These easy fresh cherry cookies are sweetened with maple syrup. With a little almond flour and a couple of other simple ingredients, you can enjoy a sweet treat without any refined sugar.

Fresh Cherry Cookies

Who doesn't love fresh cherries? I'm guessing you do since you're here, and these fresh cherry cookies don't disappoint.

I've made these with almond flour, cherry and almond go together so well (I'm thinking Cherry Bakewell here!) and so while the almond flour keeps these moist and yummy, it's a mild flavor and so I boost it with some natural almond extract flavor.

The end result? A sweet little cookie stuffed with fresh cherries that's moist and perfect for those afternoon pick me up snacks. Pop one of these in lunchboxes for a quick energy boost, or have them on hand in the car for those trip when snacks are needed. They keep their shape and travel well....even if they don't last long enough to make it out of the kitchen!

The old me would probably have used maraschino cherries to make these, if I made them at all. They're those bright red ones we used to eat by the tub as kids. They're soaked in sugar (hence the months and months long sell by date!) and often go in cocktails.

These days it's usually fresh cherries for baking, or frozen for anything else cherry related. Frozen cherries are too wet for baking and while it's not impossible, fresh cherries don't turn the dough purple in the way frozen ones do, and bake well without releasing far too much moisture as the frozen ones can.

Notes

You do need to chill this cookie dough before baking it. This helps the dough keep its shape when it goes into the oven.

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I use an electric mixer or beaters to whip the butter and egg to get it fluffy. You can do this by hand, it just takes a little more man power! I also use teaspoons to get each cookie scoop roughly the same size. If you have a mini cookie scoop, that's better. I use parchment paper to bake with usually and these don't stick to it at all, but use cookie sheets if you have them.

How To Pit Cherries For Cookies

Cherries need to be pitted and there's a few way you can do this.

The cherry pitter: If you have one of these (or want to get one!) cherry pitters, lucky you, it makes the job quick and painless. If like me you've never quite got round to investing in one, you'll need to do it by hand. Which isn't so bad.....

I pit cherries at home by simply using a very sharp knife and running it around the centre of the cherry and then holding onto both sides, twisting it so one half come apart from the other. You'll be left with one nice clean stoneless cherry and one half with the stone firmly in place.

cookies made with fresh cherries on a cooling rack

Honestly, I've not found a way to cleanly get the stone out of this half. I tend to use the knife to try and carve it out. It generally doesn't happen easily and it's definitely not a job for small kids, and i often end up cutting the cherry away from the stone, so I don't get a perfect stoneless cherry half.

That's fine for this recipe, I use those cherry bits for the dough and keep the better looking halves for the topping. It's really not a biggie, unless you're trying to get a good photo :)

Note/ Try to use cherries that are firm and not over ripe. You'll get a cleaner cut if the cherries are firmer, if they're overripe they'll crush in your fingers and you try and pit them!

More Cookie Recipes

Substitutions

While I've made this batch with almond flour (simply ground almonds) you could also make them with a Clean all purpose flour. They'll be more crumbly but every bit as delicious!
Try swopping out the almond extract for vanilla extract. We love almonds and cherry together but for a taste twist, try adding vanilla.
White chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips, any chocolate chips add some indulgence if these are for a special occasion.
For chocolate cherry cookies add a level tablespoon of a good quality cocoa powder to the mix.

Storing These Cookies

Store these cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Because they're made from almond flour they don't dry out the same way cookies made with regular flour do, so it's not quite as important to keep the air off them.

Keep them at room temperature and the flavor will develop more, next day cookies can be better than same day cookies in my book and if you're adding one to a lunchbox, just wrap it in a little plastic wrap or foil.

Freezing Fresh Cherries

You can freeze these cookies and they freeze and defrost well. The cherries do get a little more water content obviously when they're frozen, so when I freeze these after thawing (on a plate on the kitchen work top for a few hours until they're fully defrosted) I put them in a warm oven for a few minutes to dry them out a little.

Freeze them in a freezer bag, I try to freeze them in a 'stack', so they take up less room and you can pull them apart easily.

How To Make Fresh Cherry Cookies

Ingredients

1 Cup Fresh cherries Pitted and diced
1 Cup Ground almonds
¼ Cup Butter Salt, melted
1 Egg
2 tbsp Maple syrup
1 tsp Almond extract Organic, natural
1 tbsp Almonds Flaked, for the topping

Instructions

In a mixing bowl add in the melted butter, maple syrup, almond extract and egg and using electric beaters, whisk the mixture until light and fluffy
Using a wooden spoon stir in the ground almonds until just combined, and then fold in ¾ of the fresh cherries
Put the bowl in the fridge for ½ hour to chill the dough, this helps to stop the cookies spreading out in the oven
Heat your oven to 190f or 375f and line a baking sheet with parchment paper
I use 2 teaspoons to divide the dough into about 10 small cookies, and then flatten and neaten the edges using the back of the teaspoon
Arrange the remaining fresh cherries on the top of the cookies, and sprinkle the flaked almonds on the top (optional)
Bake in your oven for 10-12 minutes until golden brown and then remove from the oven and transfer to a wire cooling rack

Fresh Cherry Cookie Recipe

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