Raise your hand if you own an ice cream maker.* That’s what I thought: a few people who remembered to add it to their wedding registries, maybe someone with an awesome sister who knows how much you love ice cream, but not everyone. Okay, now, you know how sometimes you love a certain kind of ice cream so much that you want to eat it all the time, but you don’t have an ice cream maker and, even if you did, it would be daunting to make? Well, if you said yes, and if your ice cream of choice is Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia, then you are going to love this recipe.
Today I made cookies, and they taste like Cherry Garcia ice cream. And it was kind of an accident!
When I made cherry-amaretto jam a few weeks back, I bought a giant bag of dried tart cherries from Costco and used less than half. Since then, I have been wondering what to do with the rest. I throw some in my oatmeal in the morning, sometimes in with my yogurt, but that only uses a few tablespoons at a time, and I had almost 2 cups extra to use. My husband had a busy week at work, and I decided earlier today to make him some cookies as a yay-it’s-the-weekend treat; I had just determined to make chocolate cookies when I had a lightbulb moment (I may have yelled out and pointed my finger, but it’s okay, I work from home) and decided to make chocolate cookies with dried cherries in them. Because YUM.
So, I got out a favorite chocolate-peanut butter chip cookie recipe, figuring I could use it as a base. A few tweaks here, a change or two there, and I had a dark, thick dough studded with white chocolate chips & dried cherries. And then I smelled it. Whoa! Why does this smell so familiar? It was bugging me, trying to figure out what the cookies smelled like, so I had to take a little, tiny taste– don’t worry, my eggs are good quality– and my eyes bugged out, because it tastes just like Cherry Garcia. Awesome. I think it is something about the combination of chocolate, cherry & almond extract, but it is uncanny. The rest of the dough made it into the oven, and the cookies are even better after baking: chewy, chocolaty and with little kicks of cherry. So, next time you’re craving Ben & Jerry’s, don’t be bummed that you don’t own an ice cream maker– break out this recipe and make the next best thing! You might want to keep some dried cherries on hand, just in case.
Chocolate Cookies with Cherries and White Chocolate Chips
- 10 T. unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 c. sugar
- 1/2 c. brown sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1/2 tsp. almond extract
- 1 c. flour
- 6 T. unsweetened cocoa
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/2 c. dried cherries
- 1/2 c. white chocolate chips
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper, or grease them, or use silicone liners.
In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, at least 5 mins. Walk away if you need to, but let it get really well-combined. Add the egg and almond extract and mix again. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; add to the butter mixture slowly, so you don’t end up in a cloud of cocoa-flour, and eventually increase the mixer speed to combine everything thoroughly. Mix in the cherries and white chocolate chips on a very low speed or by hand. Chill your dough for half an hour, minimum, and then drop by tablespoonfuls (use a melon ball-style scoop for ease and uniformity) onto your prepared pans and bake for 8-10 mins. The cookies will be soft coming out of the oven but will firm up in just a few minutes. Store them in a tightly-sealed container for up to 5 days; makes about 40 cookies.
*An ice cream maker is a fun gadget to own; we have a Cuisinart and I love it, use it all the time for ice cream, sorbet, frozen yogurt and slushy summer drinks. As good as these cookies are, I would still advocate owning an ice cream maker, and if you do, there is a cookbook so you can make Ben & Jerry’s flavors at home. !!
I need these. I NEED them. But in light of my recent surgery….any ideas on how to cut the fat? Also….where do you get your eggs?
Leanne, I was super excited to find this recipe, which is a meringue variation, butter- and gluten-free: http://orangette.blogspot.com/2006/01/when-disappointment-comes-to-dinner.html
It is not a modification of my recipe, per se, but I don’t see why you couldn’t add the cherries, almond extract (I would do 2 tsp vanilla + 1 tsp. almond in the recipe) and white chocolate chips and get very close. What do you think?
oh, and my eggs come from Skagit River Ranch– I buy them at the Ballard Market on Sunday.
Whaaaa????? Cherry Garcia Cookies?!?!?!?!? Must make these….that was my dad’s very favorite flavor. These would totally remind me of him
Just need to dig up some dried cherries and get going!
I hope you like them! this is a recipe I will make again, for sure, and I don’t have a lot of those.
And PS….my ice cream maker is the BEST! One of those head-exploding-in-the-grocery-store moments came last summer in the ice cream aisle….thought that buying local would be the answer but even Gifford’s and Beale uses HFCS…blah blah blah….now I can just make my own
I just bought an e-book full of yummy recipes that use a lot of less-refined ingredients. Can’t wait to get started!
stupid corn syrup! I guess we can thank it for our RAD ice cream makers!
I am getting an ice cream maker next. (Last fun toy was the zoku quick pop maker so I can make popsicles and freeze pops). I do have an antique donvier non electric ice cream maker…does anybody still use those?
my uncle Vic does, and he was a primary inspiration to get an ice cream maker of my own! he makes the best coffee ice cream you have ever tasted in your life.
Hmm…Jupiter is addicted to coffee ice cream.