Chocolate-Covered Cherry Cookies

AshK's Note:

From Cook's Country magazine. Don't overbake these cookies, they should be chewy.

• Total Time: 30 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 30

Yield: 2.5 dozen

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter , softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• ½ cup sweetened condensed milk
• 24 ounces maraschino cherries , drained and stemmed
• 2 tablespoons cherry juice

Directions:

1. "For the cookies".
2. Whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in bowl and set aside.
3. With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes).
4. Beat in egg and vanilla until incorporated, reduce speed to low and add flour mixture.
5. Mix until dough forms (about 1 minute).
6. "for the topping".
7. Heat chocolate and milk in saucepan over low heat until chocolate is melted (about 5 minutes)the mixture should have the consistency of mayonnaise.
8. Off heat, stir in reserved cherry juice. Cover and keep warm.
9. "To finish".
10. Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 350 degrees.
11. Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place 2 inches apart on 2 rimmed baking sheets.
12. Using thumb, make indentation in center of each cookie and place 1 cherry in each indentation.
13. Top each cherry with 1 teaspoons of warm chocolate mixture.
14. Bake until cookies are just set (10-12 minutes) switching and rotating sheets about halfway through baking.
15. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and cool completely.
16. Repeat with remaining dough.

Reviews

[cookin mimi]

These tasted great, but spread out when I baked them, so they did not look pretty. Next time I try this recipe, I will bake with the cherry in the thumbprint, then use frosting after baking to see if that helps keep them together.