This is a different kind of cookie recipe! These are yummy little cookies with a different flavor than most. Cherries and white chocolate are incorporated into these buttery shortbread cookies. Half of each cookie is dipped in white chocolate. These pink-tinted White Chocolate Cherry Shortbread Cookies are a pretty cookie for the winter holidays, but they awfully cute for Valentine’s Day too.
Maraschino Cherries:
This cookie recipe incorporates maraschino cherries! Now before you tell me that you don’t like maraschino cherries, let me explain that you still might enjoy the flavor of these cookies! The cherries are chopped finely, and there is only 1/2 cup of the cherries in the entire recipe. So there’s just going to be a little hint of cherry in each cookie.
How to make White Chocolate Cherry Shortbread Cookies:
You’ll combine the chopped cherries with flour, sugar, butter, chopped white chocolate and almond extract. There is no egg in this cookie recipe. You have the option of adding in a few drops of red food coloring to create a pinker hue (but it’s not necessary). The dough is pressed together, and then balls of dough are created and placed onto a baking sheet. You’ll use the sugared bottom of a glass to flatten the dough balls into rounds. They are baked for about 12 minutes.
After the cookies have cooled, you’ll dip them in white chocolate. Chopped white chocolate is combined with a couple of teaspoons of shortening and melted until smooth. You’ll pick up a cookie and dip half of it into the melted chocolate- leaving one side of the cookie uncoated with the chocolate and exposing the pretty, pink part of the cookie.
Substitution suggestions:
If you don’t care for almond-flavored cookies (or if there is an allergy), it’s okay to substitute vanilla extract for the almond extract. If you’d like to turn these into a “green” cookie, use green maraschino cherries! I’ve never used any other chocolate but white chocolate for these cookies, but you could certainly try to use milk chocolate, semisweet or dark chocolate and let us know how it goes!
This recipe for White Chocolate Cherry Shortbread Cookies makes 36 cookies. Store the cookies in a covered container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Separate layers with waxed paper. Freeze these cookies for up to 3 months. Enjoy!
Here are a few more shortbread cookie recipes you might like to try:
Pumpkin Shortbread Cookies Mexican Chocolate Shortbread Cookies Cinnamon Shortbread Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies Chocolate Dipped Espresso Shortbread Cookies Christmas Shortbread Cookies Red Velvet Shortbread Cookies
