will be putting a whole cherry in the middle of each dough ball, so you want them to be large enough to accommodate that. Place the dough balls about 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart on your prepared baking sheets. Press a single cherry about halfway down into each ball. Be carefully not to go all the way through the cookie dough.
- Once all your cookies are set up, make the frosting. In a heavy-bottom saucepan over low-medium heat combine the chocolate morsels, condensed milk, salt and 1 tsp. of the reserved cherry juice. Stir constantly until the chocolate is melted and everything is well combined. If your frosting seems a bit thick, add another teaspoon of cherry juice. Remove from the heat.
- Spoon the frosting over each cookie, completely covering the cherry. Once all the cookies are frosted, transfer them in your pre-heated oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on their baking sheets for 5-10 minutes. Then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Once the cookies are cooled, they can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 5-7 days.
