Chocolate-Covered Cherry Cookies

These cookies were inspired by my mom and her love for chocolate-covered cherries. Chocolate-covered cherries are the one gift that she is always guaranteed to receive on Christmas morning. When I was a kid, I didn’t really understand the appeal. Soggy cherries swimming in some kind of weird gel, dipped in chocolate? No thanks.

But now that this traditional candy has been transformed into a chewy cookie, I’m totally on the chocolate cherry bandwagon.

Makes approximately 24 cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Earth Balance Natural Buttery Spread;
• 1 cup refined sugar;
• 1/2 ripe banana, mashed;
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract;
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour;
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder;
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt;
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder;
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda;
• 24 dark morello cherries in syrup;
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips;
• 1/2 cup non-dairy vanilla milk (I used soy);
• 3 teaspoons morello cherry juice, from jar.

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and place the Earth Balance Natural Buttery Spread and refined sugar in a large bowl. Mix on low-medium speed until fluffy.
2. Add in the mashed banana and vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing on medium speed until fully combined. The cookie batter will be pretty thick.
5. Scoop the batter onto a baking pan and scoop the cherries out of their jar.
6. Make a thumbprint in the center of each cookie, then place one cherry in each thumbprint.
7. In a small pot over low heat, melt the chocolate chips and non-dairy milk, stirring constantly. Once melted, remove from heat and stir in the cherry juice.
8. Spoon 1 teaspoon of the melted chocolate over top of each cookie and bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes.
9. Remove the cookies from the oven, spoon another teaspoon of chocolate over each cookie and allow them to cool to room temperature.

Oh yeah. That’s the stuff.

• Strawberry Cream Cookies
• Brownie Bites Cookies
• Cherry Almond Cookies