Chocolate Cherry Chip Cookies

Have you seen the commercials for the filled chocolate chips?  Well, I did and they sounded awesome.  I decided to start with the cherry filled ones and experiment from there.  My plan is to diet all January and February, so the other filled chips will just have to wait.  Let's start with these.

They work best when chilled for at least an hour, so keep that in mind when planning.

 

Chocolate Cherry Chip Cookies

1 cup (5 oz. package) dried cherries, chopped
1/3 cup hot water

1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

2  1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup almond flour
2 Tablespoons ground flax seed
     OR
3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate cherry chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional

 

Don't preheat the oven yet.  You will want to chill these for at least an hour after mixing.

 

 

Chop the cherries and let them soak in the hot water while you mix the rest of the ingredients.

 

Place the butter in a stand mixer and beat until soft and fluffy.  Add the sugars and keep beating until fully incorporated.  Then add the eggs and vanilla and beat again.

 

I decided to add some almond flour and ground flax seed to increase the healthy content.  OK.  Not increase, but add a bit of healthy to all the fat and sugar.  Then you can eat these with joy and no guilt.  Sort of.

 

If you don't want sort of healthy cookies, just use the 3 cups of flour.  For heaven's sake, don't use BOTH the plain flour and the flour with the flax seed and almond meal.  Pick one!

 

Add the flour or the flour mixture to the creamed butter mix in batches along with the baking soda and salt.  When all the flour is mixed in add the cherry filled chocolate chips, the walnuts and the dried cherries you have soaking.  Include the water you soaked them in.

 

Mix it all together and put it in the refrigerator.  I DID NOT do this.  I just went right ahead and made the cookies.   They turned out delicious but flatter than I would have liked.  Chilling the batter keeps the butter from melting so quickly and makes for a fatter cookie.  They do taste the same, however.

 

Heat the oven to 350°.  I used a Silpat, but parchment paper would work well, also. Both keep the cookies from sticking to the pan.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.  Cool for two minutes on the cookie sheet and then transfer to a cooling rack.