Double Chocolate Cherry Cookies

Now that it's the holiday season I'm always on the lookout for different and interesting baking ingredients in the baking isle. I don't know about everyone else, but I absolutely love baking this time of year. Most people are a little more lax on their diet so they can indulge in the yummy holiday goodies that everyone is baking. Needless to say, the other day I was walking down the baking isle and I stumbled across something I've never seen before: cherry baking chips. They have a strong red color and looked a little iffy, but I thought I'd give them a try.

Tonight I decided that a chocolate cookie with these cherry baking chips would taste like a chocolate covered cherry maybe. You know those Cherry Cordials that you can find in Walgreens or any kind of candy store? Those old timey cherry cordials that old people are constantly eating?...I wanted to make a cookie version of those.

I found a recipe in my Cookie Bible recipe book for a Double Chocolate Cranberry Chunkies. Although I did have some dried cranberries that I wanted to use, I decided to eliminate the cranberries and add those cherry baking chips instead. Oh my goodness...these cookies literally taste like a chocolate covered cherry. They are absolutely amazing! Plus the red chips add such a beautiful pop of color to the cookie that it would make a great addition to any holiday table this season. :)

Double Chocolate Cherry Cookies:

Ingredients:

1 & 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup cherry baking chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Whisk together and set aside. Beat butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla until well blended. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until blended. Stir in chocolate chunks and cherry chips.

3. Drop dough by level 1/4 cupfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets, spacing 3 inches apart. Flatten dough until 2 inches in diameter w/ bottom of a glass that has been dipped in additional granulated sugar (I skipped the sugar and just dipped it in water b/c I felt like the cookies were already sweet enough and didn't need extra sugar).

4. Bake 11-12 min. Cool cookies.