Everyone loves a fruit and chocolate combination! These Cherry Chip Cookies have chopped maraschino cherries and mini chocolate chips loaded into a soft and sweet cherry juice flavored dough for an eye catching pink treat in just 20 minutes.
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About these Cookies
Cherry Chip Cookies are soft, chewy, and so flavorful. Plus, they’re super easy to make, requiring just one bowl and made start to finish in just 20 minutes.
The fun festive color of these Cherry Chip Cookies come from the added maraschino cherry juice and optional food coloring if you want them to really pop.They’re undoubtedly eye-catching and the bright color makes them a perfect Christmas or Valentines Day treat, too!
And if you love a fruit & chocolate combination, also check out this Cherry Chocolate Smoothie, Chocolate Covered Sumo Oranges, or these Chocolate Strawberry Overnight Oats.
Recipe Ingredients
- Almond Extract - Almond extract brings a fruit forward taste to the cookies. With the cherries, it creates a delicious amaretto flavor. It’s also what makes my Funfetti White Chocolate Chip Cookies so unique.
- Maraschino Cherries - Preserved cherries, much sweeter than fresh cherries. It’s a fun texture element to add to the cookies, too.
- Maraschino Cherry Juice - Not only does this add to the flavors of our cookies, but it also tints them pink!
- Chocolate Chips - I like dark chocolate with the cherries, but milk chocolate or semisweet are fine too if you prefer.
See the recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
How to Make This Recipe
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a mixing bowl, add cold butter and sugar. Beat until the butter and sugar are well combined
2. Add the eggs and almond extract. Mix again until well combined.
3. Add all of the dry ingredients into the bowl: flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt. Mix until everything is well combined. The batter will be thick.
4. Then use a knife to finely chop the maraschino cherries into pieces - the smaller, the better as you’ll get more pieces in each bite. Fold the cherries, mini chocolate chips, and cherry juice into the batter.
5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and use a medium sized cookie scooper to scoop batter onto the cookie sheet. Bake for 10-11 minutes (12 minutes is too long!). They will look slightly golden around the edges and that’s your sign to remove them from the oven.
6. Transfer to a wire rack and allow them to cool (as the centers will still be slightly doughy just after baking) and serve!
Storing and Freezing
These can be stored in an airtight container either on the counter or in the refrigerator if you like a chewy, chilled cookie. In your storage container, add a piece of bread (I like to use the end piece of a loaf). The cookies will draw out the moisture from the bread and keep your cookies soft.
You can also freeze these cookies baked or unbaked.
- To freeze unbaked dough, scoop, roll in the sugar and place on a cookie sheet as if you’re going to bake them. Place the entire cookie sheet in the freezer for 3-4 hours until each dough ball is frozen (this’ll prevent them from sticking together). Then, place in a Ziplock or airtight container until ready to bake. You can bake the dough balls from frozen for 2-3 extra minutes.
- To freeze baked cookies, allow them to cool completely before adding to a freezer bag or airtight container. I recommend layering parchment paper between each cookie stack. This will prevent the cookies from freezing altogether.
Recipe FAQs
Chop the cherries small! The cherries have lots of moisture and with large pieces you’ll get pockets of extra juicy dough, which will mess with the cookie texture. Chopping small will also get you more bits of cherry flavor in each bite!
Save some of the cherry and chocolate mix ins to press into the tops of the dough balls before baking for loaded up, picture-worthy cookies.
A cookie scoop is ideal for evenly shaped cookies. I also like to use a mason jar ring placed over the cookie and swirled in a circular fashion right when they come out of the oven to get perfectly round and even cookies.
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Recipe
Cherry Chip Cookies Recipe
Equipment
- Mixing Bowl
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Knife
- Cutting Board
- Rubber Spatula
- electric hand mixer / Kitchen Aid stand mixer
- cookie sheet
- parchment paper
Ingredients
- 1 stick butter, chilled
- 1 ⅔ cup white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 2 ⅔ cups all purpose flour
- ½ tbsp baking soda
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- pinch of salt
- ½ cup maraschino cherries, diced
- 1 tbsp maraschino cherry juice
- ½ cup mini chocolate chips
- 1 tsp pink food coloring, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In a mixing bowl, add cold butter and sugar. Beat until the butter and sugar are well combined.
- Add the eggs and almond extract. Mix again until well combined.
- Add all of the dry ingredients into the bowl: all purpose flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt. Mix until everything is well combined. The batter will be thick.
- Then use a knife to finely chop the maraschino cherries into small pieces - the smaller, the better as you’ll get more pieces in each bite. Fold the cherries, mini chocolate chips, and cherry juice into the batter.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and use a medium sized cookie scooper to scoop batter onto the cookie sheet.
- Bake for 10-11 minutes (12 minutes is too long!). They will look slightly golden around the edges and that’s your sign to remove them from the oven.
- Transfer to a wire rack and allow them to cool (as the centers will still be slightly doughy just after baking) and enjoy!
Nutrition
Notes
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I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. It’s my passion to create dishes that can be shared with others. Tell me something you loved or just say hi!
Courtney Paige says
Love this recipe! Tossed it all in the KitchenAid Mixer and it was so easy!
Sydney Van Acker says
obsessed with these. the almond extract + cherry together tasted amazing
Chelsea Coretti says
Yum! These were so tasty. I will say, the chilled butter was impossible to work with😂
Carly Schwinke says
These cookies were so good! Made them for my family and were gone within a few hours... so yummy!
Tracey Glaser says
This recipe was awesome and easy to follow! Love the cherry/chocolate combo. We used mini vegan dark chocolate chips and vegan butter, they taste amazing.
Becky Jenkins says
The whole family loved them!!!