Black Forest Oatmeal Cookies

Chocolate covered strawberries are ok, and I rarely ever turn them down, but chocolate and cherries are one of my favorite taste combinations and I have been craving for it for a few weeks. I successfully resisted for a while, but my subconscious found a way to work around my willpower. I was making oatmeal the other day, and I glanced down at the recipe on the lid. For a cookie recipe, it didn't have a lot of sugar and could easily be modified for chocolate and cherry. So here's my modified Black Forest Oatmeal Cookies. These cookies got rave reviews at work. I don't normally ship my experiments, but I'm offering a special military/overseas blog follower treat: if you want to try these, send your address to me at sarahbethharris@gmail.com. They'll ship well and won't melt.


 Let me know what you think!


1 1/4 sticks butter, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 
1 tsp baking soda
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt (optional)
3 cups Quaker Oats (quick or old-fashioned, uncooked) 
1 cup dried cherries

Heat oven to 350.
Beat margarine and sugars until creamy. Add egg and vanilla, beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cocoa, and salt; mix well. Chop cherries in food processor. Combine cherries and oats (this keeps the cherries from sticking together in the batter, break up clumps with your fingers). Stir oats and cherries into batter; mix well.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets. 

Bake 8 to 9 minutes for a chewy cookie or 10 to 11 minutes for a crisp cookie. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets, remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered. 
About 3 dozen
For high altitude: Increase flour to 1 3/4 cups.


Now, back to my work and Genius playlist based on The Dire Straits "Sultans of Swing." ;)