Cherry chocolate chip cookies

Last month I decided to spend one of my days off watching movies. Joao was at work, so I could rent all the wacky films I love so much without him giving me the “I-married-an-alien” look. :)

After staring at the store shelves for quite a while I came to the conclusion that none of those new movies appealed to me. I ended up renting older movies and what a great thing that was – Ryan Gosling saved my afternoon.

That trip to the video store inspired my following baking session – after going through recently saved/bookmarked recipes, I chose one I’d printed over a year prior to that day: Nemmie’s great cookies.

Cherry chocolate chip cookies

3 cups (420g) all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup (226g/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
¾ cup (132g) packed brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups (350g) semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup (130g) tart dried cherries, coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 190ºC/375ºF; line two large baking sheets with baking paper.
Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars until fluffy (about 2 minutes). Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla extract. Blend until incorporated.

Add the sifted dry ingredients, the chocolate chunks, and cherries and mix in slow speed just until incorporated. Make balls with 1 ½ tablespoons of dough and place on prepared sheets, 5cm (2in) apart. Slightly flatten the balls and bake for 12-14 minutes, or until golden in the bottoms. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

I halved the recipe and got 24 cookies