Dark Chocolate Cookies with Cherries

I made these cookies because a friend liked them so much she posted about them in Facebook! The chewy texture and bittersweet chocolate make these divine, the perfect adult cookie.

I made a few changes right off the bat. 12 oz of bittersweet chocolate in the original made sense if you were melting it and it was a major component of the batter, but just to chop it up and add to the cookie seemed expensive and excessive. I should have bought a bag of chips. As it was I only used one of the Ghiradelli bars (4 oz).  I also found tart dried cherries everywhere but not really "sour" so I just went with it, also with probably 5 oz instead of 9. The online recipe also directs the baker to make cookies out of 1/4 cup dough for each cookie - um, no, that's crazy. They'll never bake! I will post the recipe I made and not Martha's, although surely her recipe will be more decadent. It will also be more difficult to handle since there is less batter holding the cookies together, and a higher percentage of things that melt.

Dark Chocolate Cookies with Cherries
(adapted from Dark Chocolate Cookies with Sour Cherries by Martha Stewart)

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup firmly packed dark-brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 3/4 cups dried cherries, firmly packed (5 ounces)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla extract; beat until well combined. Add the flour mixture, and beat on low speed, until just combined. Do not overbeat. With a wooden spoon, fold in chocolate and cherries. (Dough can be frozen at this point, wrapped well in plastic, up to 1 month; thaw completely before baking.)
3. Use a cookie scoop or form balls of roughly 1- 1.5 inches. Bake until puffed and cracked, 9 to 11 minutes but do not overbake.Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container, at room temperature, up to 3 days. 

Recipe Notes from JennyBakes

1. There is a lot of controversy on Martha's website; I think at some point there were no eggs listed. Clearly the recipe needs eggs, so just use what I have listed. There was also confusion over whether 1 1/4 cups of butter is the same as 2 1/2 sticks. It is in the USA... just go with 20 tbsp.
2. If you really want to use 12 oz bittersweet chocolate, buy a bag of chips! Having to chop up the chocolate and then mix it in is a killer.