Originally, I had no intention of posting a dessert recipe this week. We had a big family Easter weekend where we consumed so many sinful sweets like nanaimo bars and lemon squares, chocolate cake and truffles, not to mention the many chocolate eggs from the kids’ Easter egg hunt. After “Feaster”, this week should have been a “get-back-to-healthy-eating” week. But then, as I admired the eggs in Emma and Katie’s Easter basket, I remembered these cookies.

Their dark and sweet and tart and nutty deliciousness. Which brings us together again – making dessert!

This time, rather than use whole wheat flour (which I love to use normally), I gave spelt flour a try. It offers an even more nutty and slightly sweet flavour which complements the dark chocolate and the tart cherries perfectly.  Rather than leave the dried cherries whole, I chopped them up coarsely — the texture was more pleasing for Emma. We also had them with freshly chopped dark chocolate rather than chocolate chips. G and Emma both preferred the chips, but I think I’m partial to the chopped chocolate myself.

And speaking of Emma (aren’t I always speaking of Emma here?!), the use of hard-boiled egg in the recipe meant that she had free reign in her taste-testing duties. Now she could actually taste not just individual ingredients but the actual dough as it went on to the baking sheet. And it did not take a lot of convincing to have her do just that.

The combination of flavours makes a mouth-watering baked cookie. You might just find yourself eating the dough before it makes it into the oven!

Tips and suggestions:

• For a dairy-free version, replace the butter with a spread like Earth Balance. Then, increase the brown sugar to 3/4 cups. The rest of the directions are the same.
• If you’ve already used up all of your Easter eggs, you can just use raw egg in the recipe instead. Although it is a lot more fun eating the dough without risking getting sick.
• Old fashioned rolled oats can be used instead of quick oats but they will produce a slightly crunchier and rougher texture.
• For fans of lots of chocolate in every bite, try chopping the dark chocolate and adding it to the dough instead of using chocolate chips.
• If the cookies are just too tempting (as they were in our house), bake one cookie sheet’s worth and freeze the other for baking later. Just pop them into an airtight container and into the freezer until you’re ready to bake the rest.
• No time to chill the dough? You’ll end up with an equally delicious but thinner cookie. Almost like a thick florentine. Perfect with that afternoon coffee.
• The texture of the cookies seems to improve after they are fully cooled. Especially in the case of using old-fashioned rolled oats, the cookies are quite crumbly while warm.
• You can make these cookies into bite-sized ones as well. Be sure to reduce your baking time slightly if you’re looking for chewier cookies, otherwise, you’ll end up with a delicious but crispy bite-sized cookie.