I created these after a trip up north to Traverse City, Michigan's Cherry Festival. Wonderful with their dried cherries! A big hit wherever I take them!
What a wonderful, apparently neglected cookie recipe with only five reviews, the last nearly a year ago! This is really an appropriate cookie with fall around the corner. It’s substantial and hearty, packed with flavor and abundant with nuts, cherries and chocolate. I added nothing the recipe didn’t call for. I left out nothing the recipe was meant to include, and that was a good call. The recipe is perfect as written, WITH the cherries, WITH the nuts (if you tolerate them), both pecans and walnuts, and WITH the almond extract, which enhances the cherry flavor. Other than using the chocolate chips I had on hand rather than chocolate chunks, I didn’t and wouldn’t change a thing. However, watch your baking time carefully! I set my timer for the minimum of 11 minutes suggested, and while the cookies didn’t necessarily suffer for it, they still were a little browner than I would have liked. A minute or two less would have been just right.
Read MoreFollowed the recipe as written, except for using a different brand of high-grade chocolate. The cookies looked very beautiful, but my family just didn't enjoy them. Perhaps my group prefers a more basic cookie! ;) These are worth a try, but I recommend making half a batch the first time.
Read More What a wonderful, apparently neglected cookie recipe with only five reviews, the last nearly a year ago! This is really an appropriate cookie with fall around the corner. It’s substantial and hearty, packed with flavor and abundant with nuts, cherries and chocolate. I added nothing the recipe didn’t call for. I left out nothing the recipe was meant to include, and that was a good call. The recipe is perfect as written, WITH the cherries, WITH the nuts (if you tolerate them), both pecans and walnuts, and WITH the almond extract, which enhances the cherry flavor. Other than using the chocolate chips I had on hand rather than chocolate chunks, I didn’t and wouldn’t change a thing. However, watch your baking time carefully! I set my timer for the minimum of 11 minutes suggested, and while the cookies didn’t necessarily suffer for it, they still were a little browner than I would have liked. A minute or two less would have been just right.
Excellent! I used butter because it gave a richer flavour, and because I didn't have cherries, I substituted dried cranberries which gave these cookies an amazing ZING!!
The combination of cherries and chocolate is classic and superb in these cookies! I had just returned from a trip to San Francisco and had some dark chocolate from Ghirardelli that I chopped and put in these cookies. I even added a bit of their vanilla bean white chocolate. Delicious! I had some dried cherries in the freezer, so I put them in a bowl with a splash of water, gave it a stir and microwaved until they were thawed. I baked a tray without nuts and two with. They were gobbled right up!
I use this recipe as my base for a variety of cookies. the only substitution I make in the base recipe is coconut oil instead of shortening. The other changes I make are I use dark chocolate chips with cherries and almonds, semi sweet chips with blue berries and walnuts, and then coconut with milk chocolate chips and pecans. My husband says he never feels guilty eating any of them because of all the antioxidents!
I loved these cookies, the cherries add such a nice contrast to the chocolate chunks. I typically leave out nuts from cookie recipes, but I added them here and they were wonderful. I baked mine about a minute less to keep them soft and I substituted white whole wheat flour for half the flout listed. Great recipe.
There are so many things to love about this cookie. First, the combination of the tart cherries with the chocolate is out of this world. I only used pecans, and the added flavor and crunch was perfect. Lastly, the addition of the almond flavoring sent this cookie over the top. Since I don't always have dried cherries in the house, I will be tempted to try this with dried cranberries, which I suspect will be equally delicious.
I did make them, and added a bit of cocoa myself and they are DElish!!! I didn't put the chocolate kisses on top either, but rather added a handful of mini chocolate chips. The cherries MAKE this cookie very different, but we LOVED it!
I would just like to say how absolutely wonderful these cookies are. Every one single person who has had some, and ive made them a lot, loves them. I do substitute dried cranberries for the cherries, and I dont add the almond extract or the walnuts. I have never added cocoa, only because they are so good the way they are, i would hate to do something different and have them come out bad..lol...thanks for such a wonderful recipe!
Within minutes of these cookies cooling off they were being grabbed and eaten! The texture is lovely and flavor delish! I subsitituted the walnuts/pecans for almond slices. The taste is wonderful!
