One of my favorite books is "The Flavor Bible". I think I open it every day to check an ingredient or three in my journey through the food world. A few weeks ago while going through my dried foods cabinet I came across a jar of dried cherries. Common sense tells you that cherries pair really well with chocolate, but that's just sort of, well, normal. I can't do just normal, I want WOW, COOL, YUM, so I turned to "The Flavor Bible" for some inspiration. Inspiration came fast when I went down the list of compatible ingredients and came across Port Wine and Vanilla. This was how my Chocolate Cherry Port Wine Chocolate Chip cookies were born. It is a very simple recipe and has so far been enjoyed by everyone. Give it a try, they will be the new hit at the party.
Chocolate Cherry Port Wine Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 sticks butter, slightly melted
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsps. vanilla (I use homemade vanilla*)
1/4 cup Hershey's cocoa
3/4 cup Hershey's Special Dark cocoa
pinch of salt
10 oz. dried cherries
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
Port Wine
6 oz. Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Chips
In a small heavy bottomed sauce pan combine dried cherries, vanilla bean and enough Port Wine to just about cover the cherries. Bring to a slow boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer as low as possible till the cherries have absorbed most of the wine. Remove from heat and keep covered till ready to use.
In a medium size bowl, sift flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda. Set aside.
In a large bowl, melt butter slightly in microwave, add sugars, eggs and vanilla. Beat till fluffy. Add flour a little at a time until completely combined.
Remove vanilla bean from cherry mixture and set aside. Add cherry mixture to cookie batter and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips. Using a tblsp., drop cookie dough onto parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 14 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool on cookie sheet, transfer to cooling rack to allow cookies to continue to set up. Cookies will look undercooked at 14 minutes, but they are not. This is a very moist and chewy cookie if removed from the oven at 14 minutes.
*Homemade Vanilla
1 750ml. 100 proof vodka
5 vanilla beans, split lengthwise
Remove a few tblsps. of vodka from the bottle, drop in split vanilla beans and allow to sit for 3 months in a cool dark spot.
Because I get too excited about things like this, I often shake it, open it and smell it and have to stop myself from using it before it is ready...but be patient, it is well worth it. I have also done this process with rum.
I know vanilla beans are expensive, but I found a great website to buy them. Beanilla sends them right to my mailbox in a few days and have so far (I've ordered twice in the last 8 months) come nice and plump and moist in a very nice vacuum sealed bag. I usually get the Tahitian Vanilla Beans, 25 whole beans for $19.99 plus shipping.
See you all tomorrow. Friends are coming for dinner. We're having slow roasted beef with Merlot wine jelly, garlic smashed potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts with chorizo and parmesan.
Dessert is set to be a Chocolate Expresso Martini cake.
Hugs!
dina
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