Canadian readers will know what I’m talking about when I say “Festive Special.” Every Christmas, a chain called Swiss Chalet offers their quarter chicken dinner with cranberry sauce and a spongy, sage laden side that they call stuffing. It’s sub-par, but the real draw is the package of 5 assorted Lindor chocolates that it comes with. Dark, milk, hazelnut, white and stracciatella, an orb of white chocolate enrobed in more white chocolate, studded with chocolate shards.

Camino unsweetened chocolate, chopped into a pile of delicious shards, ready to create the stracciatella effect.

I’ve been craving chocolate lately. And to be completely honest, I do not plan recipes for this blog. For the most part I make and photograph and post about what I’m making in the moment. Today I found a recipe for cheesecake cookies that looked like they needed some chocolate lovin’.

Not sure that these are going to completely satiate my chocolate cravings, but they are dense and rich with a wonderful flavour and great texture. The chopped chocolate left the interior nicely streaked, and because it’s unsweetened, these aren’t too sweet. With a cup of coffee, or cold milk, they’re a wonderful treat. And they are super easy to make.

Stracciatella Cheesecake Cookies

3/4 cup butter, softened
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla or almond extract (I used almond)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 ounces finely chopped unsweetened chocolate
Chocolate cookie crumbs, for coating

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl or a stand mixer, cream the butter, cream cheese and sugar together. Mix in the extract (I used almond because I love the flavour of it with chocolate. Peppermint or orange would also be good, but perhaps just a half teaspoon). Stir in the flour and chopped chocolate until well combined.

Form the dough into 1″ balls. Roll in chocolate crumbs so the balls are covered.

Place the cookie balls onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, taking care to not overbake them like I did (I should have removed them at 12 minutes, but I went 15 and they’re a bit dry). There are no eggs, so if they’re a little underbaked, it’s okay.

I got 36 cookies.

I bought this mug for my husband because he thought it was funky.