Stuffed Cherry Blossom Cookies

I love a cookie with a surprise inside. Whether it's an Oreo tucked inside, a cheesecake filling, or even peanut butter cream, there's something fun about biting into a cookie only to find a little something unexpected. And usually a sweet sugar cookie doesn't get to play those games. But these perfectly flavored sugar cookies with vanilla and almond extracts are getting in to the action, hiding a lovely maraschino cherry inside a soft cookie. Yum. Rolled in sugar for a little extra sweetness, these cookies are fun and festive and sure to please. I've got a few cherry-lovers on my cookie tin list and I know they are going to love these.

Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies

After the amazing Cherry Chocolate Blondies I made earlier this month, I found a recipe for cookies bringing the same flavors together. And they are amazing. Soft, chewy cookies with sweet cherries and chocolate chips, they are the perfect way to use up the last few lingering cherries from summer. Of course the blondies were amazing, but come on, you know I will always go for a cookie. And of course, cherry and chocolate play well together, but the almond extract really brings it together. I love almonds and cherry so that was definitely the right addition to these cookies. If you've got some cherries leftover but they aren't quite fresh enough to just munch on, toss them in these cookies for a real treat.

Cherry Chocolate Blondies

I've been having a love affair with cherries this summer. I've always loved fresh cherries, but I don't know what it is this year--the pregnancy cravings, the fact that they are so abundant and delicious this summer, or that they've been on sale for basically the last month and a half, but I can't get enough of them. And these bars do the very best thing with fresh cherries--add chocolate and a lovely gooey blondie base for an amazing twist on deconstructed and baked up chocolate covered cherry. The chocolate, the gooey blondie, the cherries: a trifecta of yum. It's a one bowl dessert that bakes up in no time and I will absolutely make these again. If nothing more than an excuse to by more cherries. Now you know I'm not a big fruit in my dessert girl, especially fresh fruit (compared to dried) or anything pie-like. But I was headed to see my uncle and aunt, Bud and Sandy, and wanted to take something a little different but still sweet and delicious. This was both and more.

Chocolate Covered Cherry Bombs

These truffles/cookies/cake balls are so yummy! And they'd be an adorable and easy little Valentine's Day treat. A twist on a traditional chocolate covered cherry, fudgy cake wraps around a sweet maraschino cherry and is then dipped in milk chocolate for a crisp coating, sealing in the deliciousness. I thought I had enough cherries with stems (the wick of the "bomb") but must not have been paying attention to the second jar since some of my treats are without the stems. But still equally yummy and fun. My cousin Angela messaged me almost immediately upon trying these, looking for the recipe. Yup, they're that good.

Cherry Bon Bon Cookies

Surprisingly, these may be my favorite cookie of the master mix series.  And they have coconut in them!  Who would have believed it?  These are a soft cookie packed with lots of goodies, like mini chocolate chips, chopped maraschino cherries and coconut flakes to make a cookie that's packed with flavor.  Made with the same master cookie mix I've featured all week, it's awesome how easy these were to make.  There's barely any measuring to do here, all done with a bowl, a pastry blender and a spatula so you've got minimal clean up and a cookie with maximum taste.

Mini Shirley Temple Cupcakes

Growing up, I used to think it was so fancy to order a Shirley Temple when my parents took us out to eat.  We could only get them at "fancy" restaurants and it was so special.  And for holiday dinners, my Dad would even make them for us at home.  I always got mine with extra cherries (probably why I will still order my Manhattan's with extra cherries today).  I remember ordering a Shirley Temple from the open bar at my Godfather's wedding and specifically asking the bartender to make it without alcohol (I was 7, I didn't understand how cocktails worked).  So I thought these clever little cupcakes would be a lovely nod to nostalgia and happiness for New Year's Eve.  I think they are cuter in miniature and the cherry flavor is light in the cupcake and a little more potent in the frosting, and comes together with a light almond accent.  Perfect bite-size treats, with a cherry on top to boot!

Cherry Almond Bread

I always think that cherries and almonds shouldn't work together but they really do and the result is always perfect.  I think the almond flavors just really make the cherry shine as a true star.  And it's a rather holiday-like combination, so this bread seemed a perfect fit for gifting this season.  A bread with a moist crumb, dotted with almonds and sweet cherries, you'll love the smell and taste and know immediately it is meant to be shared.  Which is why I made this my treat to this month's recipient of my Foodie Pen Pal package.

