1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup butter or margarine,
1 softened
1 cup sugar
1 each egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
48 each maraschino cherries
FROSTING
6 oz semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 cherry juice (4 to 5 tsp)
Directions
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
Servings: 48 servings
1986 Winner: Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Chocolate; Cookie; Dessert; Fruit
The History of Recipes
It is possible to trace the history of `recipes` back into ancient history, certainly as far back into recorded history as the ancient Egyptians, and quite possibly further than that. Interesting though that is, generally, these ancient recipes were just primitive pictorial instructions for food preparation.
The truth of the matter is, the oldest recipe found, according to historians is a collection of stone tablets in Sumerian which describe the preparation of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making anyone who drank it feel blissful and exhilarated. Later, we have a couple of recipe books which date from the fourteenth century : one book entitled `Forme of Cury`, and another, similary titled `Curye on Inglish`. Despite their titles, these two books have no connection with the indian food that is served today, but rather descriptions of the types of food enjoyed by the rich and wealthy people of the period. Later, in the fifteenth century, knights returning from the crusades brought back a variety of spices and herbs from the East, including spices like parsley, basil and rosemary. The introduction of these new culinary ideas created an explosion in recipe manuscripts, the majority of which still exist in academic collections. During the following few hundred years, the rich families of the West competed to serve the most exotic banquets, and as a result the best chefs and their collection of recipes were much in demand. However, it was during the 19th century that haute cuisine and cookery books really came of age. The Famous Mrs Beeton in the UK, and the equally well-known Fannie Farmer in the US, dedicated the best years of their lives to collecting, verifying, and recording popular recipes of the day. By the time we get to the 1900s, cooking publications were highly popular mostly due to increased literacy, people having increased free time and having more money. The arrival of television brings us TV cooks and the accompanying recipe books. And that brings us to the present day and the internet revolution, permitting everyone to search through massive numbers of recipes such as those found on our web site. |
We hope you enjoy this 1986 Winner_ Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies recipe.
