Well, mebbe not really a Parfait! recipe… but close!
I made the orange, roasted nut and chocolate cookie bars last week, and, while they were a pretty big hit at the family gathering in Indiana, they were not, as we like to say: ‘one of Rich’s favorites’.
What to do?
Our cousins from Canada were going to be stopping with us for a few days on their way home, and Lois had told me that Ernie loves him some cherry an’ chocolate an’ stuff.
Hmmm.
I still had some toasted hazelnuts and almonds left over from the orange cookies, there were cherry preserves in the pantry, conveniently close to those OH! so good Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips, and I still had a pound or five of butter in the freezer – so a plan was formed.
Chocolate ‘n cherries ‘n nuts ‘n cookie and YUMMIER!
INGREDIENTS
Cookie Dough:
•3 cups flour
•3/4 tsp baking powder
•1/4 tsp salt
•1 tsp DiSaronno
•1 cup butter, softened
•1 cup sugar
•1 egg, beaten
•1 tbsp milk
Toppings:
•1 cup cherry preserves – or mebbe a bit more
•1-1/2 cup toasted, chopped nuts – I used hazelnuts and almonds
•1 cup chocolate chips – I again used Ghirardelli 60% cacao
So, once again, I made the sugar cookie dough, which you could just buy at the market; but then how would you be able to flavor it with that hint of DiSaronno?
If you are going to make your cookie dough:
Heat your oven to 375º.
Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl and set aside.
Add the sugar to the softened butter in a mixing bowl and beat until light in color.
Beat in the egg, DiSaronno, and milk until well combined, then add the flour mixture gradually, combining on low until the dough pulls away from the side of the mixing bowl.
If you were planning on using this dough for cut-out cookies, now would be the time to gather it into a ball, wrap it in waxed paper, and stash it in the fridge for an hour or so. 
Since we are not, you can just plop the dough onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet or baking pan and spread into a rectangle with your hands.
My dough was looking a bit ‘fingered’ at this point, so I slapped a bit of waxed paper over the lot and evened it out with a small vinegar bottle – worked a treat.
I ran the tines of a fork through my dough just before baking so the baked cookie surface would have some nooks and crannies to grab onto all the goodness about to be piled on top.
Once you have the dough spread out to your liking, bake your cookie for about ten minutes, just until lightly browned on the edges. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
Use the overhanging parchment paper to carefully lift the cookie out of the pan and onto flat surface, or a nice, large platter.
Spread the cherry preserves over the cookie and top with the toasted nuts – I pressed mine down lightly, just to compact things a bit.
‘Wave the chips for sixty to ninety seconds, just until melted, and stir until smooth.
Drizzle the melted chocolate over all and allow to cool. I, ermmm, trimmed a bit of the excess cookie off the edge – just to see how it tasted, of course!
And it was G-O-O-O-D!
I think I may prefer this version to the orange marmalade one, and chocolate and orange is one of my favorite things.
Supposedly, this makes twelve cookie bars – but I think that it is too rich for that division. Sixteen to twenty is much more better to me, but then you do what you want.