These Chocolate Cherry Cookies are a yummy addition to holiday baking tins. With a full cup of chopped maraschino cherries in this cookie dough, there’s cherry in every cookie bite! I’ll admit I had to try a couple of rounds for this recipe to get it right. The first time around I just placed one full maraschino cherry in the middle of each cookie but I didn’t find that it gave the cookies enough cherry flavor. Round two – chopped maraschino cherries – was certainly the winner! Trust me, there was a lot of taste testing here (hey, someone has to do it!) and these thick, chewy cookies are sure to be a hit this holiday season.
Chocolate Cherry Cookies:
For the cherries in this cookie recipe, you’ll want to buy a 375ml jar of maraschino cherries in heavy syrup. You’ll only need 1 tablespoon of the syrup in the recipe plus 1 cup of the cherries. Make sure you don’t use more than 1 tablespoon of the syrup or your cookie dough will be too thin.
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon maraschino cherry syrup
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ cup cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup maraschino cherries (drained of syrup), finely chopped
- 4 ounces semi-sweet Baker's chocolate, melted
- Preheat oven to 375F.
- Line a cookie baking sheet with a silicone baking mat and set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until well mixed.
- Add in eggs, vanilla extract and cherry syrup. Beat just until mixed.
- In a separate medium-sized bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cocoa, and salt. Stir well to mix.
- Pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients and beat just until mixed. Do not over mix.
- Stir in chocolate chips and chopped cherries.
- Form cookies into 2 tablespoon sized balls.
- Place cookies (2 inches apart) on baking sheet.
- Bake for 11-13 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely.
- Drizzle melted Baker's chocolate over the top of each cookie and allow chocolate to harden before serving or packaging cookies for the fridge.
Can’t get enough chocolate cookies? Here are a few of our other favorites…
White Chocolate Chip Cookies – these are amazing with peanut butter chips too!
Milk Chocolate Cookies – I bet you can’t stop at one!
Brownie Cookies – you can’t go wrong with a cookie that tastes like a brownie, right?
Visit our Recipes page for more delicious ideas. Stay updated on the latest home entertaining ideas by following us on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter.