I have a weakness for maraschino cherries. Whether they’re floating in a drink or nestled in cookies, I just want to pick them out and devour. Their candy-like sweetness, their shockingly bright color, and the fact they’ll stain your fingertips or clothes if you get cherry juice on them, and I’ve spilled a few drinks and have the stains to prove it, strangely lend to their appeal. They also have a tendency to get stuck between my teeth like a piece of lettuce. Except it’s red so it makes me look like I just got in a bar fight but I love them anyway. I think it’s because as a child a big treat was having a Shirley Temple at a restaurant on a special occasion. I’d covet and savor that lone cherry. Fast forward a couple decades, and I’d ask for extra of the extra cherries floating in my cocktails. Now I nibble on them in cookies.
My grandma used to make fruit cake, sweet breads, and cookies with maraschino cherries and I remember them so fondly. The translucent magenta gems were like reflective beacons inviting me in to sit down and pull up a chair for a snack. I wish I had my grandma’s recipes for any of the things she made, but especially her cinnamon rolls and her cherry-filled goodies. I took some guesses at how she made her cookies for these. I used nearly the same cookie dough base that I used for the Cranberry and White Chocolate Chip Cookies, which were adapted from the Sugar-Doodle Vanilla Cookies. I prefer using that dough base for sweeter and more delicate cookies. I use the Chocolate Chip and Chunk dough base for sturdier and heartier cookies like Brown Sugar Maple Cookies, but for something my grandma would have served with tea on pink plates with ironed, hand-embroidered, linen napkins, the Sugar-Doodle base is so moist, soft, chewy, and works beautifully.
To make the cookies, cream together an egg, sugars, vanilla, cream and then incorporate the flour. I used one cup bread flour and three-quarters cup all-purpose. When I made both the Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies and the Sugar-Doodles, I used more all-purpose (1 cup) than bread (3/4 cup) but reversed the ratios here. I did that because I knew that adding the cherries would impart moisture and liquid to the batter and bread flour is more absorbent than all-purpose, and I wanted slightly more of it to soak up the juice. I recommend keeping a bag of bread flour around because you can use it plenty, and both bread and cookies rise better and are chewier when made with it, but if all you have is all-purpose, use it. However, you may need closer to two cups in order for your dough to come together because bread flour is a bit heavier and denser than all-purpose. Regardless of the type of flour used, this is a fairly tacky dough because of the cherries. Based on your climate, humidity levels, ingredients, and how the dough feels in your mixing bowl, adding up to two cups total of flour may be necessary in order for it to combine and not be too sticky. San Diego is dry and I never need more than one and three-quarters cup total, but conditions vary.
Fold in the chopped cherries and white chocolate chips. My grandma didn’t bake much with white chocolate because it was truly a delicacy in her era, but she loved it as I do. I know if she could have used it more she would have. This cookie dough base just begs for it and into the mixing bowl it went. Before adding the cherries, make sure they’re not dripping wet or they’ll water down the dough. You don’t have to dry them one-by-one, but after chopping them, lightly pat them on the cutting board with a paper towel. I’m sure you could use dried or fresh cherries, but either will lend a completely different flavor profile, and you’d have to experiment a bit. After adding the cherries and white chocolate, beat them in as gently and swiftly as possible so the cherries don’t break or have their color run too much.
Using a medium cookie scoop, form 2.25-ounce mounds of dough, which is a scant quarter cup each. This recipe only makes a batch of about fourteen cookies and if you don’t have a scale, dividing the dough into approximately 14 equal-sized mounds is another strategy. The mounds will look somewhat large, but the dough is soft, light, and not heavy by volume. Plus the cherries and white chocolate really bulk it up, making the mounds appear large, but the resulting cookies are not big by any means; just average. The dough must be refrigerated before baking. The dough is too soft for immediate baking and if you attempt it, the cookies will spread into flat pancakes. Place the dough mounds on a large plate, cover it with plastic wrap, and refrigerate it for at least two hours, or up to five days, before baking. The nice thing about this dough, and most any cookie dough of mine, is that unbaked cookie dough or dough that’s been formed into balls can hang out in the refrigerator for many days before baking, or in the freezer for up to three months. When the time comes, reach into your Tupperware of dough balls or covered plate, and bake as many cookies as desired. Many nights before dinner I bake six so that we can each have two freshly baked cookies for dessert.
