Soft and buttery shortbread cookies flavored with cherry and almond, then finished off with sweet white chocolate.
Today’s recipe in Sally’s Cookie Palooza is so pink, it makes Barbie’s corvette look pale. The cookies get their color from maraschino cherry juice and their flavor from butter, almond extract, and cherries. Almond extract pairs so beautifully with cherries; we use it in these cherry pie bars and cherry cobbler, too. These have to be one of my favorite Christmas cookies yet. (Update: they even went on to inspire these chocolate cherry blossoms!)
You’ll find three main ingredients in most shortbread cookie recipes: butter, sugar, and flour. All three are imperative for structure, texture, and taste. Sometimes there’s vanilla and salt, but there’s no egg and no leavening. I’ve had a lot of problems in the past with shortbread cookies spreading. There’s so much butter that spreading is often an issue unless you have the right recipe or unless you bake them in a cake pan to make wedge-shaped shortbread cookies (so buttery! so good!).
Today’s recipe starts with these raspberry almond thumbprint cookies, a dough very similar to my basic shortbread cookies. Adding a thin liquid like this (and liquidy maraschino cherries) to a cookie dough so high in butter can spell disaster though. I tested with more flour, less flour, more cherry juice, less cherry juice, etc. I ended up reducing the butter slightly and that seemed to solve all the problems. The shortbread cookie recipe below still has all that extraordinary butter flavor and also includes cherries.
Keep a watchful eye on these cookies as they finish up baking. From a texture standpoint, overbaking the cherry almond shortbread cookies strips their tender, soft, slightly crumbly texture. And you’re left with hard cookies—not crumbly—just hard. And from an appearance standpoint, overbaking will leave orange brown dark spots on top of the cookies. Not a huge issue, but it replaces the pink!
While the cookies have so much cherry, butter, and almond flavor, I felt the cookies lacked something on the outside. A simple white chocolate drizzle makes them a little snazzy, right?
If you love shortbread style cookies, some of my other favorites include these brown sugar shortbread, pecan shortbread, lemon shortbread, & chocolate pistachio shortbread.
Print
Cherry Almond Shortbread Cookies
- Prep Time: 4 hours, 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 11 minutes
- Total Time: 5 hours, 15 minutes
- Yield: 24 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Soft and buttery shortbread cookies flavored with cherry and almond, then finished off with sweet white chocolate. This cookie dough must be chilled, so plan accordingly.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2/3 cup (134g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 Tablespoon (15ml) maraschino cherry juice
- 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 16 maraschino cherries (drained and chopped)
- optional: 4 ounces white chocolate
Instructions
- Using a handheld or stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on high speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Switch mixer to medium speed and add the the sugar, vanilla and almond extracts. Scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl as needed. With the mixer running on high, slowly drizzle in 1 Tablespoon of the cherry juice. Beat for 1 minute on high. Turn the mixer off and pour the flour into the wet ingredients. Turn the mixer on low and slowly beat until a very soft dough is formed, then, with the mixer still running on low, add the chopped cherries. Beat just until the cherries are disbursed in the dough. Press the dough down to compact it and tightly cover with plastic wrap to chill until firm, at least 4 hours (and up to 3 days). If the cookie dough is not sufficiently chilled, your cookies will spread.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats (silicone mats preferred to reduce spreading). Shape the cookie dough into balls. Mine were about 1 Tablespoon of dough per ball. Make sure they’re nice and smooth. If you find that the balls of dough are sticky and/or have gotten a little soft after rolling, place the balls of dough back into the refrigerator to firm up. You absolutely DO NOT want soft dough.
- Bake for 11-12 minutes, or until very lightly browned on the edges. The cookies will puff up and spread slightly. Do not overbake. In fact, I only baked mine for 10 minutes. I prefer them a little soft. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Allow to cool for at least 30 minutes before drizzling with white chocolate. Melt the white chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave, in 20 second increments, stirring after each increment until melted. I used a squeeze bottle to drizzle the melted white chocolate.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Store cookies covered at room temperature for 3 days or in the refrigerator for 6 days. Shortbread cookie dough may be frozen up to 2 months; baked cookies may be frozen up to 2-3 months.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Cooling Rack | Double Boiler (optional for melting chocolate) | Squeeze Bottle
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Delicious! A soft cookie with great flavor. I made treats for a large gathering and made this recipe and your very vanilla cupcakes recipe – 48 minis instead of 12 full size. I also made orange creamsicle cookies and Neapolitan cookies.
I made this recipe with great success previously and tried it again this week and the cookies were doughy and flat. I couldn’t figure out the problem and then I realized, “oh no! The recipe was 16 maraschino cherries not 16 OUNCES of maraschino cherries.” Wow, won’t make that mistake again. That might be the issue other bakers are having. If it wouldn’t ruin the recipe, you might change it to 15 or 17 just so it’s not the same number as the ounces of cherries in a jar. 🙂 I found out about 50 cherries come in a 16oz jar. Oops!
