While I wait for butter to soften for my next cookie experiment, I thought I’d share one of my recent experiments. My recipe was adapted from Mark Bittman’s Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies in How to Cook Everything.

1/2 pound unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups extra bittersweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli’s 72% for Baking, which are large chips)
1 oz baker’s chocolate
1 oz extra bittersweet chocolate chips
about 1 cup of brandy to cover cherries (reserve liquid after soaking)
1 cup dried cherries

Oven 375?F

Put dried cherries in a bowl, add brandy enough to cover, set aside to soak.

Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer, then add the eggs one at a time and beat until well blended

Mix flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl. Melt the bakers chocolate and 1 oz of the extra bittersweet chocolate. Next add the dry ingredients to the eggs, butter and sugar, beating a bit, then adding the vanilla and the melted chocolate. After everything has been well beaten together, strain the cherries and reserve the brandy liquid. Add the cherries to the mixture with two tablespoons of the brandy that they soaked in. Finally, stir in the chips.

Use two spoons to scoop out about a table spoon of cookie dough on a baking sheet. I highly recommend parchment paper if you have it! Bake for 10 minutes until lightly brown. Cool on racks for 2-3 minutes and store in a cookie tin or plastic sealed container for no more than 2 days.

Let me know if you try this and if it works for you!