It’s important to take advantage of summer’s bounty of fruits. One of my favourite fruits that I have to admit I have not really baked or cooked with is cherries. I love them on their own, I could eat a whole bowlful to myself. Cherries are chock full of antioxidants, beta-carotene, vitamin C, potassium, magnesium, iron and fibre – basically everything good for you!

When Whole Foods approached me to talk cherry season on the blog, the first thing that caught my eye was a Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. I had never really thought of adding cherries to chocolate chip cookies, so I was curious to try it out for myself.

The cookies were not too sweet, which I was surprised with. You know what would take these cookies to another level? Add some vanilla ice cream between two of them, I bet they’d be delicious!

There are several ways to pit cherries – one that Whole Foods recommends is putting the cherry on top of a bottle and poking through with a chopstick so that the pit falls into the bottle. I did this for a little bit but it was still kind of messy, so I decided to get my hands dirty and just pit them with my fingers. I looked like I was operating on someone by the end of it!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
3/4 cup all-purpose flour (I used 1 cup and skipped the whole wheat pastry flour)
1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup dried sour or sweet cherries, roughly chopped
1 cup pecans, roughly chopped (I didn’t have any on hand, so I skipped this as well)

Instructions:
1) Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

cherries

2) In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Add vanilla and eggs and beat again until combined. Sift together flours, salt and baking soda in a second bowl then add to butter mixture and beat again. Stir in chocolate chips, cherries and pecans then cover and chill for 1 hour.

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3) Drop chilled dough by rounded tablespoonful onto prepared baking sheets, spacing cookies about 2 inches apart. Bake until golden, 15 to 20 minutes, then carefully transfer to wire racks to let cool before serving.

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The batter had this grey tinge to it and I was afraid the cookies were going to be that colour but they baked perfectly to a nice golden brown. They’re tasty and not overly sweet and super easy to make!

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Do you want to win $50 to spend at Whole Foods buying some of their delicious cherries? We’re giving it away next week – just follow us on Instagram, subscribe to our Youtube channel or Pinterest boards to win!  Good luck!

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