Cherry Cookies

I'm going to be doing a mini-series of posts of some recipes that could be deemed appropriate to grace your holiday tables this year! Yes, I know, it's kind of late. But I really wanted to share a few recipes anyway so I'm gonna. I hope you enjoy them!

This is a recipe I recently created {don't applaud yet - you'll soon see that this is so easy anyone could have created it!}. My husband really enjoyed them and I liked them quite a lot. If you like cherries, you'll probably really like these cookies!

Cherry Cookies

Recipe created by Cucina di Harwood
Time: 45 minutes

Makes: 2 1/2 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

1 box Cherry Chip cake mix {see, I told ya!}

1/2 cup chopped maraschino cherries

1 egg

4 Tbsp. melted butter

3 Tbsp. water or cherry juice

1  tsp. almond extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Chop your maraschino cherries. I used most of a jar of cherries to get 1/2 cup. I saved a few to put on top of some of my cookies but you don't have to do that. If you want, you could chop up all the cherries and put all of 'em in the cookies. It just depends on how many cherries you want. I found the perfect size was to chop the cherry in half, then each half into four pieces. You can do it however you'd like, I just found that to be the perfect size. Warning: cherry juice stains clothing and counter tops. Just be aware!

Put the cake mix, egg, water/juice and almond extract in a medium sized bowl. Stir just until the cake mix is all mixed in. You don't want to over-mix as the cherry chips in the cake mix will disintigrate if you mix it too much and you'll lose some of the flavor - you don't wanna do that! Note: if you want a little more cherry flavor, use the cherry juice from the bottle of maraschino cherries instead of water. I just used water and it turned out great - a nice cherry flavor without being too much; it just depends on what you're going for. 

Add the chopped cherries and fold in. Your dough will be very stiff and sticky. This is okay.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes or until the bottom edges are slightly golden. Don't over-bake. Take the cookies out of the oven and leave them on the cookie sheet for another 2-3 minutes to finish baking - and because if you try immediately to take them off the sheet, your cookies will be in nice little pieces when you're done. Trust me

At this point, if you want to add a cherry to the top, you can put half a cherry in the center of the cookie and press lightly until slightly depressed into the cookie. Doing this while they are still warm will make the cherries stay put when they are cool. You don't have to do this. It does make them a little prettier and gives an extra cherry flavor, which I really liked, but it isn't necessary. 

Transfer the cookies to a rack or tea towel and allow to finish cooling.

Note: for an added measure of pretty and sweet, drizzle melted milk-chocolate over the cookies before serving.