I like wine. It’s almost a defining characteristic. If I was coming over to your house for a meal, you’d probably say, “Claire’s coming over? Let’s see. She’s a vegetarian, so lets get some vegetables, and she’ll be wanting wine, so let’s stock up on that.” And then someone else – the imaginary friend of my imaginary friend – would say, “Should we get a good bottle?” and you’d say, “Nah, she’ll drink anything.” Well, not anything! I wouldn’t drink mad dog 20/20 kiwi strawberry, for pete’s sake. But I am fine with cheap and cheerful, it’s true.

I grew up in a house that had a little silver dish that said, “a dinner without wine is like a day without sunshine,” and I seem to have taken that to heart! When I was younger, before I even drank wine, I would listen to this song by Antoine Forqueray. It must have been wintertime, I remember a glowing sort of light in the kitchen. My mother must have been making dinner. The song sounded like red wine, and I remember thinking, “I hope someday I’m in love, and making dinner, and drinking red wine, and feeling like this song makes me feel.” Welladay! Here we are!

Of course, there’s no combination better than red wine and dark chocolate. And this was the inspiration for these cookies. There’s red wine in the batter. It makes the cookies a little soft and cake-like, but pleasantly so, I think. The taste of red wine in a baked good is quite nice. It’s like a little fruity tang. It’s not overwhelming – you can have these with coffee in the morning. You can feed them to your children. It’s just really nice. These went fast!

Here’s the Forqueray, as played by Jordi Savall. It’s the 2Eme Suite, Chaconne La Buisson. God, it’s gorgeous!!

1 stick butter (1/2 cup) softened
1 cup sugar
2 t vanilla
1 egg
1/2 cup red wine
1 3/4 cups flour
1/4 t salt
black pepper
pinch cinnamon

3/4 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and egg, and mix well. Add the wine and stir well. It might seem a little curdled at this point, but fear not! it will all come together once you… add all of the dry ingredients, and beat till mixed thoroughly and quite smooth.

Lightly butter your baking sheets. Drop the cookies by small spoonfuls onto the sheets. The cookies shouldn’t spread too much, but leave an inch or two to be sure.

Cook for about ten minutes till they’re lightly browned on the bottom. Be careful – because the tops won’t look cooked, and it’s easy to burn the bottoms.

Move to a cooling rack.

When they’re quite cool, melt the chocolate chips in a small saucepan over a bigger saucepan full of water. Be careful not to get any water into the chocolate, or it will seize up.

Spread a light layer of chocolate on one cookie, and find one of comparable size and shape to sandwich with it. Put them on a big piece of foil to set.