Cookie Exchange! What to bring? Your Cookie Exchange goals: cookies that are easy to make, the recipe makes alot, and the cookies are delicious. Additionally, it's my opinion that all the cookies should be uniform. I don't really like cut-out cookies for exchanges because some always look way better than others. Plus, they are so much work, that if I go through the trouble to make them, MY family is going to get to eat them!!
Here is my go-to recipe for the annual Cookie Exchange. It's nice to have a chocolate cookie, because it seems that many bakers bring vanilla or spice cookies to exchanges. But I usually have to make two batches because my husband would complain if he didn't have 40 of these for his personal consumption!
Buried Cherry Cookies
Modified from a recipe in my trusty old Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook
Modified from a recipe in my trusty old Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook
Ingredients:
1 10-ounce jar maraschino cherries (42 to 48)
1 10-ounce jar maraschino cherries (42 to 48)
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1.5 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate pieces
1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk or low-fat sweetened condensed milk
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drain cherries, reserving juice. Halve any large cherries. In a medium mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add the sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in cocoa powder and the flour with the mixer.
2. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place balls about 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Press your thumb into the center of each ball. Place a cherry in each center.
3. For fudge topping, in a small saucepan combine chocolate pieces and sweetened condensed milk. Cook and stir over low heat until chocolate melts. Stir in 2-4 teaspoons reserved cherry juice. (If necessary, fudge topping may be thinned with additional cherry juice.) Spoon 1 teaspoon fudge toppping over each cherry, spreading to cover.
4. Bake about 10 minutes or until edges are firm. Cool on cookie sheet 1 minute. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool. Makes 42 to 48 cookies
MY TIPS -
1. Refrigerate the balls of dough for a few minutes before baking. Stops them from becoming too flat in the oven.
2. Don't make the dough balls bigger than 1-inch. I made mine smaller and smaller each batch because I liked the way the little ones looked!
3. Don't put a dripping wet cherry on a cookie. After cutting your cherries, let them sit on a paper towel so some of that excess juice soaks up. Otherwise your dough will get wet, and your cookie will flatten.
4. Also, you read it correctly, the fudge topping does get baked. I usually add extra cherry juice to the fudge topping to get it to cover the cherry evenly and easily. But don't add too much or your fudge will get watery. It should be like frosting consistency.
5. Alternatively, you could probably drizzle the fudge topping over the cookies in a zig-zag pattern, and that way the bright red cherry would be visible. Not so much "buried" then, but visually appealing! I haven't tried this option, so if you do, let me know how it turns out. You would probably bake the cookies with cherries, let them cool, and THEN add the topping if you want this effect.
6. Use parchment paper on the trays for easy clean up.
7. Bribe your significant other into cleaning the mixing bowl and fudge topping bowl in exchange for cookies, sex, whatever it takes - what a mess!
1. Refrigerate the balls of dough for a few minutes before baking. Stops them from becoming too flat in the oven.
2. Don't make the dough balls bigger than 1-inch. I made mine smaller and smaller each batch because I liked the way the little ones looked!
3. Don't put a dripping wet cherry on a cookie. After cutting your cherries, let them sit on a paper towel so some of that excess juice soaks up. Otherwise your dough will get wet, and your cookie will flatten.
4. Also, you read it correctly, the fudge topping does get baked. I usually add extra cherry juice to the fudge topping to get it to cover the cherry evenly and easily. But don't add too much or your fudge will get watery. It should be like frosting consistency.
5. Alternatively, you could probably drizzle the fudge topping over the cookies in a zig-zag pattern, and that way the bright red cherry would be visible. Not so much "buried" then, but visually appealing! I haven't tried this option, so if you do, let me know how it turns out. You would probably bake the cookies with cherries, let them cool, and THEN add the topping if you want this effect.
6. Use parchment paper on the trays for easy clean up.
7. Bribe your significant other into cleaning the mixing bowl and fudge topping bowl in exchange for cookies, sex, whatever it takes - what a mess!
These freeze really well. And taste great right out of the freezer if you want a snack and just can't wait for one to thaw! Not that I've ever tried that. ;-)
Turned out a little flatter than I wanted. I think my butter was too soft. You want it so you can mix it, but if the butter is too soft (such as mine after I microwaved it a couple seconds too long) your cookies can flatten. Oh well, I tried one and they are still fantastic!
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