Family Secret Cookie Recipes 12 Days Of Cookies

This month, Tasting Table is sweet on holiday cookies. This is the first in our 12-part series, the 12 Days of Cookies:

We've all kept secrets from our parents.

For most of us, the secrets involve sneaking a cigarette or staying out past curfew. But for Kendall Melton, pastry chef of Contigo in Austin, the skeleton in the closet is sweeter.

Melton's mother, Patricia, has been asking her daughter for the recipe for Melton's signature dark-chocolate-cherry cookies for years. At each turn, Kendall has either coyly dodged the question or supplied a version of the recipe but with slight modifications–a missing ingredient here, an incorrect measurement there.

"It's so mean," she confesses. "My mother was the one who taught me how to bake. But for some reason, I'm really possessive about this recipe."

Now that the cookies are on the Contigo menu, Melton has come clean. She's given us the recipe–in its entirety, she promises–and we can see why her mom has been so persistent. Rich with dark chocolate and brown sugar, the cookies have a melting softness that's punctuated by tart dried cherries (click here to see the recipe).

Looks like Mom finally got what she wished for.