Chocolate Cherry Cordials

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Day 10! My friend sent me an email about Parade Magazine’s 5 Winning Cookie recipes and she thought that the chocolate cherry cordials sounded good. Now, I don’t get the paper so I had to look it up online. These cookies had won the top prize and I thought they looked great. I have made other cookies with maraschino cherries, and I’ve made many cookies where you wrap the dough around some sort of filling, but I’ve not combined the two.

I made these cookies the day my friend sent me the recipe; it helped that I had all of the ingredients on hand. I must have bought maraschino cherries at Costco because I had two giant bottles. At least they keep for a long time! You do really need to dry the cherries before you mold the dough around them or the dough will never stick. This dough was nice to work with and I didn’t have any trouble molding it around the cherry centers. 

The only change I made with this recipe was that I substituted cherry liquor for the rum extract that was in the original recipe. If you don’t want to use any alcohol, you could use the extract or even some vanilla. I can see why these won an award, they are fabulous. The cookie is tender with great flavor, and the cherry in the middle has a great burst of flavor. The glaze is very sweet, but each cookie just gets a little bit so it isn’t too much. These may seem difficult at first, but they aren’t too bad and they are worth a little extra effort.

Chocolate Cherry Cordials

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon cherry liquor

1 1/2 cups flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

28-30 maraschino cherries, patted dry

Sugar, for rolling

1 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon cherry liquor

4-5 teaspoon maraschino cherry juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar, egg, and liquor until light and fluffy. Add flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Stir until completely incorporated.

Roll 1 tablespoon of dough into a ball and then flatten it. Place a cherry on top and mold the dough around it, sealing the cherry in completely. Roll in sugar and place on the prepared baking sheet.

Bake for 8-11 minutes, until cookies are set. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for several minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the glaze: in a small bowl combine the powdered sugar, liquor and 4 teaspoons cherry juice. Whisk to combine, if the glaze is too thick, add additional cherry juice. Top the cooled cookies with a small amount of glaze and allow the glaze to drizzle down the sides of the cookies.

Recipe from Dash Recipes/Parade Magazine