CocoaNut Cherry Cookies

So, the brother's birthday is less than a month away and I had yet to revamp the cookie I am going to send him. Well, today I got in the kitchen and tweaked that recipe for the Dark Chocolate Cherry Cookies.

I'm pretty darned proud of the results!

These cookies turned out mmm-mmm-good! The outside is crisp, while the inside is soft and chewy. This time I made sure to put in plenty of chocolate chips, cherries, and nuts. The only change I might make for when I send these out to Oregon is choosing another nut. The pistachios have a lot of flavor but I'm not sure it's the flavor I am looking for in this cookie. In fact, I'm a little stumped on what nut to use. I may have to do some research on this head-scratcher.

Here's the recipe for this time around the block-

Ingredients (makes approx. 24 cookies):
1 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1.4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup white sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup pistachios, chopped

Directions:
1. Whisk together flour through salt, set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugars in a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg and vanilla, mix well.
3. In 3 additions, add flour mix to mixing bowl. Mix until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips, cherries, and pistachios.
4. Divide dough in half and place each half on a piece of plastic wrap. Roll each dough into a 12-inch log and wrap dough-log up. Place dough in the freezer for at least an hour.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
6. Grease cookie sheets with cooking spray. Remove dough from freezer and unwrap. Cut dough into 1-inch slices. Place cookies about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until cookies look just baked.
7. Remove cookies from oven, cool on pan for 5 minutes. Remove cookies to a cooling rack and let cool completely before storage.

I had my taster cookie while it was still warm with a glass of milk. Soooo good!

And then I went back for another :)

*Chef's Note*
The dough was a little hard to slice, even when completely frozen. It crumbled on quite a few cookies. The dough is easy to mold with your hands however, so it's easy to mold the cookies back into shape. Enjoy!