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These soft dark chocolate and cherry cookies are a decadent treat! Tart, sweet, and salty are the prominent flavors of this crazy good cookie!
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If you’re looking for your next favorite cookie, these dark chocolate and cherry cookies are it. My friend gave me this recipe and told me that I HAD to make it. She said she had already made it three times.

I was skeptical. I love cookies just as much as the next person but I mean, how special could these dark chocolate and cherry cookies be? They’re just dark chocolate and cherry. I could buy cherries and dip them in dark chocolate. I know, I was being stubborn.

I hate baking and I’m not a fan of whipping out all these measuring cups, spoons, bowls, and having to do all that cleanup. But since she insisted I just try it once, I gave it a shot. Ummm. Foot in mouth.

These dark chocolate and cherry cookies are FREAKING PHENOMENAL. There is just something about dark chocolate and cherries. The flavor combination is phenomenal. I was really surprised making these cookies, I thought they would just be like ordinary cookies but omg, they are just truly so out of this world.

I love how soft and tender the center is and the edges are slightly crispy. The tart cherries stay soft throughout and it’s just such a great burst of flavor to offset the bitterness of the dark chocolate.

These soft dark chocolate and cherry cookies are a decadent treat! Tart, sweet, and salty are the prominent flavors of this crazy good cookie!

I don’t love dark chocolate, can I use regular chocolate?

Yes.

The dough is so thick.

Yes, the dough is verrrrry thick. It’s almost fudge-like!

What if I don’t have a stand mixer?

You can use a hand mixer but I will warn you, standard spatula and elbow-grease is probably better because since the batter is so thick, the hand mixer won’t be powerful enough.

Learn from me. Stick to a stand mixer or by elbow-grease but it is a workout and your arm will certainly be tired!

These soft dark chocolate and cherry cookies are a decadent treat! Tart, sweet, and salty are the prominent flavors of this crazy good cookie!

Can I use sweet cherries?

Sure. I love tart cherries though because it gives it that bite of tartness to cut the sweet of the cookie.

Can I use fresh cherries?

No, I’d stick to dried tart cherries.

What other dried fruit can I use?

You could substitute out for whatever dried fruit but I implore you to try dried cherries. They’re just so good in this recipe!

These soft dark chocolate and cherry cookies are a decadent treat! Tart, sweet, and salty are the prominent flavors of this crazy good cookie!

How do you get the chocolate puddles on top?

2 minutes before they were done baking, I pulled them out of the oven and pushed a chocolate wafer chip on top.

So incredibly soft and tender with a slight crisp on the edges.

As you can see in the photos, the center is so fudgy and moist.

Do I have to sprinkle salt on top?

You don’t have to but goodness, the tart, sweet, and salty combination is simply amazing.

Can I freeze the dark chocolate and cherry cookies?

Yes, you can freeze the raw dough (form them into cookie shapes first) and put them in a plastic freezer bag.

More cookies with fruit combinations:

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4.91 from 10 votes

Dark Chocolate and Cherry Cookies

These dark chocolate and cherry cookies are a decadent treat! They’re soft and the burst of tart cherries go so well with the dark chocolate!
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
Servings: 1 dozen

Ingredients 

  • 2 ¼ cups (281 g) all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup (43 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon flaky or kosher salt
  • 1 cup (227 g) room temp unsalted butter
  • 1 cup (220 g) dark brown sugar
  • ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs, room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup (138 g) dried tart cherries, roughly chopped
  • ¾ cup (135 g) bittersweet mini chocolate chips
  • Bittersweet chocolate wafer chips, optional

Instructions 

  • Preheat oven to 350 °F (177 °C). Prep cookie sheet with silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
  • Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl and whisk.
  • Add butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar to mixing bowl of stand mixer, fitted with paddle attachment. Mix until light and fluffy. Add eggs – one at a time – mix until thoroughly combined (scrape down sides of the bowl after each addition). Next, incorporate vanilla into the sugar mixture.
  • Next, slowly add dry mixture to wet ingredients and mix on low until just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
  • Add cherries and chocolate chips to mixture and combine with spatula.
  • Use a medium sized ice cream scoop to distribute dough on to cookie sheets.
  • Depending on how your oven bakes: Bake for 13-15 minutes until center of cookie is just set. Transfer to rack to cool. Enjoy!

