Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies

In February, we had houseguests. Refugees from the midwest snowstorms, I should say. The husband and I were happy to serve as home base for Santa Barbara training camp for our Ohio transplants. One of this pair happens to be my blog's biggest stalker, and as a thank you for letting them escape to some warmer weather, she sent me this recipe for Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies. This was a fun recipe, and it came together quickly using my new KitchenAid stand mixer. Yes, folks, I was already gravitating towards more baking, but this new fantastic toy will definitely lead to more sweet treats in my future. This dough would have killed my previous hand mixer, as it is a very thick dough. The stand mixer had no problems with this dough. The cookies turned out chewy and soft, and the cherry flavor really shined through. I did have problems with melting the chocolate for the glaze, but I've always had problems with finding the right heat for our microwave for melting chocolate. Hopefully, this will improve with practice! Thanks to K for this tasty and unique recipe.

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies (from my sister-in-law)

For Cookies:

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 egg

1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 jar maraschino cherries

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

For Topping:

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp cherry juice from maraschinos

In mixing bowl, cream margarine, egg, sugar and vanilla. Add flour, cocoa, baking powder & soda. Dough will be stiff. Refrigerate. Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Use knuckle to make indents. Push one cherry halfway into each ball. Melt chocolate chips, then add milk and cherry juice and mix well to combine. Spread topping over each cookie (it will not run or melt in the oven). Bake approx 9 minutes at 350 degrees.