This my favorite cookie recipe. I feel the combination of the butter and the shortening gives the cookie a great thickness. I have omitted the nuts because the people in my family does not like nuts in their cookies. But i have used the tart cherries along with a variety of other dried fruits such as dried cranberries. the tart cherry is my favorite thought. You have a recommendation of the SaCo chocolate chunk and i want to say thank you because i believe that is a very delicious chocolate chunk compared to its competitors. Great cookie recipe!
Fantastic combination... the tartness of the cherries against the sweetness of the chocolate... wrapped in a buttery dough... punctuated by nuttiness. :-) What's not to love???
This recipe was delicious. The only thing I changed was to soak the dried cherries for a couple of hours before putting them in the cookie dough. It softened them up nicely.
Made these with fresh picked cherries. No nuts, should've added more cherries. Next time...yes there will be a next time soon. Be careful about the extra juice from the cherries, you can compensate with baking cocoa if you like more chocolate flavor. Yum
Made this recipe exactly how it was written. For once I actually had all of the called-for ingredients. These cookies are truly fabulous. The flavors blend to make a crunchy, tart, chocolatey treat.
These were surprisingly easy and amazingly delicious!!! These are my new favorite for sure!!
I've made these several times over the years and they are always deemed 'the best cookies I've ever made.' They're just so good! If you like chewier cookies, use all butter; if you like cakier cookies, use the half butter, half shortening that the recipe states to use. I like to up the salt to 3/4 tsp and add 1/2 tsp of ground nutmeg to these as well. I find that making the dough ahead of time and fridging it for 24 hrs or so before baking makes them taste even better. Great cookies, thank you for the recipe!
Followed the recipe as written, except for using a different brand of high-grade chocolate. The cookies looked very beautiful, but my family just didn't enjoy them. Perhaps my group prefers a more basic cookie! ;) These are worth a try, but I recommend making half a batch the first time.
Made these cookies yesterday. Did not make any changes. They were great as written. Will be making them again. Thanks
Omg I saw the recipe and thought cherries and chocolate how could you go wrong. Man are they good. I love them. Thank you pat B.for sharing.
I made a half-batch to see if I'd like them (and a holiday dry run). I also didn't want too many around because they sounded like I'd like them, and I was right! Love the two types of nuts and the cherries here. You could change-out with other dried fruit, too (cranberries, apricots, etc). I didn't have butter-flavored Crisco, so I used regular Crisco and butter-flavored vanilla. Also, I used up some mini-chocolate chips that I had on hand, but I think I'd prefer the regular chips. I checked at 9 min, and they were already getting brown (it pays to read other reviews...good call here, but my oven does need repair). I've got to hide these right away! Thanks Pat, great recipe!
I didn't like them warm, but after they cooled down I was in love. My husband who is really opinionated liked them a lot too. I used half the cherries, and only 10oz of chocolate chips, that was enough packed in there for my taste.
Give this cookie recipe 5 stars! Have made this recipe many times with one change, instead of chocolate chips I use white chocolate chips. White chocolate, dried cherries and almond flavoring are perfect together. My family and friends LOVE them and request them often.
After living in the Traverse City area and participating the the National Cherry Festival most of my life, this was an easy choice to make. The only changes I made were using all pecans and milk chocolate chunks, because it was what I had. I gifted these to my neighbor, who plows the snow in my driveway. They were a hit!
Delicious! I made the cookies with ingredients as is, no omissions or substitutions. Very soft and tasty, the cherries+chocolate+nuts were delicious!! I did find that the cookies were slightly over cooked when I baked (convection) for 11 mins, for later batches I reduced to 9 mins and could probably even lessen the time a bit more.
honestly they were ok, too cakey for my liking I love soft and chewy cookies. I substituted the nuts with white chocolate chips; this combination of flavours was definitely a yes and the house smelled so good!
I left out the walnuts and next time will double the pecans. Excellent recipe and so easy!
Delicious! Took out of oven at 11 minutes. Nice and chewy, but crisp edges. Only difference is I added some candied cherries that I had on hand. Thanks for this recipe!
Can chocolate and cherries ever be bad? I made the cookies exactly as written and only baked for 10-11 minutes…they were just ok…
I love these cookies! The cherry and dark chocolate flavors make them delicious just like chocolate covered cherries. This has become my favorite cookie!
I love them! I did not have walnuts, so I added an equivalent amount of pecans, and I only had half a bag of mini chocolate chips, but these turned out absolutely fantastic. I also only had butter, no butter-flavored shortening, so I used 2 sticks instead of 1, but it was fine. Don't worry if you need to substitute a few things like I did. They'll turn out wonderful regardless. I might add a little bit more salt next time as a personal preference, but these are so hearty and delicious, I have already decided this is a keeper recipe! Now if you'll excuse me, I have cookies to devour...