My husband is not really a cookie guy. I don’t know how that’s possible, but he tends to go for things like scones, biscotti, muffins, or layered bars. However, he declared these cookies the best cookies I’ve ever made. I loved the Cranberry and White Chocolate Chip Cookies and the Sugar-Doodle Vanilla Cookies and since they’re all versions on a theme, I knew I’d love these, too and I did. They’re so soft, moist and light, with tender centers and chewy-yet-delicate edges. They’re on the lighter side of the spectrum without being airy or cakey. The cherries add sweetness, texture, and the most incredible flavor. As the cookie dough rests and chills before and baking, the cherry essence seeps into the vanilla-scented dough and flavors it. Between the abundance of chewy cherry bits and the white chocolate chips, there’s plenty of texture in every bite. They stayed soft and moist for a week in an airtight container. I only know this because I forgot about two that I had stashed and was pleasantly shocked to discover they were still soft and moist, a week later. I suspect the cherries helped facilitate that ever-lasting freshness. A perfect Valentine’s Day cookie. And a perfect excuse to eat copious amounts of maraschino cherries.
Related Recipes:
Cranberry and White Chocolate Chip Cookies – These cookies inspired today’s cookies and they’re part chewy sugar cookie with chewy edges and tender, soft, pillowy centers. And part Cranberry Bliss Bars, in cookie form. They’re bursting with texture and each bite is loaded with either tart and chewy cranberries or sweet and smooth white chocolate. As the cookies bake, the white chocolate melts and meshes with the buttery dough in a scrumptious way for a soft and moist cookie that’s a 2012 favorite Tried this recipe? Leave a review! Consider leaving a 5 star rating if you’ve made and loved one of my recipes!
Cranberry Bliss Bars {Starbucks Copycat Recipe} – The flavor in the Bliss Bars is very similar to the cookies (above), but the bars are more loaded and decadent. They’re made with a white chocolate and cranberry blondie bar base, topped white white chocolate-cream cheese frosting, more cranberries, and a white chocolate drizzle. They can be made from start to finish in a half hour and are one of the best things I’ve made in ages
Sugar-Doodle Vanilla Cookies – These cookies inspired both today’s recipe and the Cranberry and White Chocolate Chip Cookies because the dough base itself is just so scrumptious. There’s nothing fancy in the ingredients, but they combine so wonderfully to produce soft, chewy, and cookies with fragrant vanilla notes. Easily one of my top 5 favorite cookie recipes on my site
White Chocolate Snickerdoodle Cookies – The cookies are rolled in a cinnamon-sugar coating prior to baking, making for a truer snickerdoodle than the Sugar-Doodles (above), and they’re loaded with white chocolate chips
Dark Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Cookies Stuffed with Chocolate Covered Strawberries – A smooth, rich chocolate cookie is stuffed with chocolate-covered dried strawberries, which adds both flavor, texture, and a striking visual pop of pretty red color. A Valentine’s Day favorite and a fun twist on chocolate-covered strawberries
Mango and White Chocolate Chip Cookies – These cookies are very chewy, ridiculously soft and moist, and combine two of my favorite ingredients, mango and white chocolate chips
Strawberry Cake Mix Cookies with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting – Perfect for Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, girlie birthday, baby or bridal shower. They’re ridiculously soft, chewy, moist, and are foolproof. The frosting is optional or it can be used to make sandwich cookies. These cookies are my soon-to-be six year old daughter’s favorite cookie. She has requested them instead of a cake for her next birthday
Peanut Butter Oatmeal White Chocolate Chip Cookies – Perhaps my favorite cookie recipe on my entire blog. From the peanut butter included, to the texture from the oats, and the sweet bits of white chocolate in each bite, they’re an all-time favorite. They stay soft and chewy for days. Very easy to make and no-mixer-required
Do you like maraschino cherries? White chocolate? If you have favorite recipes feel free to share the links. I love them both and have all my White Chocolate Recipes here including photos with links. Thanks for the Glass Dharma Glass Straw $25 Giveaway entries
