Chocolate Cherry Fudge Cookies

Last night we were cleaning out our refrigerator in preparation for veering off of our regular meal plan for the long holiday weekend, when I came across a handful of organic cherries. They were still perfectly good, but didn’t look quite as plump as they once did, so I figured they’d be a good candidate for baking with. Initially my imagination went wild with thoughts of a nice pie or perhaps even cherries jubilee, but once I had them pitted I was only left with a half cup of fruit.

After searching through cookbooks it became abundantly clear that I was going to need to quarter a recipe to make anything cherry-focused with what I had. Instead, I decided to do my own thing and create a cookie that combines three of my favorite dessert components: fresh cherries, chocolate, and almond extract. These turn out to be really fudgey and cakey – they truly melt in your mouth, and the chocolate-cherry-almond combo is absolutely delightful.

Be forewarned that the fresh cherries add a lot of moisture to the recipe, so they will take longer to bake than most cookies, and I wouldn’t recommend storing them in an airtight container or they’ll just be too moist. I found this to be a great way to use up the last few wrinkly cherries at the end of a bag, but you could use maraschino cherries as well. Dried cherries would be tasty too, but the texture will be less fudgey, and I would watch them closely as the bake time will shorten dramatically.

Print recipe

Ingredients

1/2 cups salted butter (softened)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg (large)
2 teaspoons almond extract
1 cup ultragrain flour
1/4 cups cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoons salt
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cups cherries (pitted and diced)

Directions

	Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg, then stir in the almond extract. Mix in sifted together dry ingredients, then gently add chocolate chips and cherries. Using a cookie scoop, drop dough onto lined cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until the tops have set. Allow to cool slightly before moving to cooling rack. Yields 24 cookies.
	Recipe and photographs from Mayhem in the Kitchen! https://mayheminthekitchen.com/chocolate-cherry-fudge-cookies/