Cherry Chip Cookies

It’s been ages since I’ve had a cherry chip cookie.  These used to be a regular feature on the school menus when I was in school.  Considering that I ate cold lunch all through high school, it’s been a very long time since I had a cherry chip cookie.

So yesterday, we were grocery shopping and wandering down the chip aisle.  My grocery store has every chip you can imagine- and scads of them.   Abigail’s eyes landed on a bag of cherry chips and picked them up with an inquiring look in her eyes.  I knew what she was thinking.  Could these be good?  Could these replicate those yummy cookies I had at school on those days when I had a hot lunch in a school cafeteria?  My grocery budget was limited to necessities this week, so I had to tell her no, not today, but that we’d try them soon.  Well, fast forward about 20 minutes, and after we were headed home, I couldn’t stop thinking about those cherry chips.  The idea of cherry chip cookies just struck me as wonderful thing.

Fortunately (or not fortunately, depending how you look at it), we have a bulk food shop literally blocks from our house.  We could walk there on a nice day, so I made a quick stop and dashed in to pick up a bag of cherry chips for my little girl who really wanted to try them.

I looked about the web for recipes this morning.  I found several that called for cherry chip cake mix- definitely not what I was looking for, and I found a couple of oddballs with odd ingredients, before finding one that seemed like a normal drop cookie.  That’s what I was after.

This plain jane, easy to throw together drop cookie is delicious.  It’s not the same flavor as the cookie I remember growing up, but it’s a completely different flavor of cookie altogether.  Abigail thinks they taste like a sugar cookie with cherry chips in it, and Zander is just so happy that I made a cookie that doesn’t have chocolate or nuts in it.   I will say that these cookies are very sweet, which sounds odd coming from me, considering it’s a cookie and it should be sweet.  But cherry chips are extra sweet to begin with, and add all the sugar in the cookie dough and you have one sweet cookie.  I actually think you could cut back on the sugar a touch, and when I make these again, I’m going to try scaling back 1/4 cup of sugar at a time.

I like these cookies.  They’re different from any other drop cookie and are slightly addicting.  Depending on what else you have on your Christmas cookie trays, I would consider this one a candidate.   In that case, I likely would cut back on that sugar and add a light powdered sugar drizzle or glaze and a sprinkle of red sugars just to dress them up a little.  But they would definitely be considered because they are so completely different in flavor from anything else.

Cherry Chip Cookies

1 cup butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups flour

12 ounces cherry chips

Preheat oven to 350ºF.  In a mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until well combined.  Add the eggs and mix well. Add the extracts and mix again.

Add the baking powder and salt and stir them in quickly, and then add the flour.  Mix until thoroughly combined and then fold in the cherry chips.

Drop 2-inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until they begin to turn golden around the bottom edges.

Remove from cookie sheets and cool completely on a wire rack.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.