Cherry-Chocolate Blossoms

Submitted by Donna M.

"A beautiful little cookie for cookie trays and holidays. Very simple to make yet very elegant."

 

• Ready In: 42mins
• Ingredients: 9
• Yields: 4 dozen
• Serves: 48

ingredients

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 cup butter or 1 cup margarine, softened
• 2 teaspoons maraschino cherry juice
• 1⁄2 teaspoon almond extract
• 3 -4 drops red food coloring
• 2 1⁄4 - 2 1⁄2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄3 - 1⁄2 cup maraschino cherry, drained, chopped
• 48 48 chocolate stars or 48 Hershey chocolate kisses

directions

1. In large bowl, combine powdered sugar, butter, cherry liquid, almond extract and food color; blend well.
2. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup; level off.
3. Add flour and salt; mix well.
4. Stir in cherries.
5. If dough is too dry, add a little more cherry liquid until dough holds together when shaped.
6. Shape dough into 1-inch balls.
7. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
8. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are just slightly brown.
9. Immediately top each cookie with a chocolate candy, pressing down firmly.
10. Remove from cookie sheets and cool.

Reviews

[KS Farmwife]

Donna, I lost this recipe 24 years ago!! I was so happy to find it!! Now my kids know what the perfect Valentine's Day treat is!! Thanks so much for posting!! Followed exactly and the cookies were perfect!!

 

[PSU_Lioness]

I hate giving bad reviews but these cookies just weren't what I was expecting. I made them the first time for my son's Valentine's Day party and followed the exact recipe but they seemed dry and I couldn't taste very much cherry and I didn't really like the almond. So the 2nd time, I added more cherries, used butter instead of margarine, used vanilla instead of almond and rolled them in the red sugar as suggested. Still no cherry taste. I made them today for Thanksgiving and used even MORE cherries and I just can't get the flavor that I've been looking for. The cookie itself is good, it's just lacking the cherry flavor.

 

[Cassandra.M]

Even after adding vast amounts more cherry to the mixture, these didn't have a strong cherry taste to them and therefor the cookies were rather bland.

 

[kline77]

We make these in my family ever year for Christmas. We follow this exact recipe to a T. There are never any left. We fill the center with homemade chocolate ganache instead of kisses (after baking, make a small indentation in the center of the cookie and fill with the ganache ).

 

[carlamoose]

The combination of cherry and chocolate is great. However, I had to add an extra 1 1/2 Tbsp. of cherry juice because the dough was too dry. Make sure there are a lot of chopped cherries because in the bites without them, you don't have enough cherry flavor. I used regular chocolate kisses, but I imagine the chocolate cherry kisses are ideal.