Cherry chocolate Greek yogurt cookies

Cherry chocolate Greek yogurt cookies

It's Valentine's week: guess how much I love my readers?

I'm giving you a delicious, healthy cookie post -- while I'm on vacation.

That's how much.  I didn't want to leave you hanging when there's a sugar-based holiday fast approaching.

I came up with this recipe at the tail end of Detox January; during the last week, I was craving sweets but didn't really have any new healthy (well, healthier) cookie recipes to try. I poked around Pinterest a bit and found a recipe for a Greek yogurt and fruit-based cookie, but it had a big slathering of icing on the top -- not very detoxy.

So I made up my own.

What I like about this recipe is that it is flexible; you can use any combination of fruit and yogurt to really customize your cookies. I used black cherry yogurt and dried cherries because that's what I had on hand. What about mango yogurt and bits of dried mango, maybe with some white chocolate chips thrown in for good measure? Or blueberry yogurt with frozen blueberries and some lemon zest or candied citrus peel?

You can see that the possibilities are nearly endless.

One other tip: I used half flavored Greek yogurt and half plain. The cookies had just the slightest tang to them, which I liked because I prefer my cookies a little less sweet than most people. If you have more of a sweet tooth than I, just go ahead and double the amount of flavored yogurt or use vanilla instead of the plain.

I think these would make a great Valentine's Day gift, don't you?

Cherry Chocolate Greek Yogurt Cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 6-ounce container fat-free black cherry Greek yogurt (or whatever flavor you like; I think Chobani has the most interesting flavors)
1 6-ounce container fat-free plain Greek yogurt (or vanilla, or the same flavor you chose above)
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup dried cherries
1/3 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. In another larger bowl, lightly beat the egg, then whisk in the yogurt, sugar and vanilla, mixing thoroughly. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until well combined; fold in the cherries and chips.

Scoop dough into heaps (I used a 1 1/2 tablespoon scoop) on a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving them a little bit of room for spreading. Bake for about 10-12 minutes, until edges begin to brown. Let cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.