I. Love this recipe. I have to make 2 separate batches. Some like it without the almond extract. Thats ok. This is such an easy a flavorful recipe. Thank you.
These were delicious, and the perfect pink for Valentine’s Day! I rolled my dough first into dough balls (I got 28) then chilled for 2 days which was just when I had time to bake them. I baked straight from the fridge for 12 minutes. No issues with overspreading at all. Thank you for the recipe!
Can these be made as a slice n bake cookie rather than a drop cookie?
Hi Karlie, this dough can work as slice and bake.
I’m wondering if these would taste better with salted butter? Have you tried that?
Hi Kris! We prefer to bake with unsalted butter, and add salt if needed, so you can control the exact amount of salt in the recipe. You can certainly use salted butter or add a pinch of salt if you would like.
Can you add chocolate chips to the dough?
Hi Patty, can’t see why not!
I followed the recipe exactly. Put dough in refrigerator for 4+hours. The cookies came out flat like a pancake. I even rolled out the dough into balls and placed them in the refrigerator for 10 minutes before baking.
Hi Stefanie, I’m sorry to hear this! Happy to help troubleshoot. If your cookies are overspreading, the simplest answer is likely that you may need to add a little more flour to your dough, or chill for longer. Here are all our tips for how to prevent cookies from over-spreading. I hope this helps for next time!
Worst cookie ever. I followed the recipe to the tee. Dough very chilled. 12 minutes they were still balls of raw dough. After 16 min I just pushed them down a little. 21 min. total and still slightly raw in the middle. Mostly just tasteless lumps of flower. I threw them out.
These were soooo good!
I have an egg allergy, so I appreciate recipes without them.
My soon to be 102 year old mom loves them too.
If I freeze the dough, can I bake them right away or do I let them thaw?
Hi Jenna, you can bake them right away.
I think these cookies are great. Baked as recipe says and they turned out great. Instead of white chocolate drizzle I added chips into the dough. Love the textures. I think the flavor is perfect for a shortbread cookie. I baked these for a holiday cookie exchange and they were a fun variety to have in the mix
Good flavor but these poor cookies really needed some salt! As the dough was ready to go in the oven I just added some coarse salt to the top. Next time I’ll add some table salt to the dough for a more consistent enhancement.
I use salted butter instead and they’re perfect!!
NO eggs?
Hi Rhonda, correct. This is an egg-free recipe.
If I want to freeze this dough and use later, do I chill it for the four hours and then make the balls and freeze it or can i skip the chilling and just make the balls and freeze it
Hi Wendy, we’d recommend chilling the dough, making the balls, and then freezing the cookie dough balls. Hope you enjoy the cookies!
Could you use frozen cherries that are thawed or dried cherries instead? Thanks so much!
Hi Anna! You can certainly try it but the texture (and flavor) will be different. Let us know if you give it a try!
Hi Sally! Do you think these would be good with the browned butter icing from your pistachio drop cookies recipe??
Hi Kayla, we can’t see why not. Let us know if you try it!
Will the topping rub off if I package these in a plastic cookie bag to box up?
I was worried about overbaking per the instructions but at 10 minutes they looked raw. I extended to 11, then 12 then 13 minutes. Took them out then. Waited 5 minutes and cut one open. They were very doughy on the inside and wouldn’t call them baked. Put them back in again for 3 more minutes. I did chill my dough overnight so it was very stiff. I’m wondering if it was just too cold going into the oven? Second tray was put in for 15 minutes. Bottoms were light brown and insides cooked but maybe a tad dry. Trick seems to be the temperature of the dough going into the oven. Tasted good and looked pretty.
I have made this recipe many times. The 1st time years ago was the only time I got it right. I feel like they are always under baked and I keep adding minutes like you can tell from the inside and outside they are very under baked and I chilled them, did the balls, chilled to make hard and put in oven. The shape is the only thing right when baking… Idk what I am doing wrong. It is so frustrating and these are my husband’s fav cookies.
I thought these cookies were just ok. They lacked a lot of flavor. I always use Lor Ann’s almond emulsion (which is very strong) and in this recipe you couldn’t even taste it. With that being said , if I ever made this again, I would add more cherries and double the amount of almond emulsion. I also switched it up and added a milk chocolate drizzle and that was better than the white chocolate.
I double the amount of cherries and almond extract/add a couple minutes of cooking time as needed when the dough is very cold. When the bottoms of the cookies are a very slight tan color, I know they’re done. We make these every year and they are everyone’s favorite! They store very well and stay soft. We make them about a week before Christmas and they’re just as good a week after baking. Wonderful recipe!
These are SO pretty and one of my favorite cookies for Christmas cookie tray. I use a 1-1/4 inch cookie scoop and make sure I don’t overbake, then flatten just a bit right out of the oven then drizzle Ghiradelli white melting wafers (melted) over the tops. I love the almond and cherry flavor combination. Thank you for this recipe.
Another great recipe!
Thank you Sally!