Bummer. . .
I hate it when a new recipe just doesn’t turn out the way I had hoped. They tasted great, but looked horrible! But don’t be discouraged and keep please keep reading. I solved the problem for the last dozen of the cookies that went into the oven.
Lately I’ve been craving chocolate and cherries. I had a really yummy cookie recently at our MOPS cookie exchange. Unfortunately at this cookie exchange we didn’t provide the recipes. So I looked through my cookie cookbooks, searched online for chocolate cherry cookies recipes and couldn’t really find what I was looking for. But I did find this recipe in my Southern Living Christmas Cookies cookbook. Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies. Sounded pretty good and I had the ingredients, so what the hay, I’ll try them.
Here’s the ingredients. Pretty much pantry basics except for the cherries.
Start out by draining a 10 oz jar of maraschino cherries, but be sure to reserve the juice. I do this by placing a glass measuring cup underneath a small strainer. The original recipe asks you to slice the cherries after draining them. I think next time I will leave them whole. They aren’t very big to begin with and I think I would have liked more cherry flavor in the cookie.
Beat 1 stick (1/2 cup) of softened butter and 1 cup sugar until creamy.
Add 1 egg, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla and 2 tsp (or more) of reserved cherry juice and mix well. Next time I think I will try 3 tsp of juice. I didn’t think the actual cookies had any cherry flavor from 2 tsp.
In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients (1 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup cocoa, 1/4 tsp each baking soda, baking powder and salt).
Gradually add to sugar and butter mixture, beating well after each addition.
Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place on an ungreased or parchment-lined baking sheet.
Using your thumb, make and indention in the center of each ball. Place a cherry in the indention.
My little man putting the cherries in the holes. He loved this job!
Here is where the recipe went downhill for me. . .
Cook 1/2 package (1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk in a saucepan over low heat stirring occasionally until melted. Add 1 or more tsp of reserved cherry juice. Again, I think I’ll add a little more next time for more cherry flavor.
Spoon a teaspoon of chocolate over each cookie. Spoon over the cookie? I couldn’t spoon this chocolate over anything because it was more like the consistency of a tub of frosting then a glaze. So I put a dollop of the stuff on each cookie thinking maybe it would melt over the cookie once in the oven.
NO! Didn’t happen. So I read a few reviews of the recipe and no one mentioned anything about the chocolate topping, so I thought maybe I did something wrong. I tried making it again. Same consistency. I didn’t want to waste everything, so I just blobbed the stuff on top of the second pan of cookies and threw them in the oven.
While they were baking, I decided to look at the other similar recipes I found online. Here is where I got an idea that finally made my 3rd and final pan turn out nicely.
Now let me assure you that all the cookies tasted really yummy, they just looked awful! And I don’t know about you, but I bake most of my holiday goodies to give away or serve at parties. NO WAY I would have let anyone see these! But I did get one good dozen out of the batch. I’ll save those for friends.
Here is the original recipe from Southern Living
And here is the recipe with photos from Allrecipes.com
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