This recipe for Cherry Chocolate Red Wine Cookies is one of my favorite ways to use leftover wine. Not that that's been a problem lately, but it's always good to have recipes that call for wine, and this one is pretty reliable. It's originally from Ashley Berman and was published on Food Network.
Best Red Wine for Cookies
Over the years I've made these with Merlot, Cabernet, Pinot Noir and Sangiovese. Just about any varietal will work, but I particularly like the Sangiovese, as it puts a little Italian spin on dessert. But really, I use whatever wine is available.
Small Batch Recipe
This is a rather small batch recipe, but you can easily double it. If you double it you will use 1 whole egg.
Cherry Chocolate Red Wine Cookies
¾ cup all-purpose flour (98 grams)
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons natural cocoa powder (30 grams)
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (60 grams)
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar (72 grams)
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar (80 grams)
2 tablespoons lightly beaten egg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup dry red wine (or any red wine)
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
½ cup dried tart cherries
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Combine flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda; set aside.
Beat the butter with an electric mixer until creamy. Add both sugars and beat until well mixed. Beat in the egg, vanilla and wine. By hand, stir in the flour mixture. Fold in the chocolate and cherries.
Scoop up rounded tablespoons of dough and drop, shaping into small mounds, onto an ungreased or parchment lined cookie sheet spacing about 2 inches apart.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until tops are still soft looking but edges look firm. Remove from cookie sheet to cool.
Makes 18
Anna says
Thanks for the tip! Sounds like a great idea.
CosmikCupcake says
For my second batch of these delicious cookies, I tried a technique I'd used successfully in adding dried cherries to a panful of brownies. Put the cherries into the wine in this recipe, then heat them in the microwave, 30 seconds or so. Let them steep/cool while preparing the dough, then drain off the wine and mix it in at the stated time. Add the cherries and chocolate at the stated time. This makes the cherries flavorful and tender. Mmmmmm.
kitty62 says
doubled this recipe and made it for a party.....none came back home. need i say more?!
Anna says
I baked up a few more of these using the same batch of dough and discovered a little trick. If you roll the cookies into balls with slightly wet hands, they'll have kind of a glossy, shiny appearance when baked....and smoother tops. Also, they're best under-baked. Or at least I thought so.
Holly says
I was so intrigued by these and happened to have some leftover wine, so I made a batch yesterday. Delicious - I will definitely make these again! Keep up the recipes - you are on my "check daily" list of blogs. I love it!
Alton says
I prefer white wine so the only red wine I have is some Port - would that be good? I have all the other ingredients.
Katrina, did you know that you can make really good pomegranate jelly using POM?
Tracy says
I love Schoolhouse Rock. I tried to get my band to rock out a few of those tunes for school gigs but they looked at me like I was nuts.
I love the combination of dark chocolate and red wine but never would have put them together in a cookie.
Katrina says
Ooh, see, now I like that someone said to use POM juice in place of the wine as I have one more bottle of it to use up and I made some POM brownies a while back that were excellent. Now I want to try it! Gotta get some more dried cherries.
Tanis says
Did you say you made these red wine cookies for a school function. I think I would be lynched here in the Bible Belt, Mississippi if I attempted that, LOL
I will keep these to myself and my family. Can't wait to try them.
Sue says
These sound interesting and I'll definitely try them some day.
Anna says
Maura, someone in the FTV review section said she substituted cherry juice for the wine and the cookies were great.
One thing I noticed about these cookies is that the ratio of butter to other ingredients is kind of low so the dough is not quite as rich. It helps to really stuff the cookies with chocolate and cherry and let the dough just be kind of a mortar.
Louise says
Niki - Retsina gives these cookies an "off" taste. 🙂
Niki says
I have to say (and this is only my opinion based on my taste!!) I hated these cookies. I added pistachios and used a semi-sweet chocolate chips, but that wasn't why I didn't like them. I didn't like them b/c the red wine was so potent. I would probably make these again, but I'd substitute the red wine for POM juice of something. I couldn't even taste the chocolate or cherries b/c the red wine was so strong! I made them this past Christmas, less than a month after graduating culinary school and my family wondered how the heck I managed to finish w/ straight A's after those cookies...
Maura says
What would a person replace the wine with in this recipe, if you were to do that? Would cherry fruit juice be an non-alcohol alternative and work? Sounds delish though.
Karen says
Love the hard-fought for glue stick's appearance in the photo. If I saw our governor in Target I would be tempted to slap him, which would probably not be a good idea since he is the Terminator, after all.
Anonymous says
This looks like a great recipe. I remember from the last time you made the cookies and thought the same thing then. Maybe this will nudge me forward....