Cherry Cookies Recipe

Looking for a maraschino cherry recipe? These easy cherry cookies get their soft texture, great flavor, and beautiful pink color from chopped maraschino cherries and maraschino cherry juice. Drizzle with the two-ingredient cherry glaze and they’ll be one of your favorite cookies for any time of year.

Prep time: PT15M

Cook time: PT14M

Total time: PT29M

Rating

4.65 stars (236 reviews)

Keywords

Best Maraschino Cherry Cookies, Cherry Cookies, Italian Cherry Cookies, Maraschino Cherry Cookies, Maraschino Cherry Recipe, Pink Cookie Recipe, Pink Cookies Recipes, Recipes with Maraschino Cherries, What can I make with jarred cherries?

Ingredients

1/2 cup Butter (softened)
1/4 cup Sugar (granulated)
1 Tbsp Maraschino Cherry Juice
1/2 tsp Almond Extract
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 cup Maraschino Cherries (chopped)
1 1/4 cup Flour
1/8 tsp Salt
1/4 cup Powdered Sugar
2 tsp Maraschino Cherry Juice

Cuisine

American

Steps

Cherry Cookies
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Remove stems from maraschino cherries (if needed) and chop into pieces. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix softened butter and sugar together.
- Add the cherry juice, almond extract, vanilla extract, and chopped cherries. Mix until just combined.
- Add flour and salt. Mix again until combined completely.
- Scoop cherry cookie dough into dough balls and place 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake cookies for 14-16 minutes or until the edges are slightly brown.
- Let cool completely. Preferably on a wire cooling rack.
Cherry Glaze
- In a small bowl, mix the powered sugar and cherry juice together until smooth.
- Once the cookies are cooled, place them on a sheet of parchment paper.
- Use a spoon to drizzle the glaze over each cookie. If you would like to cover the entire top of each cookie, please double the glaze recipe.
- Allow the glaze to set.
- Enjoy!

Reviews

Sam on 2025-08-17 (5 stars):
Delightful cookies. I drizzled the glaze on all of them and I even added an additional drizzle of white chocolate to half. Both were pleasant and pretty. I am sure chopped nuts would be great. I have seen comments with some ignorant complaints I'd like to address. 1.) Not spreading enough. These cookies should not spread at all. It is apparent in the pictures of the round cookies that they do not spread. I liked the round shape that came from using an ice cream scoop, but if you prefer a flat cookie, form it to your desired shape beforehand. 2.) Not sweet enough. I personally liked that these cookies didn't use too much sugar. The texture did not suffer due to this. This is what the glaze is for. Do not skip a sweetened glaze or drizzle.
Loulabelle on 2025-04-09 (5 stars):
So I was looking for inspiration to make some “cherry cookies” and this is where I landed! I followed the cookie recipe substituting brown sugar for white then went rogue. Added some chopped candied oranges and coconut flakes to the chopped cherries. I made a chocolate glaze with hot fudge, Amish butter, cherry juice and more brown sugar. I made these into 10 “drop biscuits” baked for 22 mins because I wanted them a little crunchy on the outside to counteract the chocolate glaze and voilà exactly what I was looking for! Thanks for the inspo!
karen marino boykin on 2025-01-12 (5 stars):
Followed the recipe exactly as written, and they are delicious! Thank you, and will definitely make again
June on 2024-12-19 (1 stars):
Easy and fun kid recipe. But lacks in flavor even with frosting, they definitely need more sugar and a leavening agent, not a good cherry flavor, waste of ingredients.
Andreia on 2024-10-10 (5 stars):
Very good. It's the second time I've made this recipe and it turns out perfect.
Beth on 2024-06-25 (5 stars):
I make these on a fairly regular basis. They are one of the few recipes that translates to delicious when modified for a gluten free diet -- just use 1 to 1 gf flour and add an egg (gf stuff is a bit crumbly/dry) This time I added a little splash of milk and some chocolate chips and they came out moist!!
Brianna L on 2024-02-14 (5 stars):
I made these today for Valentine's Day and they were incredible, my fiancé and I both loved them! I didn't have almond extract and used coconut extract instead, but they still turned out great. As a new baker, this recipe was super easy to follow and produced the most beautiful pink cookies I've ever seen, I couldn't believe I made something so cute! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
Christina on 2023-12-31 (5 stars):
Absolutely delicious! For the icing I added Disaranno along with confectionery sugar and cherry juice.
Onefunmomy on 2023-12-27 (5 stars):
I made these for my cookie exchange this year and many of the girls asked for the recipe! They were super easy to make with very little ingredients. I will be making them again next year and for Valentine’s Day. Thank you for the recipe.
Jennifer on 2023-12-22 (5 stars):
I haven't made these yet BUT they sound perfectly doable and a lovely flavor treat as well as visual treat -- getting ready to make them within the hour. I may use extra almond flavor in a portion of them to see if I want to do that in future also.
Fatikis on 2023-12-21 (5 stars):
I want to say, I never comment on this kind of thing. But Taylor has some fucking balls to rate this 4* while saying she didn't follow the directions. Why didn't you tell her to NOT use white chocolate? Obviously, it is the recipes fault. A pox upon you and a pox on your kin.
Ameller on 2023-12-17 (5 stars):
I never comment on sites but I just had to this time because my husband, who is not overly fond of sweets, asked to try one as soon as they came out of the oven, and then as soon as the first one disappeared, he asked to have another . Not overly sweet, easy to make, just lovely. What a hit! (Oh also by accident I added a 1/2 t of chocolate extract bc I mistook it for vanilla... really nice!)
Bridget on 2023-12-09 (5 stars):
"I did delicious." Too cute. Made my day. ♥️
Gracie on 2023-12-06 (1 stars):
Was going for cookies not balls they don't flatten out like your typical cookie does. they were crumbly and mid over all use a different recipe