{"id":648,"date":"2012-12-24T06:30:21","date_gmt":"2012-12-24T14:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/?p=648"},"modified":"2015-12-27T06:35:00","modified_gmt":"2015-12-27T13:35:00","slug":"1990s-blog-chocolate-covered-cherry-cookies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/?p=648","title":{"rendered":"1990s blog: Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hoo-boy, these are the ultimate cookies. My <em>signature<\/em> cookies, I would say. I always made these for Christmas. I even <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pfeist.net\/blog\/index.php?itemid=12\">wrote about them<\/a> in my &#8220;other&#8221; blog, the one I began in 2005, and where I still discuss other-than-food matters (unless a food matter just can&#8217;t be resisted). If you go to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pfeist.net\/blog\/index.php?itemid=12\">that old entry<\/a>, be sure to click on the photo to enlarge it.<\/p>\n<p>1990s note:<br \/>\n<em>I clipped this recipe from a magazine years ago. Since then, they have become my &#8220;trademark&#8221; cookie. I have never seen this recipe anywhere else &#8212; and it is excellent! Lotsa chocolate and cherries &#8212; they even freeze well and are even good and soft eaten frozen.<\/em> <em>The version below reflects years of tweaking from the original magazine recipe.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>2015 note:<br \/>\nI found the original of this recipe in the <a href=\"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/?p=4492\">&#8220;Best You Can Bake&#8221; Chocolate Desserts <\/a>cookbook.<\/p>\n<p>Batter:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1 1\/2 cup margarine<\/li>\n<li>3 C sugar<\/li>\n<li>3 eggs<\/li>\n<li>1 1\/2\u00a0tablespoons vanilla<\/li>\n<li>scant 4 cups flour (about a tablespoon less than 4 full cups)<\/li>\n<li>1 1\/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder<\/li>\n<li>3\/4 teaspoon salt<\/li>\n<li>3\/4 teaspoon baking powder<\/li>\n<li>3\/4 teaspoon baking soda<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Goodies:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>28 ounce jar maraschino cherries. This will probably be more cherries than you need. And just get the non-health-food-store type of maraschino cherries. Eating these once in a while isn&#8217;t a death sentence. You need some of the cherry juice for the frosting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Frosting:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>36 ounces chocolate chips<\/li>\n<li>3 cups sweetened condensed milk. One 14-ounce can has 20 tablespoons; you need about 2 1\/2 cans.<\/li>\n<li>1\/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon cherry juice (from the drained maraschino cherries)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Begin by draining the maraschino cherries through a colander, reserving the juice. After you drain them, place them on a double layer of paper towels and roll them around until most of the juice is gone. This is a really important step. Let them continue drying as you prepare the batter.<\/p>\n<p>Cream the margarine and sugar, the add the eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients and stir to combine. With the mixer on a low speed, add the dry ingredient mixture to the creamed mixture in portions (so as not to make a big mess). Mix just until all of the dry ingredients are incorporated.<\/p>\n<p>Place a piece of parchment on a cookie sheet or half-sheet pan. Heat the oven to 350\u02da.<\/p>\n<p>Shape the dough into 1\u2033 balls and place on the prepared cookie sheet. Push down the center of each ball with your thumb, then place 1 cherry in the indentation.<\/p>\n<p>Bake 10 minutes at 350\u00b0. Do <strong>not<\/strong> overcook!<\/p>\n<p>To make the frosting, put the chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk and cook on high in the microwave until chocolate melts.This takes several minutes; check the melting process by stirring. When all of the chocolate is melted, stir in the cherry juice. Add a little more cherry juice if the frosting is too thick.<\/p>\n<p>When the cookies are cool, you can start frosting them. I always lay them out on the counter on sheets of wax paper. Then, I pick up a cookie, hold it over the bowl of frosting, and completely cover the cookie with frosting, and place it back on the wax paper to cool.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-656\" title=\"cookiesrec\" src=\"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/cookiesrec.jpg\" alt=\"Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies\" width=\"705\" height=\"435\" srcset=\"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/cookiesrec.jpg 705w, http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/cookiesrec-300x185.jpg 300w, http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/cookiesrec-486x300.jpg 486w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 705px) 100vw, 705px\" \/>Let the cookies stand in a single layer over night to let the frosting set completely before you pack them into containers. This recipe makes about 6 dozen cookies. They are great fresh, and they also freeze well. You can eat them frozen!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Please refer to my <a title=\"Cookie Recipe Basics\" href=\"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/?p=642\">Cookie Recipe Basics<\/a> to make sure your cookies turn out!<br \/>\nRead the <a title=\"1990s blog: Introduction\" href=\"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/?p=632\">introduction to my 1990s cooking blog<\/a> for background information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hoo-boy, these are the ultimate cookies. My signature cookies, I would say. I always made these for Christmas. I even wrote about them in my &#8220;other&#8221; blog, the one I began in 2005, and where I still discuss other-than-food matters &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/?p=648\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-199sblog","category-cookies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=648"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4508,"href":"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648\/revisions\/4508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cooking.pfeist.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}