Notes

**2 minutes before they were done baking, I pulled them out of the oven and pushed a chocolate wafer chip on top. Also, the raw dough is extremely thick. Fudge-like!

Nutrition

Serving: 1Cookie, Calories: 419kcal, Carbohydrates: 56g, Protein: 5g, Fat: 21g, Fiber: 4g, Sugar: 34g

This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition information can vary for a variety of reasons. For the most precise nutritional data use your preferred nutrition calculator based on the actual ingredients you used in the recipe.

The default measuring system for this website is US Customary. Unit conversions are provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. While we strive to provide accurate unit conversions, please be aware that there may be some discrepancies.

Like this? Leave a comment below!

Pretty sure you need these dark chocolate and cherry cookies in your life! I mean, just look at that melted chocolate and fudgy center!!

These soft dark chocolate and cherry cookies are a decadent treat! Tart, sweet, and salty are the prominent flavors of this crazy good cookie! #tartcherries #darkchocolate #cookies #chocolateandcherries #chocolatecookies

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17 Comments

  1. LOVE this recipe. Use it every year for Christmas cookie trays. I was wondering if anyone has tried blooming the cocoa powder? I’d like to enhance the chocolate flavor even more and know that blooming the cocoa is one great way to do that. Just not positive how to best apply it within this recipe.

    1. i haven’t actually tried this before so i can’t say for sure it’ll work but i’d love for you to give it a try!

    2. @Julie Chiou, I won 1st place in our local Mrs. Claus bake off!! I used a special mini dark chocolate hershey bar, broke in half to place in the top of the cookie. They were the bomb!! Thank you for the recipe!! I did put half of a chilled chocolate covered cherry in test cookies, way too sweet, not the sour cherry I was looking for.

  2. I very rarely follow a recipe to the letter, and I NEVER leave comments on online recipes. That being said, I did, and I am. These cookies are the cat’s meow, the bees knees… they are cute little disks of pure joy.
    Do as you’re told and reap the rewards!!!

  3. My neighbor made these…Loved them! And I don’t like chocolate and dried fruit together! I had to look up the recipe immediately can’t wait to make it myself! That extra wafer on top… yum!! She used Godiva wafer!

  4. These are very delicious. They are everything advertised. I did not use the wafers. Other than that I followed the recipe exactly. Wait, I used light brown sugar instead of dark brown. Definitely need to have a glass of milk in hand because they are seriously rich.

    1. @Susan, I also learned that if you add one tablespoon of molasses to one cup of light brown, you get 1 cup of dark brown sugar! Who knew?

  5. Looks so amazing! Was wondering if it would work to substitute the butter with coconut oil or Earth Balance (dairy allergy in our house)?

  6. Julie, you have totally outdone yourself with this recipe!!!

    I followed the recipe really closely, only subbing in a mix of cherries/berries for cherries. I also didn’t have a cookie scoop, so I used a spoon and made golf-sized balls. I’m not sure if I was supposed to flatten them, so I just left them as is. I baked them for 13 minutes, then added broken pieces of a dark chocolate bar to form the little melty pools.

    The dough alone, before baking, is sinful. I don’t want to talk about how much of it I ate, but suffice to say it was a lot. The cookies are absolutely delicious. Mine turned out slightly dense and rich, and the dried cherries add a great punch of tartness. Oh and the best part – the cookie dough mixing took less than 15 minutes, and I was able to clean up while the first batch baked! I froze half my dough for baking off later.

    Highly recommend, and I think these will be a staple in my house from now on. Thank you so much!!