valentine’s day

by

dark chocolate cherry walnut cookies

photo-2

getting into the Valentine’s day spirit…

Chocolate cherry, walnut cookies (makes~2 dozen cookies)

1/2 cup flour
2/3cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
3 eggs
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
1/2 cups (12 oz)+ 1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

  • Bittersweet, or dark, chocolate chips make these cookies really rich and chocolatey, without being overly sweet. Using semi-sweet, or milk chocolate chips would work, too, but your cookies are going to turn out sweeter

1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
3/4 cup dried sour cherries

– Melt butter and 2 cups chocolate chips. Once chocolate is melted, remove from heat and set aside.
– Beat eggs until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes on high speed. Whisk in chocolate until fully incorporated
– In a separate bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredient and mix until just incorporated
– Add remaining 1 cup chocolate chips, dried cherries, and nuts and mix by hand until evenly distributed. Refrigerate batter for 15-20 minutes
– Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
– Line baking sheets with parchment paper or spray with non-stick pray. Spoon about tablespoon-sized balls of dough onto baking sheet; smaller balls are better, because the batter will spread
– Bake cookies for 10-15 minutes; the top will begin to crack, and the bottoms will be set, but their insides will still be soft

  • If you have a conventional electric oven, the top tray of cookies will cook faster than the bottom. After you take the top rack out, cook the bottom tray of cookies for another 3-5 minutes
  • I made a double batch of cookies and couldn’t fit all of them in the oven at once, so I put the extra batter back in the fridge, and once the first batch was done, I scooped them off the trays, put them on a cooling rack, and scooped a new batch of dough onto the hot baking sheet

Once cooled, wrap up a bunch of cookies for yourself, your neighbors, and your friends and have a happy valentines’ day! The cookies also keep well in the freezer; just microwave for a few seconds to warm them up!