Cherry-Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Recipe follows story 

I have professed many times that baking is not my first love.  At least baking cookies. We’ve slowly rebuilt our love over the past 18 months or so, but I’m still reluctant and scared.  I don’t completely trust myself to not screw this up.  We’re getting better, together, but we’ve a long road ahead.  Baking cookies tests my patience, but I suppose any relationship worth having takes work. 

So, a looming cookie swap had me in a semi-frightened state.  I have a food blog, so the expectation is probably that my cookies will be tasty and made with love and smiles … not cursing, floured hair, burned digits and tray dropping dilemmas.  

Sure, it’s a holiday cookie swap - certainly the ladies would be making ginger snaps, linzer tarts and other bite sized festive like confections.

But who says chocolate chip cookies aren’t festive?

Chocolate chip cookies are always a favorite.  Hand someone a chocolate chip cookie on a Wednesday or a holiday and they will be equally happy.

The chocolate chip cookie is also one that I like to hone in on and tweak recipes for.  What makes them thin and chewy?  Fluffy, fat and gooey?  Limited baking knowledge and research on my part has led me to: more butter and yolks, will make your cookies spread.  Brown sugar retains moisture in cookies - and using this over white sugar will leave your taste buds with a butterscotch finish.  Thank you for your help, Joy of Baking.  

From the ice cream sandwich cookie I adapted from Smitten Kitchen (which was adapted from All Recipes), to the standard Nestle Toll House recipe on the back of their bright yellow bag - chocolate chip cookies are always delicious.

A few things about today’s cookie, it’s a first try recipe.  A combination of methods and proportions from my favorite Toffee Bar cookie(made for last years swap) and the ice cream sandwich chocolate chip cookie linked above.

I did, however, add a little something extra …
This was an idea extracted from Tasting Tables The 12 Days of Cookies …

Per Tasting Table, I addd dried cherries to my chocolate chip cookies.  I split the batch, in case I ended up not being too keen on mixing my cherries and chocolate. The deep red cherries added the bonus of a color zing.  
I do enjoy a color zing.   

My best friend and chocolate chip cookie aficionado, Stefanie, would be vehemently opposed to my tainting chocolate chip cookies with fruit - but this cookie making session was experimental - so please forgive me.  I will never sneak fruit in your cookies, cross my pasta pumping heart and hope to die.  Really, I won’t do this again. 

The end result …
There should be no fruit in chocolate chip cookies.
The walnutty chocolate chippy half batch … Solid gold.

The batch with the dried cherries - like a loaf of fruit bread that no one wants.
Everyone ate them, I think - except Eva, who’s allergic to chocolate.  Poor thing.
But I wasn’t in love.   

They weren’t terrible, they had great flavor and the consistency of the cookie was hard on the outside, chewy on the inside.  I believe I’ll reserve my dried cherries for my pear, pecan and goat cheese salads and for my buttery scones.

Give this recipe a whirl (sans cherries, if you ask me).   I LOVE the flavor of vanilla in my chocolate chip cookie, but lessen the amount if it’s not your thing.  The cookie is nice and moist, and the hints of vanilla and butterscotch in this batch really make the semi-sweet morsels sing.  

Making this baking relationship work will be a long road indeed. 

The good news:  Nancy’s 2nd Cookie Swap was a rousing success, with cocktail wieners and stuffed mushrooms, holiday punch and, of course, 10 varieties of cookies. I trafficked home one too many sweets for a single woman who used to be overweight, but - ‘tis the season.  

Cherry-Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 c.) butter (melted)
1 1/4 c. packed brown sugar
2 egg yolks
1 T. vanilla extract
3/4-1 c. chocolate chips
1/2 c. chopped walnuts
1/4 c. dried cherries (chopped)
*Bear in mind I only added cherries to half of my batch, so if you love cherries and you’re into tainting your cookies - add a half cup.  Tasting Tables recipe calls for 1 c.  - but I think that’s a whole lot more than you’ll really want.  

-Preheat oven to 325 degrees 
-Sift together flour, baking soda and salt
-In a large bowl, melt butter and mix in brown sugar
-Incorporate 1 egg yolk at a time and the vanilla
-Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients until just combined
-Gently fold in chocolate chips and walnuts (cherries, if you dare)
-Spoon large tablespoon gobs of dough on to baking sheet (placing 2 inches apart so there’s some room to spread, although these are not flat cookie) and bake for 15-18 minutes
-Let cool on a wire rack
-Nom