Cherry Cordial Rice Krispies Treats

Yes I went there.  And they are amazing.  These were truly an inspired dessert.  Walking through Target I was drawn to the Valentine's display, specifically the many bags of pink, red and white M&Ms on sale.  There I spotted a bag of cherry flavored M&Ms.  Immediately my head thought these needed to be inside a Rice Krispies Treat.  With white chocolate.  And possibly a little more cherry flavor.  Plus, knowing Dave appreciation (and all of yours!) for my Cherry Cordial Cookies, I had a feeling these would be a huge hit.  These were a dessert for a party and everyone raved.  The pop of cherry in the marshmallow coupled with milk chocolate laced with cherry flavor and the added white chocolate makes for a sweet snack, but not in an overly sugary way, just a very adult flavor for Rice Krispies treats.

While these are based on a standard Rice Krispies recipe, they were truly inspired and are an original for me.  Why do my original recipes keep including chocolate and cherry which happen to be one of Dave's favorites, not mine?  I crushed my M&Ms because they were slightly larger than the regular milk chocolate M&Ms and I wanted them to be a consistent throughout the bars.  Unfortunately when the melted marshmallow mixture hit the chocolate, the crumbs from crushing started to melt, so I lost the pretty pink color of the marshmallow. Small price to pay because the taste was exactly what I was going for.  Whip these up for a Valentine's treat and you'll have them begging for more.

White Chocolate Cherry Shortbread

These will certainly get you in the holiday spirit.  Aren't they pretty?  Add to that a sweet, flavorful shortbread and you've got a winner.  The shortbread gets a little softness to it's texture from the sweet cherries and the white chocolate is a nice accent.  These lovelies will look great on Santa's plate and even better, you're holiday guests will like the fruit and chocolate combination.

I found this recipe at Better Recipes (formerly Mixing Bowl), posted by judyjellybean.  They were easy to make and make a lot!  These would be a good for a cookie exchange.  After baking, I started dipping the cookies in melted chocolate and nonpareils, but ran out of chocolate (because I didn't read the recipe and only bought one package).  When Dave taste-tested, he said not to worry about dipping the rest.  Since the cookie already has white chocolate in it, he felt the addition dipping overpowered the cookie without adding anything, and then you couldn't enjoy the cherry flavor.  What can I say?  The man knows cookies.  Make your own choice, I left mine half with and half without.

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies

Don't those look good?  Bet you want the details and the recipe, huh?

Well, I'm guest posting over at Tina's blog, Mom's Crazy Cooking.  So hop on over there, check out Tina's blog and learn all about these lovely yummy treats.



Happy Baking,
The Cookie Princess

Cherry-Lemon Meringue Mini Pies

Aren't they adorable?  Yes, and the second time around was much better.  Allow me to explain.

On Monday, my dear friend Cindy had a birthday, so I had to bake for her  Since she is my friend who can respect chocolate but would much rather have something fruity, particularly lemon, it was quite fortuitous when the April 2011 issue of Food Network Magazine arrived last week bearing this recipe from Sandra Lee.  Now, this is the second Sandra Lee recipe that didn't quite turn out the way I wanted it to (see White Peppermint Snowballs), but I'll take the blame on this one.  When reading the recipe, I thought to use my silicone muffin pan to make sure I could get the pie "crusts" out without breakage. However, when I actually made the recipe, I forgot until they were already in the oven.  In my stoneware muffin pan.  Not the most flexible or forgiving of cookware.

Only one of them completely crumbled.  The other two I took out were "reparable."

So instead of presenting the pies in a pretty little container, I just handed Cindy the whole stone pan full of them (which she confessed to eating right out of the pan, a "few" at a time). 

Oddly, this recipe yielded the perfect amount of crust for 12 mini pies, but twice as much filling.  Even more strange, the package of meringue cookies I bought at Trader Joe's was enough to make two batches of crust.  Clearly, the stars were aligning so I could try these again using the right tools.  The recipe below will yield 24 mini pies. I doubled the original recipe's crust quantities, but left the filling the same.  Let me know if it doesn't work for you and/or you did something different!

And as far as tastiness, they are quite refreshing.  I found them very lemony, but the crust was nice and firm (good pie-librium) with a good contrast in flavor and texture.

