These bright and chewy maraschino cherry cookies are super easy to make and equally delicious. These cookies have a pretty burst of bright red that combined with their sweet cherry and chocolate flavors makes them great for snacking or date nights.
These thick, soft and chewy maraschino cherry cookies are a great valentines day dessert, date night dessert or just for everyday snacking. As an added flavor addition, they have chocolate chips sprinkled throughout as well.
Similar to these lemon blueberry cookies and these raspberry lemon cookies, this recipe uses chunks of actual fruit folded right into the dough.
🧁Why To Try This Recipe
Pretty & Bright - with large flecks of bright red cherries speckled throughout these cookies, they are pretty and eye catching.
Classic flavor combo - the flavors of chocolate and cherry is a classic and delicious flavor combination.
Quick & Easy - this is a no chill dough, so you can bake these up in about 30 minutes.
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🥄Equipment
- Mixing Bowl
- Measuring Cups
- Measuring Spoons
- Baking Sheet
- Large spoon or Spatula
- Hand or Stand Mixer
📋Ingredients
- Chopped Maraschino Cherries
- Cherry Juice - from the maraschino cherry jar
- Chocolate Chips
- Eggs
- Vanilla Extract
- Baking Soda
- Salt
- Flour
- White Sugar
- Brown Sugar
- Butter - softened
See recipe card for quantities.
📖Substitutions & Variations
Try out a few of these flavor variations to make these cookies exactly what you want.
- Change up the chocolate - you can use white chocolate, dark chocolate or even a candy add in like M&M's instead of semi-sweet chocolate.
- Make them more colorful - add in a dash of red or pink food coloring if you want to go all in and make them super colorful.
- Add a nutty flavor - add in almond extract or some chopped nuts if you like an additional nutty flavor.
Want other bright red cookies? Try these heart thumbprint cookies.
⏲️Instructions
Use these step-by-step instructions and photos of the baking process in order to easily make up a batch of these cookies.
Step one: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Also, grease your cookie sheet with a non-stick cooking spray.
Step two: Add white sugar, brown sugar and softened butter to the mixing bowl.
Step three: Turn the mixer on medium high speed and cream together the butter and sugar. It should take 2 - 3 minutes.
Step four: Add in vanilla extract, eggs and cherry juice. Mix on medium speed for a minute or until combined completely.
Step five: Turn mixer on low and add in flour, baking soda and salt. Continue mixing for a minute or two until well combined.
Step six: Gently fold in chopped maraschino cherries and chocolate chips.
Step seven: Scoop balls of dough about 1.5 tablespoons in size and place them a few inches apart on the baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes or until edges are golden brown.
Hint: to get soft, chewy cookies make sure that you remove from the oven when the centers are still soft. As long as the edges are golden brown, the centers will continue to cook and firm up as the cookies cool.
⭐Recipe Tips for Success
- Prepare the cherries: make sure you remove any stems from the cherries. Also, make sure to chop them into pieces. 2 - 3 pieces per cherry leaves them a good size so that they are well dispersed in the cookies.
- Don't overwork the dough: when you are mixing the dough together, make sure not to overwork it which results in hard, crisp cookies. Just mix it at a speed fast enough to combine things and only long enough for it to be thoroughly mixed.
- Fold the add-ins into the dough: to make sure that the cherries don't get all smashed, just fold them in by hand. Don't use the hand or stand mixer for this step.
Storage
These cookies can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for around 5 days. Or, they can frozen and kept in a freezer bag for up to a year.
The uncooked dough can wrapped in cling wrap and kept in the refrigerator for 2 - 3 days. Or, it can be frozen in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
Maraschino Cherry Cookies
Equipment
- Mixing bowl
- Hand or Stand Mixer
- Spatula or Large Spoon
- measuring cups
- Measuring Spoons
- cookie sheet
Ingredients
- .5 Cups Maraschino Cherries Chopped
- 1 Tbs Cherry Juice from the jar
- 2.5 Cups Flour
- 1.25 teaspoons Baking Soda
- 1 Cup Butter softened
- .25 teaspoons Salt
- .75 Cups Brown Sugar
- 1.25 Cups White Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 2 Eggs
Instructions
- Make sure to preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Add 1 cup of softened butter, .75 cups of brown sugar and 1.25 cups of white sugar to the mixing bowl.
- Turn the mixer onto medium high speed and cream together butter and sugar. This takes 2 - 3 minutes; it should be light, fluffy and well combined when done.
- Add to the bowl: 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon of cherry juice and 2 eggs. Mix them together on medium speed until well combined.
- Add to the bowl: 2.5 cups of flour, 1.25 teaspoons of baking soda and .25 teaspoons of salt. Mix them together on low speed until well combined.
- Add to the bowl: .5 cup of chopped maraschino cherries and .5 cup of chocolate chips. Gently fold them into the dough until well combined.
- Use a tablespoon or cookie scoop to measure out 1.5 tablespoon sized balls of dough.
- Place the balls of dough a few inches apart on the cookie sheet.
- Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for around 12 minutes or until edges are light brown and firm.
- Remove from the oven and allow cookies to completely cool.
Notes
- Change the flavor: use different chocolate chips, add almond extract or chopped nuts.
- Make them colorful: use a dollop of pink or red food coloring to make them an even brighter color
- Don't overbake or overmix: the key to soft, chewy cookies is to bake them just until the edges are brown so they are not overcooked. And, to just mix enough to completely combine the ingredients so the dough is not overworked.
- Prepare the cherries: ensure you have removed any stems from the cherries, and then chop them into medium sized pieces.
- Keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
- Freeze in an airtight container or freezer bag for up to a year.
- Dough can be packaged the same way and refrigerated for 2 days or frozen for 3 months.
Nutrition information provided is just an estimate and may vary based on specific ingredients used.
