Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies are soft, chewy and packed with cherry flavor, bits of maraschino cherries and chocolate chips! A fun and flavorful twist on traditional chocolate chip cookies!
I have always loved anything cherry and of course, chocolate isn’t bad either so I’ve always loved the two paired together. I absolutely love the little pieces of maraschino cherries in these cookies and the cherry extract in the dough adds just the right amount of cherry flavor to perfectly complement the chocolate chips.
Tips for amazing Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Make sure that you have enough flour in the dough. If the dough is too sticky, you may need to add a little bit of flour. (This especially applies to this recipe because you are adding fruit. As long as your cherries are well-drained and patted with a paper towel, there shouldn’t be too much extra moisture, but if you find that your first batch of cookies are spreading more than you prefer, just add a few more tablespoons of flour to the dough before baking the rest.)
- Do not melt the butter! The butter needs to be softened (at room temperature), but using melted butter will ruin the cookies.
- Spend a little extra time when you mix the butter and sugars. Creaming them together for 2-3 minutes will improve the consistency of your cookies.
- Preheat the oven. This will help your cookies turn out right every time!
- Use a cookie scoop! If you want all your cookies to be perfectly shaped and have them all be the same size, a cookie scoop is the way to go.
- Use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Doing this will make it really easy to remove the cookies from your cookie sheet so that you don’t have to scrape them off the pan – they will just slide right off in perfect shape!
- Don’t overbake the cookies – when I take mine out of the oven, they still look slightly underbaked but they will continue to bake on the cookie sheet for a couple more minutes so that’s ok!
CHERRY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
- 1 cup butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 (3 oz) package of dry instant vanilla pudding mix
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp cherry extract
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3 1/4 cups flour
- 4-5 drops red food coloring (optional)
- 10 oz. jar maraschino cherries, drained, patted dry with paper towels and quartered
- 1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips (about 2 cups)
- Cream butter and sugar well.
- Add dry pudding mix, eggs, vanilla and cherry extract and mix well.
- Then add the salt, baking soda, baking powder and flour. Mix until well combined.
- If you want your cookies to have a pinkish tint, add the red food coloring at this point and mix well.
- Fold in the chopped cherries and chocolate chips until fully combined.
- Use a cookie scoop to scoop out dough onto a prepared cookie sheet (or a silicone baking mat). Bake at 350 for 10-11 minutes or until very lightly golden brown on top.
After you try our Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies try a few of our other delicious fruity cookie recipes:
- Blackberry Oatmeal Cookies
- Raspberry Meltaway Cookies
- Blueberry Cream Cookies
- Cherry Cheesecake Cookies
- Snickerdoodle Apple Pie Cookie Cups
- Fresh Strawberries Cookie Cups
P is my second oldest and is my reader. My favorite thing to do is read and I really hoped that at least one of my kids would love it as much as I do. Although all 4 of my kids have turned out to be great readers, P is the one that ALWAYS has a book in her hand. She tries to sneak it under her leg at the dinner table, she has to take a book in the car with her even if it’s only a 3-minute drive, and she is constantly trying to find long series with large books to read. I love it!
Family Cookie Recipes is a site run by Jessica & Nellie, two moms with a total of 9 kids between them, all who LOVE cookies!
Jenn says
LOVING the chocolate and cherry combination here in the cookies – so fun! Thanks for the recipe!
Sarah says
Such a great recipe! I made these for the school cookie walk and they were a hit!
Jennifer Banz says
Love the combination! Thanks for sharing!
Kaylie says
Thank you, Jennifer!
Jane Saunders says
My older daughter is an avid reader too – it’s a joy to see her so engrossed in a book. I think she could also get engrossed in these cookies – they look gorgeous.
Kaylie says
Thank you, Jane!
Derrick Boyd says
Will adding more red food coloring to get a deeper red tinted hurt the dough? And can you add some cherry juice instead of cherry extract for more cherry flavor?