1986 Winner Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies

Title:
1986 Winner Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies

Yield:
48 Servings

Categories:
Cookies,
Holiday




Ingredients:





 1 1/2 c  Flour


   1/2 c  Unsweetened cocoa powder


   1/4 ts Salt


   1/4 ts Baking powder


   1/4 ts Baking soda


   1/2 c  Butter or margarine,


          Softened


     1 c  Sugar


     1    Egg


 1 1/2 ts Vanilla


    48    Maraschino cherries





----------------------------------FROSTING----------------------------------


     6 oz Semisweet chocolate chips


   1/2 c  Sweetened condensed milk


          Cherry juice (4 to 5 tsp)





 Preparation time: 45 minutes Baking time: 10 minutes


 


   1. In bowl, stir together flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder and baking


 soda. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and


 vanilla to butter-sugar mixture and beat well. Gradually add dry


 ingredients to butter-sugar mixture and beat until well blended.


 


   2. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and


 push down center of each ball with thumb. Drain cherries and reserve juice.


 Place 1 cherry in center of each indentation. Heat oven to 350 degrees.


 


   3. For frosting, put chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk in


 small saucepan. Heat until chocolate melts. Stir in 4 teaspoons cherry


 juice.  If too thick, add more juice.


 


   4. Spoon 1 teaspoon frosting over each cherry. Spread to cover cherry.


 Bake 10 minutes or until done. Do not overcook. Remove to wire rack and


 cool.  The cookies freeze nicely.


 


   Winner Donna M. Farrell of Naperville entered her chocolate covered


 cherry cookie recipe: "Christmas and chocolate-covered cherries are forever


 entwined in my mind and memories. Not the expensive department store kind,


 mind you, with their dark bitter chocolate and runny syrup, but your basic


 Brach's. Each Christmas found the coveted white box stretching my stocking,


 two layers of cream-filled heaven with a cherry floating therein--and no


 requirement to share them with anyone.


 


   "Taste and calories have kept me away from the box of delights for many


 years, even after the incredible discovery that Brach's actually sold these


 morsels all year long. (How my parents managed to deceive me on this, I'll


 never know.) That is, until my mother-in-law came to Chicago one autumn


 with the ultimate cookie. A Christmas tradition in one bite. Nostalgia from


 the oven. Capable of reducing this 36-year-old woman's taste buds and


 mentality to that of my 9-year-old daughter. A chocolate-covered cherry


 cookie!" from the Chicago Tribune annual Food Guide Holiday Cookie Contest


 December 4, 1986


 Posted to MM-Recipes Digest V3 #340


 


 From: Linda Place 


 


 Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 11:32:57 +0000