These cookies not only taste amazing they look super pretty with the cookie dough colored pink!
Food coloring can add a lot of fun to cookies without the need to add a ton of icing!
These are outlined and easy to make, take a look.
It’s not even cherry season here, but I can’t wait for it to arrive…
In the meantime, I thought I’d make some cherry cookies with cherry icing.
Oh, how I love fresh cherries! My cherry pitter gets quite a workout in the kitchen.
Right now it’s hibernating.
Until about mid May.
I tinted the cookie dough pink so they are extra pink with the added pink icing.
These were so yummy, I’m not even going to tell you how many I ate before they cooled and I could ice them.
Cool cookies completely before icing, or eat them all when they are warm, your choice!
If you don’t want to ice them with a piping bag. Ice the cookies with this easy method.“How to ice cookies the easy way”
Two ways to ice them, you decide, a lot or a little!
You can add as much or as little coloring to the cookie dough and icing, so make them as light or dark pink as you like! Colored cookie dough like these make them more fun, but you can leave them uncolored if you prefer that too.
- 1 cup butter
- 1½ cups confectioners/powdered sugar
- 1 egg
- 3 teaspoons cherry extract
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 drops Americolor soft pink coloring
- 3 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- Cream together room temperature butter and sugar
- Add to this the egg and extract and color
- Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt. Adding a cupful at a time.
- Mix until the dough forms a ball on the paddle
- Roll out dough on floured surface and using a cookie cutter, cut into the desired shape.
- Bake at 400 degrees for 7-9 miinutes
- Cherry Icing
- Mix one cup powdered sugar with two teaspoons corn syrup, add in 2-3 tablespoons water and two teaspoons cherry extract along with 4-5 drops soft pink coloring.
- Mix until icing is smooth and pipe onto cookies with #4 tip.
recipe adapted from Sweet Sugar Belle’s Lemon Poppy Cookie
If you like Cherry you may like these
or these cherry-pie-cookies
If you like this or any other recipe at 
Sue/the view from great island says
These are insanely gorgeous. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as cherry extract, I’ve got to get some. That is a great pink color!
Georgia says
These are so pretty. You can almost taste them. I’ve got to find some cherry extract.
Sylvie @ Gourmande in the Kitchen says
I’m all about cherries, can’t wait for the season to get here!!
Brenda @ a farmgirl's dabbles says
So sweet. And I love cherries!
Sara says
Wonderful!!! So cute!!!
alison @ Ingredients, Inc. says
so awesome! You make the best cookies!
Russell at Chasing Delicious says
How cute are these! I love cookies with icing and the bright red is bright and happy – just the way I like my cookies.
Russell at Chasing Delicious says
Oh by the way I like your new look!
Diane says
thanks Russell! I couldn’t wait for my “new look” it was a long time coming.
Paula says
First your oatmeal cut-outs and now these pretty cherry cookies. I’m going to be busy in my kitchen with your recipes 🙂
P.S. Your won-ton soup and your peanut noodles posts show up in my reader but when I click on the link I get Error Page Not Found message (??)
Diane says
Hi Paula, thanks for telling my I will check the links tomorrow .
Lisa [With Style and Grace] says
these are some beautiful cookies, love that they’re cherry flavored!
Jaclyn says
these are absolutely beautiful, Diane! they’re so cheery and bright, and they definitely remind me of cherries! I am a little obsessed with fresh cherries, I could probably eat a pound of them in one sitting without realizing it!
Magic of Spice says
Such a great flavor for cookies…and so pretty!
Christy says
Would these be good without the icing?
Diane says
Yes the cookies by themselves are very delicious, if you are not an icing person. If you want more cherry taste in the cookie add additional extract.
Judy says
What are the ingredient measurements for the cherry icing?
Diane says
sorry about that I’m trying a new recipe format and the amounts aren’t showing up 🙁
1 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons corn syrup
2-3 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons cherry extract
Americolor soft pink coloring(4-5 drops)
Mix until icing is smooth and pipe onto cookies with #4 tip.
Valentina says
so pretty!
Cat says
Hi Diane, is “americolor” require in making the dough? Couldn’t see the coloring step in making dough. So what makes the cookie/dough itself pink? Or is that the cherry extract that makes it pink? Thanks. Please advise.
Diane says
sorry about that, add the pink food coloring when you add the extract, that way it will get blended in well.
Happy Baking!
Cat says
Thanks Diane for the quick reply! will try that!
Cat says
one more question, how much cookies/serve will this recipe produce?
Thanks a lot!
Diane says
About 4 dozen 2 1/2 in wide hearts. It will depend on how thick you roll the cookies and what size cookie cutter you use, how many you will get out of one batch.
Kris says
Hi Diane,
for first step – “Cream together butter and sugar”, does it mean using a electronic mixer to beat it until it combine? Thanks.
Diane says
Yes, I use an electric mixer to cream the butter and sugar together. My arm would be exhausted trying to mix it by hand.
Nina says
Hi! these look really good, but sadly i just make a test batch for my vday cookie exchange and i did everything exactly as instructed… and i just took mine out of the oven and they are browned and just gross looking… 🙁 the dough was a little soft, so i actually have it in the freezer for a few minutes to see if it will help with rolling out, but i dunno what i did wrong… maybe i’ll try to lower the oven temp… ;_;
Diane says
if the dough was soft, I would say it had to do with the temperature of you butter. These cookies do not have a really soft consistency, the butter should be left at room temperature for about 20-30 minutes. If the butter is too soft and you are able to press you finger into it, as with most cookies they won’t turn out well. The other issues could be if you oven runs hot, you can easily test that with an oven thermometer. My guess would be those two things. I use this recipe often with no issues of browning or softness, so try cooler butter and the oven should be at 400, if they are done sooner I would remove them before 7 minutes, not lower the temperature, test by baking two cookies at a time until you find how you oven works best is the easiest way to test cookies, not bake a whole tray if you are testing oven temp and such. Hope that helps.
Tawny says
I was really excited to try these, but the recipe did not turn out at all. The dough was way too dry and falling apart. Maybe I’ll try again with less flour.
Diane says
The best tip I can give you with the info you gave in the comment is to keep mixing the dough, it will pull away from the side of the mixing bowl and come together nicely. If you tend to roll out cookies with a lot of flour, be sure to reduce the flour in the recipe. I now prefer to roll out my cookie dough in between wax paper as I don’t need to add any flour. Hope that helps!
Linda Flaherty says
Would like to know two things about these cookies.
1. How thick do you roll them – 1/4″ ?
2. Do you think you could switch out All purpose gluten free flour by any chance?
Diane says
I roll my cookies to a 1/4″ using wood dowels on the sides of my rolling pin to roll over so all the cookies are the same thickness. I have a whole post on cut out cookies here https://www.createdby-diane.com/2017/09/how-to-bake-perfect-cut-out-cookies.html that answer lots of questions I’ve gotten over the years on cut out cookies.
I don’t often bake with other flours, but gluten-free flour should be fine as a replacement in this recipe.