By December. Christmas planning. The annual lights at the Maryvale house — Roberto on the ground, me on the roof, Elena supervising with corrections and hot chocolate. The pattern is fixed: red-green-red-green since 1988, and Roberto checks every bulb from the sidewalk with the scrutiny of a museum curator examining a new acquisition. "Third bulb from the left is crooked." I adjust. The ritual requires precision. The love requires imperfection tolerated within a framework of excellence. This is also how I cook. This is also how Roberto raised me.
Christmas schedule: off shift this year (fourth year in a row — I am convinced the rotation gods owe me a debt from the pandemic years and are repaying it with consecutive Christmas mornings). The menu: standing rib roast (the tradition, now in its fourth year), tamales (Elena's, made on the 23rd, the assembly line now a well-oiled machine), pozole on Christmas Eve (at Roberto and Elena's, the tradition that bends but never breaks), and a new dessert: a Mexican chocolate chess pie I have been developing for the restaurant menu. Chess pie with Mexican chocolate, cinnamon, cayenne, and a bourbon caramel drizzle. Rich, dark, slightly dangerous. The kind of dessert that Roberto calls "a man's dessert" because Roberto categorizes food by gender in ways that are not progressive but are entertaining.
The savings account crossed $88,000 this month. Jessica projects we will hit $100,000 by March. Six figures. The number that makes the dream impossible to dismiss. At $100,000, you are not saving for a restaurant. You are funding a restaurant. The language changes when the number changes. The number is changing.
The Manual is at 136 pages. I added the dessert section this month: tres leches cheesecake (Elena's, documented with her permission and supervision — she stood over my shoulder while I wrote and corrected every measurement I got wrong, which was three), the Mexican chocolate chess pie, churros, and banana pudding (the firehouse classic). The Manual is becoming complete. The book is becoming a book. And the restaurant is becoming a building. Everything is becoming what it was meant to be.
The chess pie is still in development — restaurant recipes take time to get right, and Roberto hasn’t signed off on the cayenne level yet. But while I was testing batches this month, I kept a tray of these Chocolate-Covered Cherry Thumbprints on the counter for the decorating crew, and they disappeared faster than I could make them. Rich chocolate, bright cherry, the kind of small indulgence that fits between tamale assembly and pozole prep without demanding too much of the oven or the cook. They’ve earned a permanent spot on the Christmas tray.
Chocolate-Covered Cherry Thumbprints
Prep Time: 30 minutes | Cook Time: 12 minutes | Total Time: 42 minutes | Servings: 36 cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 jar (10 ounces) maraschino cherries, drained and juice reserved
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
- 4 teaspoons reserved maraschino cherry juice
Instructions
- Cream the butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined.
- Mix the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Gradually add to the butter mixture, mixing until just combined.
- Shape the dough. Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place on ungreased baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Press your thumb into the center of each ball to create a well.
- Fill with cherries. Pat maraschino cherries dry and place one cherry in the center of each thumbprint, pressing down gently.
- Bake. Bake at 350°F for 10 to 12 minutes, until edges are set. Remove to wire racks.
- Make the chocolate topping. In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the chocolate chips with the sweetened condensed milk, stirring until smooth. Stir in the reserved cherry juice.
- Top the cookies. Spoon about 1 teaspoon of the chocolate mixture over each cherry, spreading to cover. Let cool completely until the chocolate is set.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 110 | Protein: 1g | Fat: 4g | Carbs: 17g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 45mg