We don’t go out to dinner very often, because I enjoy cooking dinner so much, and because we’re poor as church mice. (Not really, but I like that phrase. I can just see the church mice. Why are they poorer than other mice? Why?) But we went out the other night (thanks mom and dad!) for our anniversary. I think I enjoy going out to dinner more because we don’t do it very often. I love the space that we make sitting across from each other at a table. A little private pocket in a room filled with other people. I love the conversations we have when we go out to dinner, which always feel a little different from conversations we have any where else. We went to Sprig and Vine, a vegan restaurant, which I would recommend to anyone, be they vegan, be they meat-eaters, be they whatever. We ate fiddleheads and ramps and baby artichokes and castelvetrano olives. Yum. Then we came home and put the boys to bed and sat in the backyard by a fire, eating these cookies. Which is just what I’d hoped we’d do! I’ve told the story before of our courting days and my ingeniousness with wrapping chocolate ice cream around cherry ice cream. Well, ever since those days, I seem to be stuck in a rut with the cherries and the chocolate around valentines day and anniversaries. But they’re so perfect together! In any form! Such a perfect pairing. These particular cookies take a little while to put together, they’re a labor of love, which is exactly what I wanted them to be. They’re fun to make, though, and not difficult. You make a shortbread-type cookie. You roll it out and cut it into rounds. You cup a round of dough in your palm. You put a spoonful of good cherry jam in the center. You fold the edges up and seal them. You bake the cookies, and then you dip them in melted bittersweet chocolate. Good, messy, fun and delicious!

Here’s Soul Food by Goodie Mob because everyone in town is out at the restaurants, and they say “looking to be one of those days when mama ain’t cooking.” I love this song so much in every way.

COOKIE DOUGH

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 t vanilla
1 egg
1 1/2 – 2 cups flour
1/2 t salt
1 t cornstarch

good cherry preserves (I used bonne maman, and it’s delicious!)

1 1/2 cup good bittersweet chocolate chips

Cream together the butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add the vanilla, and the egg, and beat till even lighter and fluffier. Add the dry ingredients. Start with a cup and a half of flour, and add more till you have a workable consistency. You don’t want it to be too floury, but it has to be stiff enough to roll out and hold its shape. (I guess it depends on the size of your egg!)

Chill the dough for about half an hour. Preheat the oven to 375.

Roll the dough to be about 1/4 inch thick. (You don’t want it too thin or all the jam will come out when you fold it up). Use the top of a glass to cut out circles about 3 inches across.

Put a circle of dough in the palm of your hand. Put about 1/2 teaspoon of jam in the middle – maybe a little more. I wanted them to be juicy! Pull the edges together and seal them. You want to make a little ball (it will flatten a bit as it bakes) Put it seam side down on the cookie sheet. If any little holes form you can seal them up with extra dough. Don’t worry about making them too pretty at this stage – they’ll be coated with chocolate in the end.

I put my cookie sheets in the fridge while the oven was preheating, hoping that the extra chilling stage would help them hold their shape.

Bake for about 12 minutes, till they’re just starting to get lightly brown on the bottom. They will still be pale on top.

Let them cool, and then melt your chocolate chips in a small saucepan which you set over a larger saucepan filled with water. Don’t let even a drop of water get into the chocolate or it will seize up.

Dip each cookie in chocolate completely – using a knife to scrape off the excess. Place on tin foil (it won’t stick!) Put them in the fridge or a cool place to set, though you don’t need to store them in the fridge once they’re done.