Cherry season in Northern California started about a week ago and everyone is in full on cherry mania right now.
It’s a really short season here — typically just a month — and the thing to do is go pick your own at one of the many fruit orchards around. We are going on Sunday! We’ve never been before so I’m really excited…so is Grayson! He turns three years old on Sunday (yup, Mother’s Day!) and for months, has been telling us he wants to go strawberry picking on his birthday. But just the other day I brought home a big bag of cherries from a road side stand and now he has changed his birthday wish to cherry picking instead. 🙂 The guy cannot get enough cherries! I make him eat them in the backyard so he can just spit the pits into the grass. He LOVES him some California cherries.
I saved a few from my cherry monster to make these unbelievably yummy cookies. There’s a certain stand at our farmer’s market on Thursdays that sells these delicious looking fruit cookies, cakes and bars. I became inspired last week we were there to add fresh cherries into my coconut oil chocolate chunk cookie recipe…the result? Well, they are definitely as good as they look.
You guys know I am hooked on using coconut oil in my cookies these days. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE butter (and slather it on practically everything) but I really love the subtle coconut hint that the oil gives off. It’s in the background, really. You wouldn’t notice the flavor if you didn’t know it was there. I’m mildly addicted to coconut oil — I mean, what can’t it do?! We order ours monthly from Thrive and it’s been my favorite so far (and the most affordable since we go through so much of it).
These cookies are as light as could be and unbelievably FLUFFY. Think Lofthouse, people. ‘Nuff said. The secret though to really getting the fluff is to just barely mix the wet ingredients into the dry. If you over-mix, the cookies will spread out while they bake. Just barely mixing (and gently mixing in the fruit and the chocolate) gives you these insanely fluffy, almost muffin-like cookies that I can’t get enough of.
Please let me know if you try these! We are addicted. 🙂
- 1/3 cup coconut oil room temperature/solid state
- 2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 1 whole egg
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup fresh chopped, pitted cherries
- 3.5 oz good quality bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped at least 70%
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet with either a silpant or parchment paper.
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Cream together the coconut oil and brown sugar. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until very well combined and thick.
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In another bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
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Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and ONLY STIR UNTIL JUST COMBINED. This will ensure light, fluffy cookies.
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Fold in chocolate chunks and chopped cherries very gently.
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Spoon large balls of dough onto prepared baking sheet. Do not flatten dough balls. Bake for 10-11 minutes until lightly browned.
Really take care not to over-mix your cookie dough. After adding the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, just stir only until combined then very gently fold in chocolate and cherries.
Fresh Cherry Chocolate Chunk Cookies - social foods
May 9, 2017 at 6:22 am[…] Dessert, quick and easy, Recipes, Seasonal Ingredients, Seasonal Recipes, spring, summer This post was originally published on this […]
Aimee
May 9, 2017 at 6:43 amI feel like I forgot about cherries! What a delicious use of them, I can’t wait to try these out. Although, I’ll have to enlist someone to help me pit them all.
I use coconut oil for EVERYTHING. I should really look into ordering online in bulk instead of running to the store every other day for a jar!
Christina @ Montessoriishmom.com
May 9, 2017 at 8:58 amThese sound so, so good! We get the big thing of coconut oil from Thrive too, love that stuff.
Audrey
May 9, 2017 at 6:55 pmI’ve never thought to mix cherries and chocolate cookies but that sounds amazing. And yes, I love coconut oil too!
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Sophie
May 10, 2017 at 7:31 amyum! I love coconut oil too. I just discovered how awesome it is for skin stuff too. I pour it in my kid’s bath when they are having eczema flare ups or hand foot or mouth. Got to have a huge thing of it on hand always! Can’t wait to make these cookies. Thanks, Jenna!
Rachel
May 11, 2017 at 2:35 amThese cookies look to die for! I wish it was cherry season in the UK!!
I might have to wait a while to make them but I’m sure it’ll be worth the wait 😀
I love using coconut oil too, it’s definitely a nice extra delicate note.
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Danielle
May 22, 2017 at 7:00 pmI followed the directions exactly and my cookies melted into slabs of mush.
Brooke
May 31, 2017 at 4:58 pmI had the same issue. I’m not sure what went wrong….:(
Stephanie
July 25, 2018 at 8:39 pmI followed to a T and had spread out flat cookies…. ?