Recipe - 1986 Winner Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies

1 One half cup Flour
One half cup Unsweetened cocoa powder
One fourth teaspoon Salt
One fourth teaspoon Baking powder
One fourth teaspoon Baking soda
One half cup Butter or margarine,
Softened
1 cup Sugar
1 Egg
1 One half teaspoon Vanilla
48 Maraschino cherries

FROSTING
6 ounce Semisweet chocolate chips
One half cup Sweetened condensed milk
Cherry juice (4 to 5 tsp)

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 buttersugar mixture and beat well. Gradually add dry
ingredients to buttersugar mixture and beat until well blended.

2. Shape dough into 1inch 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 chocolatecovered 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 creamfilled heaven with a cherry floating thereinand 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 motherinlaw came to Chicago one autumn
with the ultimate cookie. A Christmas tradition in one bite. Nostalgia from
the oven. Capable of reducing this 36yearold woman's taste buds and
mentality to that of my 9yearold daughter. A chocolatecovered cherry
cookie!" from the Chicago Tribune annual Food Guide Holiday Cookie Contest
December 4, 1986
Posted to MMRecipes Digest V3 #340

From: Linda Place placel@worldnet.att.net

Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 11:32:57 +0000