Made from scratch Cherry Cookies with soft and chewy texture. There is an ample of taste from maraschino cherries and almond extract. Combine them with chocolate chips for an irresistible cherry chocolate flavor.
Try these readers' fave Double Chocolate Cookies next! You will also love this Cherry Dump Cake.
Checkout all Cookie Recipes from Greedy Eats at one place.
Why you will love these Cookies:
Perfect for any celebrations: Bake these pretty in pink treats as Valentines Day Cookies for Birthdays, Baby Showers or even Bake Sales. Oh and won't these be the cutest on Holiday trays?? Options are unlimited!!
Cherry and Chocolate Combo: If you are also a fan of cherry and chocolate just like me, you will adore these. Also you can switch the flavors of chocolate to suit your taste and preferences.
Easy to make and can be stored for long: Not only these cookies are easy to put together, but you can also freeze baked cookies and thaw one when craving hits!
Ingredients and substitutes:
Cherries: I have used maraschino cherries here, removed of all the excess liquid. After taking cherries out of liquid, chop them. Then place chopped cherries on a paper towel to absorb that remaining liquid. This step is crucial to avoid soggy cookie dough.
Sugar: We are using light brown sugar to create the most chewy yet soft cookies. You will notice that there is no granulated sugar in this recipe and that's intentional. I don't recommend replacing light brown sugar with dark brown sugar.
Egg and extra Yolk: One egg helps to bind the cookie dough and that extra yolk makes cookies soft and extra chewy.
Flavorings: Almond extract gives a beautiful flavor to these cookies and it compliments very well with cherries.
Chocolate Chips: You can replace semi sweet chocolate chips with white chocolate chips or even cherry chips.
Food Coloring: Just a few drops of pink or red food coloring for that pretty pink cookies. I use gel food coloring, since liquid food coloring can make the dough runny. You can totally skip coloring if you wish.
How we bring these cookies together:
Bringing this dough together is easy! We are using just the usual gang of butter, sugar eggs flour and leaveners.
What's different here is instead of granulated sugar, we are making use of light brown sugar. Along with one egg we are using one extra egg yolk. You need to trust me on this. Just one yolk makes such a big difference. It will make your cookies so chewy.
To ensure thickness, just a little cornstarch is added. Chilling also ensures the cookies bake thick and don't spread way too much.
So do not skip the chilling step. If you want your cookies to look super pretty, press a few more chopped cherries and chocolate chips in cookie balls before baking.
Chill the dough: Rolling gets super convenient if the dough is chilled. Otherwise juices from cherries can make your hands sticky. Also it is imperative to chill the dough as it controls over spreading and helps with flavor enhancement.
Tips to make best Cookies:
Measure flour correctly: Always reach for a weighing scale to measure your flour. 1 cup might not always measure 1 cup, but 125 grams will always be 125 grams. Incase you do not have a weighing scale around, use spoon and sweep method.
Cherries: Chop cherries small so that they disperse well in the dough. You can also use fresh cherries if you like. Do not use cherry pie filling in this dough. As filling would be too sweet and the consistency won't be right.
After draining the cherries of all their juice, finely chop and place them on kitchen towels. We need all the juice to be out of cherries so that dough does not turn overly moist.
Chilling the Dough: You have two options here. You can either chill cookie dough balls in the freezer for about 30 minutes. Or you can also chill the dough in refrigerator for around 2 hours if you are not running short on time.
More Chocolate Desserts that you will love:
If you liked this recipe give it a star review. Also, tell me in the comments below- how did this recipe turn out for you! And don’t forget to share your creations with me on Instagram at #greedyeatsblog Are we friends on Pinterest and Facebook yet?
Recipe
Cherry Cookies
Equipment
- 1 Hand/stand Mixer
- 2 Cookie trays
- Silicon Mat/Parchment Paper
- 1 Cookie scoop
Ingredients
- ½ cup Butter (at room temperature)
- ¾ cup Light Brown Sugar
- 1 Whole Egg (at room temperature)
- 1 Egg Yolk (at room temperature)
- ½ teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
- ⅛ teaspoon Almond extract
- Few drops Gel food coloring
- ½ cup Maraschino Cherries (finely chopped and drained)
- 1 and ½ cup All purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon Cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- ⅛ teaspoon Salt
- ¾ cup Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips
Instructions
- Line 2 baking sheets with silicone mat/parchment paper and set them aside. Drain and finely chop maraschino cherries. Now place them on few paper kitchen towels to get rid of any excess juices.½ cup Maraschino Cherries
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment or using a handheld mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and light brown sugar for 2-3 minutes. The mixture should turn pale and fluffy.½ cup Butter, ¾ cup Light Brown Sugar
- Add and beat in the egg and egg yolk till it gets combined, about 30-45 seconds. Beat in vanilla and almond extracts too.1 Whole Egg, 1 Egg Yolk, ½ teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract, ⅛ teaspoon Almond extract
- Add in pink gel food coloring drop by drop and mix in till you get the color you like.Few drops Gel food coloring
- In a mixing bowl, combine baking soda, cornstarch, salt and flour using a whisk. Gradually add and mix in the flour mixture into dough mix (in two additions) on low speed first so that the flour doesn't fly all over. Run your mixer only till flour streaks disappear in the dough.1 and ½ cup All purpose flour, 1 teaspoon Cornstarch, ½ teaspoon Baking Soda, ⅛ teaspoon Salt
- Mix in chocolate chips and chopped cherries with a spatula saving a few chocolate chips to decorate on top after cookies bake.½ cup Maraschino Cherries, ¾ cup Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips
- Using a cookie scoop, make cookie dough balls (about 2 tablespoons each) and place them on pre-lined sheets. Freeze cookie balls for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350℉ and bake cookies for 10-11 minutes or till their tops look set. Press remaining chocolate chips into the cookies. Don't be tempted to overbake the cookies, else these can get brown spots on them.Allow cookies to cool on baking trays for about 10-15 minutes before transferring on wire rack to cool completely.
Karletta
These look so pretty and are delicious too. I made a batch in love heart shapes, wrapped them in cellophane and a red ribbon. Perfect little gifts.
Barbie R
OMG these cherry cookies look so yummy. I do not think I've ever eaten cherry cookies. I am for sure going to be making these ones.
Stephanie
Cherry cookies are so delicious! I love the chunks of cherries in there, and mixed with the chocolate chips, they are perfect.
Cindy Orley
What a perfect Valentine's Day (or any day) recipe! It looks delicious and so pretty. I have only made one cookie with cherries before and we loved it so I can't wait to try this one!
Melanie E
These cookies sound wonderful. Who doesn't love soft and chewy cookies. The kids and I will look forward to trying them with fresh cherries.
Sonia Seivwright
Such a fun twist on a classic cookie. I’d never baked with maraschino cherries before, but your instructions made it super straightforward. They also looked so pretty once baked — great for sharing or gifting (if you don’t eat them all first). Definitely making these again.
Ben
There CANNOT be a better cookie than this. It was an easy recipe, and the maraschino with the chocolate chips is crazy good.
Claudia
AMAZING cookies! I used dark chocolate chips, instead. SO GOOD.
Beth
I love the combo of cherry and semi-sweet chocolate, and these cookies are SUPER soft. Great recipe.
Amy
I have made these are they're a treat! Love to coloring too for added cuteness!
Cindy Orley
This cookies look AMAZING! I love the flavor combination and this looks like a great recipe for Valentine's Day! I can't wait to try it.