Cookies are easy to make, versatile, portable and bite-sized. Plus, who doesn’t like cookies? This cookbook features tons of recipes that go “above and beyond” your standard chocolate chip cookies: delicate pink macaroons, tiny shortbread sandwiches filled with mousse, and elaborately iced cookies for every occasion!

Cookies by Pamela Clark, Barnes & Noble Books (2007)

Cookies are classified by how they are made: they can be bar, drop, filled, molded, no-bake, pressed, refrigerator/icebox, rolled or sandwich cookies. These choco-cherry bliss bombs fall into the “molded” category because you form the dough into balls before rolling them in coconut and putting them on the baking sheet. They are fairly simple to make, they didn’t need any special equipment or ingredients, and the dough keeps well in the fridge in case you don’t want to make a hundred tiny cookies all at once.

Get the recipe here!

Modifications, Testing and Recommendations: These cookies are ridiculously time-consuming, so I only made 90 at first. Use a heavy knife to cut the cherries because the dried fruit and thick chocolate coating can be tough to chop finely enough. Also, it’s impossible to chop 6 ounces of chocolate-covered cherries without getting a fine chocolate dust all over your hands, which will somehow get on your face regardless of how careful you are. Make sure to grease the baking sheets and use parchment paper; the tiny balls of dough are too light to weigh down the paper on their own.

“If sad, eat cookie. If still sad, talk to doctor. Sounds serious.” – Cookie Monster

I used Bing cherries covered in dark chocolate, but I suspect this recipe could work well with just about any dried fruit. They also taste great without the coconut topping if you don’t like coconut, although I suspect it’s used more for the texture than the taste. These cookies are bite-sized and don’t have frosting, which makes it easy to share them with friends or give as gifts. They will stay fresh in an airtight container for a week or so (if they last that long).