I made a recipe from “Cooks Illustrated” magazine called Chocolate-Cherry Bar Cookies with Hazelnuts. It’s basically a shortbread cookie dough with dried cherries topped with melted chocolate and toasted hazelnuts. I also made a white chocolate version with toasted coconut added. Both were very good!
Ingredients
Butter Cookie Dough
2 1/4 cups (12 1/2 ounces) flour
3/4 cup (5 1/2 ounces) superfine sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
16 Tbl. unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces, at cool room temp
2 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbl. cream cheese
1 cup dried cherries
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups hazelnuts, toasted, skinned and chopped
Directions
In bowl of mixer with paddle attachment, mix flour, sugar, salt and dried cherries on low speed until combined. With mixer running on low add butter 1 piece at a time; continue to mix until mixture looks crumbly (about 1 minute). Add vanilla and cream cheese and mix on low until dough begins to form large clumps, about 30 seconds.
Press dough into parchment lined
17 1/2 by 12-inch baking sheet. Bake cookies at 375 degrees until golden brown, about 20 minutes.
Immediately after removing from oven sprinkle with chocolate chips; let stand to melt, about 3 min.
Spread chocolate in an even layer then sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts. Cool on wire rack until just warm, 15 to 20 minutes.
Using pizza wheel, cut into 1 1/2 inch diamonds. Transfer to rack to cool completely.
Makes about 50 cookies.
*For coconut version I folded toasted coconut into dough and topped with chopped white chocolate and then finished with hazelnuts and toasted coconut.
