This week's SMS recipe was chosen by Megan of My Baking Adventures: double dark chocolate cherry cookies! I really enjoy Megan's blog - she posts lots of goodies I hope to get around making someday, including lots of ice cream and brownies :) I didn't have any cherries on hand so originally I thought I'd substitute raisins since I'm a huge fan of the chocolate and raisin combo. However, I was planning to give the cookies away and I wasn't sure if the recipients liked raisins (plus I knew Shane wouldn't eat them if they had raisins in them). So no fruit in these cookies for me.
This cookie recipe was very similar to the chocolate chip cookies we made a few weeks ago. After the dough is mixed it gets some time in the refrigerator before it is shaped into logs and chilled again. I made the mistake of mixing my dough and then leaving it in the fridge for about 5 or 6 hours when I got busy with something else. When I finally took it out it was rock hard so I used the heat of my hands to warm it up for a while before shaping it into logs. I love the slice and bake aspect of Melissa's cookies. I find it much easier than scooping out individual cookies and I think the cookies bake up perfectly (though the chill time probably has something to do with that too)! It was a bit tricky to tell when these cookies were done because they're so dark but I wound up baking mine for about 13-14 minutes. That left them nice and chewy. They're really delicious and, as expected, super chocolately and rich! I only had one and that satisfied me. I really want to make them again and try adding the raisins, which I think I'll really enjoy. Many thanks to Megan for this week's great pick! You can check out the recipe on her blog and be sure to visit the Sweet Melissa site to check out all of this week's cookies!
