Chocolate Cherry Fudge Drop Cookies
On Go Dairy Free today, I have a review up of the gorgeous cookbook Simply … Gluten Free Desserts by my friend Carol Kicinski. This woman is amazing. As you probably know, I’m not gluten-free, but do dabble in the art. Many gluten-free goodies are, well how do I put this politely, on par with cardboard. However, some rise above as either tasty in their own right, with a unique texture and flavor, and some actually push gluten-free boundaries, rivaling gluten-filled foods for quality. Carol’s cookbook is stuffed with the latter. Decadent recipes that you won’t believe are gluten-free, no joke.
Of course, this isn’t a “health and diet” cookbook. As Carol joked, a reporter once referred to her as the “Paula Deen for gluten-free” (but you’d never guess it to look at her – gluten-free is doing this woman good. I’ve met Carol in person, and dang she looks AMAZING!). But, this is the cookbook you pull out when you want to dazzle guests. When you want to fool people who think that gluten-free can’t taste indulgent. And most importantly, when you want to treat yourself. – Note that I’m still recovering from the worst breakfast cookie ever that we purchased (brand shall remain un-named), not surprisingly, on sale for just 50 cents as a “treat” the other day. Next time I’m going for the ice cream bar. Or one of the desserts from this cookbook.
Simply … Gluten Free Desserts is definitely not dairy-free (though there are some awesome dairy-free recipes in it), but I love the challenge of adapting recipes. I started simple, with Carol’s Chocolate Cherry Fudge Drop recipe. Everyone LOVED these. I had five different taste-testers, and all wanted more. Just taste it for yourself …
Recipe: Chocolate Cherry Fudge Drop Cookies
Summary: Recipe adapted from Simply … Gluten Free Desserts by Carol Kicinski. This recipe is Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free, Peanut-Free, Wheat-Free, and optionally Soy-Free (depending on your chocolate).
Ingredients
- 4 Ounces Dark Chocolate, chopped
- 1 Tablespoon Coconut Oil, Palm Shortening, or Dairy-Free Margarine (I used coconut oil)
- 1 Large Egg
- 1/3 Cup Sugar
- 1-1/2 Tablespoons Brown or White Rice Flour
- 1/2 Tablespoon Tapioca or Potato Starch
- 1/8 Teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1/3 Cup Chocolate Chips or Dark Chocolate Chunks (I chopped up some more dark chocolate)
- 1/2 Cup Dried Cherries, chopped
- 1/4 Cup Sliced Almonds
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350ºF and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- You can melt the dark chocolate with the oil in a double broiler, but I use the lazy method: Heat the chocolate and oil in a medium-sized bowl in the microwave, on high for 60 seconds. Remove and whisk the chocolate vigorously. If the chocolate isn’t quite melted, zap it for another 15 seconds, and whisk again, until smooth.
- Let the chocolate cool, if needed, for a couple of minutes, then whisk in the egg, sugar, flour, starch, baking powder, and vanilla until smooth.
- Stir in the chips or chunks, cherries, and almonds.
- If the mixture is still a little thin, let it cool for another 5 minutes. It continues to thicken as it cools. You don’t want it to get too thick, just thick enough to scoop and so that it doesn’t run all over the baking sheet.
- Scoop the dough by the tablespoonful (I literally used a tablespoon measuring spoon), into mounds on your prepared baking sheet.
- Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the edges are firm and the tops lose most of their shine and look cracked.
- Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then move them to a wire rack.
Preparation time: 15 minute(s)
Cooking time: 10 minute(s)
Diet tags: Gluten free, Dairy free, Vegetarian
Number of servings (yield): 18
Copyright © Alisa Fleming.
Not Gluten-Free? The flour isn’t a major component in this recipe, so feel free to sub in any flour for both the flour and starch to get results that are similar and tasty.
24 thoughts on “Chocolate Cherry Fudge Drop Cookies”
Sounds (and looks) very good… and just begging to be veganized! :-> Gluten-free can definitely be just as tasty as any (I baked a gluten-free, low-ish-carb, sugar-free vegan cake this week that had a better texture than most “normal” cakes!)
