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🍒 These Chocolate Cherry Thumbprints Cookies are an impressive but easy cookie for the holidays! Perfect for cookie trays.
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Pin ItChocolate Cherry Thumbprints Cookies
These cookies are a little bit different from your traditional thumbprint cookies. But, they’re eye-catching and delicious – and perfect for the holiday season!
Every year, we participate in a cookie swap with a couple of neighbors or friends. I look forward to it every year. I’m the crazy person that starts thinking about what kind of cookie I want to share next year before the new year! I jot down tons of recipe ideas to try, and I have the whole year to find the perfect cookie!
I knew I wanted to make an impressive but easy cookie for my swap – and this time, I knew right away that I wanted to use a recipe I found in my Gramma’s recipes. These Chocolate Cherry Thumbprints were exactly what I was looking for!
My family loved these tasty little gems – and I hope my recipients thought they were delicious as well! 😊
Let me show you how they’re made …
Thumbprints Recipe
- semi-sweet chocolate chips
- quick or old-fashioned oats
- all-purpose flour
- unsweetened cocoa powder
- baking powder
- salt
- granulated sugar
- butter
- large eggs
- vanilla extract
- maraschino cherries
How to make Thumbprints Cookies
Time needed: 1 hour and 40 minutes
How to make Thumbprints Cookies
- Melt and cool chocolate.
Microwave 1 cup of the chocolate chips in a small microwave-safe bowl on HIGH (100%) power for 1 minute. Stir. Microwave in additional 10-20 second increments, stirring until smooth. Allow the chocolate to cool to room temperature.
- Combine dry ingredients.
In a medium bowl, combine the oats, flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.
- Prepare dough.
In a large mixing bowl, beat the sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth. Beat in the melted chocolate. Stir in the oat mixture. Cover and refrigerate the dough for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven and shape cookies.
After the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 350°F. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2-inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Press deep centers into each cookie using your thumb. Place a cherry into each center.
- Bake and cool cookies.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until set. Let the cookies stand on cookie sheets for 2 minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool completely.
- Drizzle melted chocolate over cookies.
Melt the remaining 1 cup of chocolate chips as mentioned above. Drizzle the chocolate over the cooled cookies.
Thumbprints Cookies: FAQs
Cookies stay fresh in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week.
For anything longer than a couple of hours, yes, they need to be kept refrigerated.
Sure! They are harder to find but would work just fine in this recipe. Note that the green cherries are sometimes flavored with lime or mint, although they can be the same flavor as the regular red maraschino cherries!
How did you like this cookie recipe?
Aren’t these cookies so delicious? If you gave this recipe a try, I would love for you to drop a comment down below letting me know how they turned out for you! What did your crew think? If you have any questions or run into any problems, I’ll try my best to help, too.
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Chocolate Cherry Thumbprints Cookies
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Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided, 12 ounces
- 1 ¾ cups quick or old-fashioned oats
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ⅔ cup butter, softened, 10 2/3 tablespoons or 1 stick plus 2 2/3 tablespoons
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups maraschino cherries, drained and patted dry, stems removed and discarded, two 10-oz. jars
Instructions
- Microwave 1 cup of the chocolate chips in a small microwave-safe bowl on HIGH (100%) power for 1 minute. Stir. Microwave in additional 10-20 second increments, stirring until smooth. Allow the chocolate to cool to room temperature.
- In a medium bowl, combine the oats, flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth. Beat in the melted chocolate. Stir in the oat mixture. Cover and refrigerate the dough for 1 hour.
- After the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 350°F. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2-inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Press deep centers into each cookie using your thumb. Place a cherry into each center.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until set. Let the cookies stand on cookie sheets for 2 minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool completely.
- Melt the remaining 1 cup of chocolate chips as mentioned above. Drizzle the chocolate over the cooled cookies.
Notes
- Cookies stay fresh in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week.
- You can also use green Maraschino cherries! They are harder to find but would work just fine in this recipe. Note that the green cherries are sometimes flavored with lime or mint, although they can be the same flavor as the regular red maraschino cherries!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Originally published on December 11, 2013. Updated on December 8, 2020.
Jamie – these thumbprints look AMAZING!! Pinning now to my cookies board, yum!!!
I just heard about the swap – I can't forget about it next year! It seems pretty cool. I've actually never had cherry cookies of any variety, but I love cherry cordials and definitely need to bake some soon!
I love your Chocolate Cherry Thumbprints, perfect for the holidays! Thanks so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday and enjoy your weekend!
Miz Helen
Seriously, these cookies were amazing! SOO happy I have the recipe so I can make them again. Thanks again! 🙂
These sound so yummy! I love chocolate!
YUM!! I may have to bake a batch of these to send to my mom-in-law for her birthday. She loves chocolate covered cherries!
Oh my goodness, those look phenomenal!
Looks good! So does the chocolate drops!
Andrea
WOW oh WOW! Beautiful cookies and I bet they taste great!
Jamie, these cookies looks delicious! I love chocolate and cherries so glad you shared your grandmom's recipe with us! Pinning and sharing! Hope you are having a great week and have a happy Wednesday!