Like so many bizarre food holidays, I'm not sure we really need a National Chocolate-Covered Cherry Day. But that day is today, and I can't argue that chocolate-covered cherries are worth celebrating. I used to be a big fan of syrupy chocolate-cherry candies like Cella's, but as I've gotten older, I gravitate toward more sophisticated and less artificial cherry flavors.
For an adult take on this sweet candy treat, I recently found a tremendous recipe for Chocolate-Covered Cherry Cookies; this dessert blends bittersweet and semisweet chocolate with dried cherries for a bold, decadent flavor. The consistency falls somewhere between a cookie and a fudgy brownie, and the flavor is more reminiscent of candy. To celebrate this weird food holiday, get the recipe, just read more.
Chocolate-Covered Cherry Cookies
From the San Francisco Chronicle
Makes about 5 dozen cookies
INGREDIENTS:
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/4 cup butter
3 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/3 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped into chunks
3/4 cup coarsely chopped dried cherries
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- In the top of a double boiler, melt chocolate and butter, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Remove from heat and let cool.
- In a large bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat eggs and sugar on medium-high speed for about 5 minutes, until mixture is thick and fluffy (ribbon consistency). Remove bowl from mixer, add cooled chocolate and vanilla, and stir the mixture by hand to incorporate.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into the mixture, and stir until just combined. Fold in the semisweet chocolate chunks and cherries.
- Drop by rounded teaspoons onto cookie sheets lined with parchment, and bake for 8-10 minutes, until tops are shiny and cracked.
Per serving: 70 calories, 1 g protein, 11 g carbohydrate, 3 g fat (2 g saturated), 16 mg cholesterol, 18 mg sodium, 0 fiber.