The amount of flour sounds awfully low, but I guess it’s just because it’s so fudgy?
Maija – they’re actually not too fudgy because of the egg, more of a crinkle style. For vegan, I think more flour would definitely be needed. I’ve had trouble with egg-free chocolate cookies and bars that rely on melted chocolate vs cocoa powder – they need more structure. But definitely doable!
Since I have a total affinity for cherries and chocolate together, these sound amazing. I have not tried these yet from her book!! I must remedy that! Your photos are gorgeous, by the way!! 😉
xo
k
I love cherries and I love chocolate. I’ll have to give these a try for sure!
While I’m not a chocolate girl, I’ve been craving it lately. These should do the trick!
Have you tried this with any egg substitutes? My daughter is allergic to dairy and eggs (and peanuts), and so I’m curious. I’m still learning when it works to substitute what for eggs. Thanks!
Jenny, I’m not sure if an egg replacer like Ener-g would work as I don’t use those myself. I have tried to make a similar recipe egg-free without success. This is a very wet batter, so the egg provides most of the structure – melted chocolate recipes are trickier than cocoa powder ones this way. I would probably increase the flour first, and then go from there. I’ll have to experiment with this. We usually bake egg-free, but I didn’t want to mess with Carol’s recipe too much at first since it does have so little flour coupled with higher fat.
It *does* look delicious. Do you think a flax seed/water mix would work better than Ener-g?
Really, I think it would need some experimenting and not just a sub, as this is a wet batter, so adding a flax egg (that has way less structure than a real one) would probably result in a flat or greasy batter. You could give it a go! If the batter were too wet, adding more flour would at least salvage it so that the recipe wasn’t wasted.
mm chunky!
These cookies look so FLUFFY! The surface and texture of them actually reminds me of meringue! I will be trying these with a flax egg replacement soon! 🙂
Oh I really want one of these! I love the crackled look. That can only mean good things! I think you could easily veganize them too!
Gorgeous, yummy cookies! I think chocolate and cherries are the perfect combo. 😉 I love Carol’s recipes in her amazing book and you’re right, Carol looks fabulous. She’s the poster child for healthy gluten-free eating. 🙂 Great recipe adaptation and “mini-review” … off to check out your full review …
Shirley
These are SO GOOD. They don’t just look good people they are FANTASTIC. I’d say in the top ten cookies I’ve tasted all year. And my blog is called Cookies and Crafts, so I don’t mess around with cookies.
Katie, you crack me up! So glad you LOVED them 🙂
I love the world right now! Up until last Sunday, I’d never seen dried cherries available here, and then I found (and bought) a huge bag at the Costco that just opened. And now you post these! And Mama Pea posted a raw chocolate cherry treat recipe too! Yay world!
Finding really good gluten-free recipes is definitely no easy task..but these really do look perfect. Equally as good, if not better, than their glutenous counterpart!
I recently came up with a chocolate/chocolate chip/PB cookie that’s already GF and is almost vegan (1 egg but you can swap out for flax/chia egg)
Now that I worked hard on that recipe, I swear, I have seen about 3 versions of choc cookies (this one included!) that look incredible and I could have easily NOT reinvented the wheel 🙂
ha!
Ooh, just saw your post with that – yummo!! Always love your recipes Averie.
These cookies look excellent, love the combination of chocolate and cherries!
I love Carol’s book. And her blog, with her liberal use of pistachios. These look delicious. I’m a sucker for any fudgy chocolatey cherry thing.
i made these cookies 3 days ago, and wanted my gluten eating husband to eat them also. well, he doesn’t like dried Cherry’s, so i used sun-sweet figs, that i chopped up. holy cow, they are fantastic. now I’m giving him dirty looks when he goes to the cookie jar! leave some for me:)
So glad that you AND your husband love them Mary Lou! I adore the idea of using figs. I’m going to give this a go. Thanks for sharing!
These cookies look incredible!
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