Do you love cherries? How about cookies? If you answered yes to both of those questions, then you’re going to love these Maraschino Cherry Cookies! These fluffy, buttery, sweet cookies have a hint of almond, the taste of sweet cherries, and chocolate. They are the picture-perfect combination of sweet and tart and are so easy to make. Plus, they’re perfect for not only the holiday but also year-round!
These cookies have a shortbread meets snowball consistency and are not chewy.
Why I Love these Cookies
First off, thank you, Mostly Homemade Mom for this delicious recipe idea. My family loved them! Personally, I enjoyed them because they are quick and easy to make. I love that you do not need to refrigerate the dough before baking, and they require no leavening agents. I also enjoyed that they were loaded with my 3 favorite flavors: cherry, almond, and chocolate – what is not to love?
Plus, they are not only perfect for the holidays but also Valentine’s Day. You can add food dye to change the coloring up depending on the occasion. The pink combination of dye and no dye was so pretty on our serving platter.
How to Make these Cherry Cookies
Make sure the oven is preheated to 350 degrees F. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.
The easiest way to make this recipe is to use a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the softened butter, powdered sugar, extract, salt, and cherry juice. Reduce the mixer speed and slowly add in the all-purpose flour.
If you feel like the dough is too dry, add an additional teaspoon of cherry juice. Once the batter is mixed, fold in the cherries and nuts.
Using a tablespoon-sized cookie scoop, scoop rounded tablespoons of dough on the lined baking sheet with 2 inches of space in-between each.
Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees F. Cookies will be fluffy, firm to the touch, and golden brown around the edges.
Transfer cookies to a cooling rack before transferring to a platter or airtight container.
Variations
Like every good cookie recipe, there are some variations to this recipe you can make.
Chocolate – Use mini or standard-sized milk, white, dark, or semi-sweet morsels.
Dye – You can see the difference of what 3/4 teaspoon of red food dye, and no additional food dye look like below. Personally, I prefer them without the additional dye since the cherries already include artificial food dyes. The red dye will not turn them red, but a deep pink hue.
Nuts – You can add an additional 1/4 cup of nuts to these cookies, or you could skip the chocolate and just add the nuts (3/4 cup).
Topping – These are delicious with a swizzle of white chocolate across the top of them. Melt a cup of white chocolate until creamy and swizzle along each cooled cookie.
Please note: These cookies do not need egg, baking soda, or baking powder! They have a shortbread consistency and are not chewy like a typical chocolate chip cookie.
How to Store these Cookies
Once your cherry cookies have been baked, and cooled, place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or wax paper. Place the baking sheet in the freezer and freeze until solid (overnight is best). Remove the cookies from the tray and store them in large, airtight freezer bags for up to 3 months.
When you want to enjoy them, allow them to thaw in the refrigerator.
These also last for up to one week when stored at room temperature in an airtight container.
More Delicious Cherry Baked Goods
- Pineapple Cherry Dump Cake
- Chocolate Cherry Dump Cake
- Easy Cherry Hand Pies
- Cherry Pistachio Snowballs
- Cherry Almond Biscotti
Maraschino Cherry Cookies
Equipment
- Oven (adjusted to center rack position)
- Large Baking Sheet
- parchment paper
- stand mixer
- rubber spatula
- cutting board & knife
- Measuring Cups & spoons
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened, UNSALTED variety
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons cherry juice *from cherry jar
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup maraschino cherries chopped, and dried thoroughly. Any excess moisture will ruin the dough consistency.
- ½ cup mini chocolate chips *¾ cup if using standard-sized morsels.
- ½ teaspoon red food dye *optional (not used in my lighter pink cookies)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the softened butter, powdered sugar, extract, salt, and cherry juice. Reduce the mixer speed and slowly add in the all-purpose flour. If you feel like the dough is too dry, add an additional teaspoon of cherry juice.
- Reduce the stand mixer to low speed, and fold in the cherries and mini chocolate chips.
- Using a tablespoon-sized cookie scoop, scoop rounded tablespoons of dough on the lined baking sheet with 2 inches of space in-between each.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cookies will be fluffy, firm to the touch, and golden brown around the edges.
- Transfer cookies to a cooling rack before transferring to a platter or airtight container.
This was my favorite cookie this year! Really depends on your personal taste. My husband didn’t care for them, but I LOVED them! I had a jar of cherries in my pantry that I wanted to use up and just googled maraschino cherry cookies. So glad I found this recipe. It’s a keeper!
More like a shortbread. Somewhat dry and grainy, the raw dough smelled amazing though. Lacking, is my best description.
Hello Peggy, that was supposed to say mini chocolate chips. I have updated. I employed help to post this and they missed a lot…never again!
Hi Nancy, sorry! I had someone help post this and they apparently missed half the recipe it seems. I have added the missing elements. It is half a teaspoon. Thank you!
Hi Judy, sorry! I had someone help post this recipe and they missed a lot. It is half a teaspoon. I have updated! Thank you!
How much extract?
It says “hint of almond ” however the recipe does not include almond extract. Is it suppose to?
Instructions say to add nuts. No nuts in the ingredient list.
Thank you for catching that omission! It is 2 1/4 cups all-pupose flour.
The instructions say to add flour. There is no flour in the ingredient list.