Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies

Tis the season for .............cookies.
If you like Chocolate Cordials ~ you know the kind where you bite into the hard chocolate coating and you get a taste of chocolate, sweet cherry syrup and a little bit of cherry ~ then you will like these cookies!

I brought these Chocolate Covered Covered Cherry Cookies to a Cookie Exchange this weekend. They are a little bit of work because of the different steps but they are very good.






Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 (10 ounce) jar maraschino cherries, drained, reserve juice
1 (6-ounce) package semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
Preparation:
In a large bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and soda, blending well; set aside. In a mixing bowl, beat together butter or margarine and sugar on low speed until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; beat well. Gradually add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture; beat until smooth and well blended. With hands, shape dough into 1-inch balls; place on ungreased baking sheet. Press down center of dough with thumb. Drain Maraschino cherries well, reserving juice. Place a cherry in the center indention of each cookie.

Bake cookies at 350 for 10 minutes or until done. As soon as they came out of the oven I gently pressed the cherry into the cookie.

In small saucepan combine chocolate pieces and sweetened condensed milk; heat over low heat until chocolate is melted. Stir in 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of the reserved cherry juice. Spoon about 1 teaspoon of the topping over each cherry, spreading to cover cherry. If frosting seems too thick, thin with a little more cherry juice.