Cherry-Lemon Meringue Mini Pies

Ingredients
For the crust

10 ounces vanilla meringue cookies
12 tablespoons cake flour
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted

For the filling
1 box (4-serving package) lemon pudding and pie filling mix
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/4 cups prepared lemonade
2 large egg yolks
1 can prepared cherry pie filling

Combine the meringue cookies and flour in a food processor and process until mixture is fine crumbs. 

Add the melted butter and pulse until combined.

Spray muffin cups with cooking spray.  I have both a silicone muffin pan and these little individual silicone muffin cups. 

I ended up using the individual cups, which made for a nice presentation without risking breakage to the crusts.  If I would have made all 24 at once, I would have used both the silicone pan and the individual cups.  If you only have access to 12 silicone cups, make them in batches.  I would not suggest doing this in either metal or stone bakeware.

Spoon about 2 Tablespoons of the mixture into each of the prepared muffin cups.  I actually used a scantly filled medium cookie scoop. 

Using the back of a measuring spoon or a small spatula, press the mixture firmly into the bottom and sides of the cups.

Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 8-10 minutes, or until just starting to brown.  Remove from oven and immediately press each cup with the back of the tablespoon (you want to make a well for your filling).  Cool the cups in the pan on a rack.

Combine the pudding mix and sugar in a medium saucepan.

Whisk in the lemonade and egg yolks. Continue to whisk over medium-high heat until the mixture comes to a boil. 

Remove from heat and cool for 5 minutes.

Spoon 1-2 Tablespoons of the lemon filling into each cooled meringue cup.  Top each with about 1 Tablespoon of cherry pie filling (I picked out just the cherries, not the goo). 

Sorry--I apparently stopped taking pictures of the new version at this point.  Whoops.

Chill for about 2 hours, or until the filling is set.

Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Makes 24 mini pies.

Happy Baking,
The Cookie Princess

Cherry Cordials (Redux)

Since I needed more than 3 1/2 dozen of these lovelies, I took Dave's advice and tried them with milk chocolate chips.

When Dave tried them, he exclaimed, "That's it!  You never have to buy me cherry cordial candies again.  Just make me these cookies."  I liked this statement because it suggests I ever bought him cherry cordials at all, let alone on a regular basis.

Here's the updated ingredient list.

1 package Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix
1 package sugar free cherry gelatin
1 stick of butter, softened (not melted)
1 egg
1 cup milk chocolate chips

For the full recipe description, refer to the Cherry Cordial post.

Cherry Cordials

Cherry Cordial Cookies

You've been so patient waiting for my first recipe, so I'm going to give you a good one.  A new one that I sort of made up all by myself!  I first test drove these for a friend's BBQ in July and they were a big hit.  At the time Betty Crocker was accepting submissions for their Mix it Up with Betty cookie recipe contest.  I submitted this, but did not make the cut this year.  While I would never advocate using a packaged mix and calling it homemade, I would encourage you to use the mixes as a base to come up with something amazing.  That's what I love about that contest and I've found many a good cookie recipes from it.

This recipe started out as Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies, but I switched from Jell-O brand gelatin to the store brand gelatin (for no reason other than price) and Dave just about lost it at the difference in flavor.  His exact words were, " Oh my God that's exactly the same flavor as a Cherry Cordial chocolate candy."  Thus the name change.  He did suggest, however, to try it with milk chocolate chips next time around, instead of semi-sweet, for an even closer similarity.

Updated 11/9/10: Check out the revised version of this recipe here!

I do suggest using the sugar-free gelatin, because you only want the cherry flavor, not any additional sweetness.

Cherry Cordial Cookies

1 package Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix
1 package sugar free cherry gelatin
1 stick of butter, softened (not melted)
1 egg
1 cup semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F for a dark pan (add 25 degrees for a light pan).  In a medium bowl combine sugar cookie mix and cherry gelatin mix.  Add butter and egg.  Using a pastry blender, cut butter into dry ingredients as much as possible before mixing with a wooden spoon.  If your butter isn't soft enough, you may need to add a splash of milk, but just keep working the dough until everything is incorporated.  Add chocolate chips and mix through.

On a parchment or Silpat lined baking sheet, drop by spoonfuls (I use a small cookie scoop) about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 8 minutes.  (If you bake two sheets at time, rotate the sheets 180 degrees AND switch racks halfway through for more even baking.)  Remove from oven and cool on sheets for 2-3 minutes, then remove to cooling racks to cool completely.

Makes 3 1/2 dozen.

Happy Baking,
The Cookie Princess