Recipe

Spiced Chocolate Cherry Snacking Cookies

Photo by Rivka

This recipe was entered in the contest for Your Best Chocolate & Spice
Chef
Rivka's Notes: Everyone needs a recipe for cookies whose sheer title permits snacking on them. These came about when I adapted an adaptation of a Dorie Greenspan recipe (which one, I no longer remember...
Everyone needs a recipe for cookies whose sheer title permits snacking on them. These came about when I adapted an adaptation of a Dorie Greenspan recipe (which one, I no longer remember) to satiate my craving for a molassesey cookie in the middle of spring. Now it's the dead of winter, and my now seasonally-appropriate craving has reappeared. They've got oats in them - doesn't that make them practically health food? Encouraged, I set forth to bake up a batch. This time, I heeded the wise words of A&M, and spiced up my cookies. No regrets, friends. The molasses and chocolate together make for one heady cookie, but the undercurrent of ginger and five spice powder lent a certain sophistication that "snacking cookie" might not otherwise suggest. All the same, I enjoyed them after work with a glass of milk, just as the kiddies do. They were delicious.

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In a medium bowl, mix flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and dry spices.
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In the bowl of a double boiler set over medium heat or a saucepan set over low heat, melt butter and water together. When butter has mostly melted, add sugar, brown sugar, molasses and chopped chocolate. Stir just until everything is melted; you don’t want the butter to separate or the chocolate to get chunky, so remove the bowl from the heat when everything has melted, even if the sugar granules haven’t fully dissolved.
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Off the heat, whisk in the eggs one at a time, whisking each time to incorporate. The mixture will start to look shiny. Add ginger, stirring to combine. Then add the dry ingredients in 2 additions, stirring just until they disappear. Add oats and cherries, and mix just to incorporate. Cover cookie dough with plastic wrap, and refrigerate 1 hour.
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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
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Scoop your cookies by the tablespoon onto parchment- or silicone-lined baking sheets, leaving an inch between cookies. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes until just done (they’ll still be quite soft when you pull them out). Let cookies cool on the cookie sheet for about 3 minutes, then use a wide spatula to transfer cookies onto a rack, and cool to room temperature.
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