Valentine’s twist,

amazing cherry chocolate cookies!

Getting close to that time of year when you make everything sweeter! Adding Trader Joe’s pitted amarena cherries and syrup gives these cookies a delightful pop of flavor in the batter and each bite. Everyone loves a chocolate chip cookie and this just takes it that extra step. Also added extra love to the mix by baking them with my little. Cookies are a fan favorite for both of us to eat and cook. Kids can help in so many steps with baking and really get involved.

First get all your ingredients together, and don’t forget to soften the butter! I used to always forget this and just melt it in the microwave. Soft butter makes a HUGE difference and is worth the 20 minuets. Hard with a little but try to get it out first, then start everything else. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease your pan or line it with parchment. I took the time to slice the cherries up front and recommend doing it now, when its time to spoon the cookies out you’ll want them in the oven and ready as soon as possible 🙂 Then your all set to go!

First you’ll be adding the soft butter, white sugar, and brown sugar into a bowl and mixing till its smooth. This is where soft compared to melty butter shines even by looks, you wont get that smooth paste like mix and instead it will be super watery. Littles love to add sugar to everything and this is a perfect step for them to add to the bowl. Once blended break your eggs in (no littles allowed here) and then blend again. I only recently fell in love with my stand mixer, grew up Italian and the thought that you can hand mix anything is strong. But it really does make things easier, faster, and smoother. Also don’t mind mixing in little batches like this, and think the cookies come out better for it.

Getting closer to the good part! A small extra step I like is to dissolve the baking soda in hot water first and then add it. Could do nothing but I feel like it helps, and it gave my son an extra fun step to do. We just used our measuring cup, a little hot water, and he mixed it all up. Add that to the batter along with the salt and vanilla extract and mix. Then add in the flour one cup at a time and mix it up as well—you can add it all at once if your daring and don’t mind a giant flour cloud, but one by one is safer 🙂 Then comes the secret ingredient! Pour about 1/4th a cup of the syrup from the cherries into the batter and mix one more time. It adds such a subtle but amazing flavor to the cookies!

Best part! Everyone’s favorite time—adding the chocolate chips! Feel free to snag a few and if your using salmonella free eggs dipped in a little batter is insanely tasty! I had him pour the bag in and hand mix (we me helping at the end) to get them in the batter but not over mixed. Spoon the batter out on your cookie tray and try to space them out a bit, I use a large tray and fit a dozen cookies on it. Lastly take those cherries you cut up and top the cookies any way you like 🙂 You also could mix them in but I like the way they look on top. Once ready pop them in your pre-heated oven and cook for 10-15 minuets. We did around 15, I like a crispy cookie similar to Tates. They look and taste AMAZING!

These really go above expectations! The batter is amazing and the pieces of cherry with the chocolate chips add so much flavor. I’m a chocolate covered cherry kinda gal and always thinking of them with Valentines day<3 The cherries from Trader Joe’s are amazing and the dark chocolate chips as well. We don’t need more then a dozen at a time here so I froze the rest of the dough, should get maybe 2 more batches! I put the dough in a log shape on parchment paper and place it in the freezer for about an hour. Then wrap it up in the paper, slide in a freezer bag, and bake any time over the next 2 months! Only thing better then a great cookie is great cookies whenever you want them!