Recipe: Old Fashioned Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies

When I was a kid, chocolate chip cookies were one of the first things I ever learned to make. I remember standing on a stool at the kitchen counter in front of the mixer with my mom, watching in amazement as the pile of ingredients on the counter turned into soft, sugary treats. I always sampled the raw cookie dough and my mom never stopped me (thanks mom!).

This is the same basic chocolate chip cookie recipe I've been making since I was a kid. Over the years I've added oatmeal, nuts, dried fruit, you name it, and this recipe features my favorite addition - dried cherries! There's something about the chocolate and cherry combination that's just unbeatable. Feel free to experiment with whatever you've got in the pantry, really anything goes. It's hard to make a chocolate chip cookie taste bad! Take them on the skintrack and it's even harder. That's foolproof cooking at it's finest.

Ingredients (makes about 24 cookies)

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup chocolate chips (add more if omitting cherries)

¼ cup dried cherries (optional)

Flake salt, to top cookies with

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2. Cream butter and sugars in a standing mixer or in a bowl with a hand mixer until fluffy.

3. Beat in eggs and vanilla

4. Add flour, baking soda, and salt and mix again until fully incorporated.

5. Stir in chocolate chips and cherries.

6. Roll cookie dough into 2 - 3 tablespoon balls and place at least 2 inches apart on a baking sheet.

7. Sprinkle with flake salt.

8. Bake for 12 - 14 minutes.

Note: If you don’t have an electric mixer, you can melt the butter to mix with the sugars. But be sure to chill the dough in the fridge for at least an hour.