These are very tasty! I did not add the nuts as I'm not a fan of nuts in cookies. I thought the almond extract flavor was a little overwhelming, but maybe the nuts would have balanced it more. I did find that these baked very fast (9 minutes and they were burning) so I dropped the temperature to 350. Either way these are very chewy and moist and overall a good recipe!
Followed the recipe exactly. These are amazing! The kids really enjoyed these cookies and they were super simple to make.
The cookie tasted just fine but I was disappointed overall. I didn't change anything, did the recipe as is. The cookie was fine if it was warm but as soon as it cooled it was very crunchy. Also, it didn't flatten and round out when it baked it just stayed basically the same rock looking shape. It didn't look at all like the picture. Disappointed because I was making them for someone and they didn't turn out as nice as I wanted.
Homemade all stars, definitely some of the softest and tastiest cookies I've had! Sorry mom! I used fresh cherries diced, with half cup of chocolate chips.
These baked up beautifully—I didn't add the nuts because my kids don't like nuts, and they were perfect without them. Had they been only for the hubby and I, the nuts would have made these even better. I didn't change any of the ingredients. The only thing I did different was after chopping the cherries, I put them in the bowl I had used to blend the dry ingredients. I sprinkled a dash of flour over them and tossed them before adding them to the dough. They distributed really well when I stirred them into the dough. These remind me of a cookie you would eat in the winter with a cup of hot cider or hot chocolate. I agree with another reviewer that it's strange this doesn't have many reviews. Great cookie!
Very good! Didn't mess with this recipe; it is perfect as is. (Though check cookies at about 9 min.)
I made these pretty much exactly the way the recipe said, except for the butter flavored Crisco - i only had regular Crisco - they were DELICIOUS. I saw i had dark chocolate chips and dried cherries in my pantry and wanted cookies - found this recipe and will make these again, for sure!
Awesome mixture of flavors and textures. Most anything with dried cherries and chocolate is a winner for me, but these cookies are especially good. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
I loved this recipe. I've made it several times and it's always a hit. The last time I substituted pistachios for the walnuts and pecans and instead of the almond extract I add a few drops of Loran pistachio oil and a few drops cherry oil. Everyone loved the spumoni cookies.
These are amazing. I have made a few times. They are receive raves from all. We have serious nut allergies in our group. I substituted Gerbs granola (with mini dark choc chips) for the nuts. Really added a nice crunch - makes up a bit for the missing nuts.
These came out great -- crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside, and the cherries and chocolate make a nice combination. (I'm eating one right now as I write this ... yummmm!) My only complaint is that the flavor of the almond extract was too prominent, so if I make these again I'll probably cut that back to 3/4 teaspoon.
I did make one change and that was, I added another 1/2 cup flour. I like more of a "cake" cookie. I also added some red food coloring for an extra touch. We loved it.
I used cashews instead of pecans and pieces of lindt dark chocolate. Changes I will make the next time: use different chocolate, dark was not a favourite with kiddies; make a double batch, coz they are sooo good, and maybe make them flatter and softer than I did this time.
I only used walnuts. OMG these are DELICIOUS! I put 12 out to cool while the others were baking...only 3 left! And there’s only 2 people besides me. WOW...hey I only had a half cookie. Swear!
These are a favorite of ours! I get rave reviews any time I make them. The only change I make is I use coconut oil instead of the shortening. They are divine. So many flavors going on!!
These are delicious. I had to lower my oven temp 5 degrees but that was probably my oven. They smelled delicious and they were just sweet enough.
I love these cookies. I only added half a cup of cherries because that is all I had and I didn't have any nuts. They were still fabulous. I can't wait to make them again with the nuts and more cherries.
I used all butter because I hate fake butter. I also just used all means instead for a sexy Valentine's Day alternative to the typical chocolate chip cookie. I adjusted the baking temperature to 350° and bake them for 12 minutes, then rotated him, and browned them for an additional two minutes. They came out amazing! I also use the combination of half Allmond extract and half vanilla extract! Oh and dark brown sugar instead of light brown sugar!
These are excellent. Everyone loves them and they are gone before you know it. I bake for 9 minutes and let rest and they are the perfect consistency. I follow the directions as stated. ;)
