Chocolate Cherry Cookies

You just can’t have Valentine’s Day without chocolate. It’s a must at least for me. I know there are a few rare people that don’t like chocolate but the majority of us are addicted to it. Reminiscent of a candy you would find in a box of chocolates, I wanted to combine the flavors of chocolate and cherries so I created these Chocolate Cherry Cookies.

They have a brownie like taste to them and combine a chocolate cookie base {made with instant chocolate pudding mix}, dried cherries and chocolate chips.

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Special Dark)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 small package (3.9 ounces) chocolate instant pudding
• 2 eggs
• 11.5 ounce package milk chocolate chips
• 1 cup dried cherries

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat.
2. Combine flour, cocoa powder and baking soda. Set aside.
3. Beat butter, sugars, vanilla and pudding mix in a stand mixer until smooth and creamy. Then beat in eggs until well combined.
4. Add flour mixture and mix on low until well combined.
5. Stir in chocolate chips and cherries.
6. Drop cookies about 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Let cookies sit on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Yield: approximately 35 cookies

Notes

I used a 2 tablespoon (#30) scoop and in my oven they baked for 10 minutes.

I used a spatula to lightly press down the scooped dough so the cookies would bake a little flatter.

The cherry flavor is subtle in these cookies. If you’d like it to be stronger you could certainly substitute cherry extract or juice for the vanilla extract. I didn’t want an artificial cherry taste so I decided to stick with the flavor from the dried cherries alone.

More chocolate treats you might like:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cereal Bars by The Cookie Puzzle

Kiss Me Cups by Ellie’s Bites Decorated Cookies

Frozen Snicker’s Peanut Butter Lasagna by Not Your Momma’s Cookie

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