December Baking Challenge

Double Chocolate Cherry Cookies

Welcome to December’s Baking Challenge! I first tried these cookies when I started dating DH and fell in love with them immediately. My MIL makes them every holiday season, and I love to bake them (and eat them too). If you love chocolate these are the cookies for you.

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups butter or margarine, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 (6 ounce) jars maraschino cherries, well drained and halved
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In large bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy.
3. Add eggs and vanilla to mixture; mix well.
4. In large bowl, combine all purpose flour, unsweetened cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir this into the butter mixture (dough will be stiff)
5. Shape mixture into 1-inch balls and place them 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets.
6. Press cherry half into center of each cookie
7. Bake cookies 8 to 10 minutes and let them cool.
8. In a heavy saucepan, over low heat, melt chocolate chips with sweetened condensed milk; continue cooking about 3 minutes or until mixture thickens
9. Frost each cookie, covering the cherry.
10. Store leftover cookies loosely covered at room temperature

The way that DH, his family, and I enjoy eating them is to put them in the freezer, take them out one at a time, and eat them cold. Delicious!

Have fun with this challenge!