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Baking Three Types of Cherry Vanilla Chocolate Cookies

I love to bake. I may not be the best cook in the world, but I can bake. A few weeks ago while perusing Pinterest, I stumbled across a recipe for cherry vanilla cookies with chocolate kisses on top. Making a few adjustments to the original recipe, I came up with three variations for cherry vanilla chocolate chip cookies, cherry vanilla Kiss cookies, and cherry vanilla chocolate chip Kiss cookies. The recipes are simple. So simple, in fact, that I made all three types of cookies with the same batch of dough. I just had to make a few changes half way through, and I was able to make all three kinds of cookies at once.

The basic dough for all three cookies begins with softened butter. I then combined the softened butter with powdered sugar, maraschino cherry juice, vanilla extract, and red food coloring in a large mixing bowl. The food coloring is optional, and I will probably leave it out when I make these cookies with Poppy someday. (As a side note, this cookie dough is perfect to make with young children because the recipe does not call for eggs. No eggs means no risk of salmonella from eating the raw cookie dough.)

After beating together all the wet ingredients until smooth, I combined flour and salt in a separate bowl. I like to use both all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour to add a little healthy to my cookies. I can add in a little whole grain without sacrificing taste. I then slowly added the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. After mixing together the dough, I folded in some chopped maraschino cherries and some chocolate chips (depending on the recipe).

Once my cookie dough was prepared, I rolled the dough into one-inch balls. For the cookies with the Kisses on top, I rolled the balls in granulated sugar. I used a mixture of white sugar and red sugar to make my cookies a little more festive. After pressing the dough balls down ungreased cookie sheets, I popped my cookie dough into the oven to bake. Once cooked, I pulled the cookies out of the oven and immediately removed them from the cookie sheets. I also immediately placed a chocolate Kiss on the center of the two Kiss cookies. Voila! Three different cherry vanilla chocolate cookies!

For my full recipes for these three types of cookies, check out Cherry Vanilla Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe, Cherry Vanilla Kiss Cookies Recipe, and Cherry Vanilla Chocolate Chip Kiss Cookies Recipe.

Butter

Softening the Butter

Combining the Wet Ingredients

Combining the Dry Ingredients

Chopping the Cherries

Folding in the Cherries

Folding in the Chocolate Chips

Rolling the Cookie Dough into Balls

Pressing the Center of the Cookie Balls

Cookie Dough Balls on the Cookie Sheet

Adding the Chocolate Kiss 1

Adding the Chocolate Kiss 2

Cherry Vanilla Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cherry Vanilla Kiss Cookies

Cherry Vanilla Chocolate Chip Kiss Cookies

Image Credits

Butter © 2012 Heather Johnson
Softening the Butter © 2012 Heather Johnson
Combining the Wet Ingredients © 2012 Heather Johnson
Combining the Dry Ingredients © 2012 Heather Johnson
Chopping the Cherries © 2012 Heather Johnson
Folding in the Cherries © 2012 Heather Johnson
Folding in the Chocolate Chips © 2012 Heather Johnson
Rolling the Cookie Dough into Balls © 2012 Heather Johnson
Pressing the Center of the Cookie Balls © 2012 Heather Johnson
Cookie Dough Balls on the Cookie Sheet © 2012 Heather Johnson
Adding the Chocolate Kiss 1 © 2012 Heather Johnson
Adding the Chocolate Kiss 2 © 2012 Heather Johnson
Cherry Vanilla Chocolate Chip Cookies © 2012 Heather Johnson
Cherry Vanilla Kiss Cookies © 2012 Heather Johnson
Cherry Vanilla Chocolate Chip Kiss Cookies © 2012 Heather Johnson

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