Salted Chocolate Chunk Cherry Cookies

I’ve been on a big fruit in cookie kick lately. Maybe it’s because the grocery stores are chock full of fresh fruit, I’ve got fruit on the mind. Usually dried cranberries are my go-to for cookies … because they are more delicious than raisins. I was looking for cookie inspiration yesterday, and we had fresh fruit for dessert Uncle Jimmy style (aka. soaked in booze), over cherry gelato. It was amazing. So I had cherry on the mind, and figured cherry and milk chocolate was a good combo.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 12 ounces chocolate chunks
• 1 cup dried cherries
• Coarse sea salt

Step 1: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream together butter and sugars. Mix in vanilla and eggs.

Step 2: In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet mixture.

Step 3: I didn’t have chocolate chips or chocolate chunks, but I did find a giant Hersheys bar in the pantry so I chopped that up into rough chunks. I think using regular chocolate chips or the Nestle chocolate chunks is a better way to go so that they are more evenly distributed through the dough. Add chocolate into the mix.

Step 4: Add in dried cherries.

Step 5: Scoop even-sized balls of dough onto a sil-pat or parchment lined baking sheets. Sprinkle with a dash of coarse sea salt. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown.

These cookies turned out alright. They taste absolutely delicious, but they look a little flat. I think using more even size chunks of chocolate would be better next time so that there is an even distribution among all the cookies. I might even try it with white chocolate chips. Maybe even throw some booze in there, Uncle Jimmy style. Why not right?