Cocktail Cookies

I’ve always been a fan of cookies. Recently I’ve been making a twist on chocolate chip cookies that I call “cocktail cookies”. They don’t actually have alcohol, but they do have a couple cocktail-inspired twists.

The full recipe follows, but the short version is that I swap the vanilla for Angostura bitters, swap the chocolate chips for chopped walnuts, add orange zest to the batter, and place half of a Maraschino cherry on top of each.

Ingredients

• 1 cup melted butter
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp Angostura bitters
• 1 tsp baking soda, dissolved in 2 tsp hot water
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• Orange
• 24 Maraschino cherries

Steps

• Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
• Beat butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth.
• Beat eggs in one at a time, until mixture is smooth.
• Stir in Angostura bitters.
• Zest the entire orange; stir in the orange zest and 2 tsp of orange juice.
• Stir in dissolved baking soda and salt.
• Stir in flour and walnuts.
• Take 1 tbsp of dough at a time, rolling into balls, and place on a baking sheet, with a couple inches of distance between each. You should have enough dough for about 48 cookies.
• Press down on each ball with your thumb, flattening slightly and leaving a thumb-sized indent in the center.
• Halve the Maraschino cherries and place one half on the indent in each dough ball.
• Bake for about ten minutes and cool on a wire rack.