Cherry Bonbon Cookies

On the plate, cherry bonbon cookies look like attractively decorated sugar cookies, but they hold a secret inside. Each cookie encloses a maraschino cherry—in imitation of its bonbon candy namesake. The balance of crisp cookie, soft cherry and sweet glaze looks at home alongside easy candy recipes, just as it does on a cookie platter.

This recipe toes the line between cookie and candy, partly because the dough omits three standard cookie ingredients: baking powder, baking soda and egg. Without a leavening agent or an egg’s fat and proteins, the dough behaves more like pastry and wraps readily around the cherries. The cool part is that it doesn’t spread and flatten in the oven. These cookie bonbons bake longer and firmer than sugar cookies, and as they cool, they harden slightly around the cherry core, holding it in place.

Cherry Bonbon Cookie Ingredients

• Butter: Softened butter creams more easily with confectioner’s sugar, which wants to fly out of the bowl when you flip on the mixer. For less mess, cut the butter into cubes (it softens faster this way too) and start the mixer at a low speed, increasing it only when the sugar has been incorporated.
• Confectioners’ sugar: Confectioners’ sugar is actually finely ground granulated sugar. Many brands mix it with cornstarch to prevent cakiness. Still, some organic and non-GMO versions use tapioca instead, which avoids a chalky taste and texture that can be particularly noticeable in a cookie glaze. To skip the filler altogether, make powdered sugar at home just before you mix the dough.
• Milk: A little milk helps hold the dough together and replenishes some of the fat and protein typically provided by eggs. Use 2% or whole milk for the best results.
• Vanilla extract: The best pure vanilla extract lists just two ingredients: vanilla beans and alcohol, the same ingredients used to make vanilla extract at home.
• All-purpose flour: Stick with all-purpose flour for cherry bonbon cookies. More finely milled cake and pastry flour might make the dough harder to wrap around the cherries. Self-rising flour will pull away from the fruit as it bakes.
• Salt: A tiny amount of salt keeps cookie dough from tasting bland.
• Maraschino cherries: Maraschino cherries taste more like candy than fruit because they’re preserved in a red sugary syrup. Look for a jar in the baking aisle, not the produce department. Drain them well to avoid soggy cookie dough.
• Glaze: A little melted butter and maraschino cherry juice turn confectioners’ sugar into a pink-hued glaze. Add the juice a smidgen at a time if you want a thicker glaze to pipe onto the cookies with a piping bag.

Directions

Step 1: Combine the wet ingredients

Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the milk and vanilla.

Editor’s Tip: To reach the light and fluffy stage, you need to cream butter and sugar for five to seven minutes with a stand or hand mixer and about 10 minutes with a sturdy spoon or spatula. Confectioners’ sugar might appear to blend in more quickly than granulated white or brown sugar, but it’s really the butter’s fluffiness that shows when the mixture is ready.

Step 2: Add the flour and salt

Combine the flour and salt. Gradually add that mixture to the creamed mixture.

Step 3: Encase the cherries

Divide the dough into 24 portions. Shape each portion around a cherry to form a ball. Place the balls on ungreased baking sheets.

Editor’s Tip: The cookies will be more likely to spread and separate from their cherries if you place the dough balls on greased baking sheets or ones lined with silicone mats.

Step 4: Bake and cool

Bake the cookies for 18 to 20 minutes or until they are lightly browned. Remove them to wire racks to cool.

Step 5: Drizzle with the glaze

For the glaze, combine the sugar, melted butter and cherry juice until smooth. Drizzle the glaze over the cookies. Dust with additional confectioners’ sugar.

Cherry Bonbon Cookie Variations

• Replace the vanilla extract: Almond extract and amaretto, an almond-flavored liqueur, make delicious vanilla replacements in this recipe because cherries and almonds share a dominant aromatic compound. Compared with vanilla, almond extract is stronger and amaretto is boozier, so start with just 1/2 teaspoon of either and adjust to taste.
• Add chocolate: Incorporate chocolate into the cookie dough, fold it into the bonbon centers or coat the cookies in it. For chocolate cookie dough, add up to 1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa or natural cocoa powder with the flour. Swap in a chocolate chunk for the cherry, or insert a smaller chocolate chip into the space that once held the cherry pit. Instead of the cherry glaze and sugar dusting, dip the cooled cookies in chocolate ganache or pipe chocolate frosting on top.
• Upgrade the cherries: Most maraschino cherries come packed in corn syrup laced with preservatives and artificial color. For the real deal, use all-natural Luxardo cherries, the Italian precursor to maraschino cherries. Thin the glaze with water instead of dark Luxardo syrup, which will make the icing look dull and brownish.

How to Store Cherry Bonbon Cookies

Store cherry bonbon cookies in an airtight container at a cool room temperature. Expect the glaze to harden and the cookies to absorb some of the confectioners’ sugar as they sit longer.

How long do cherry bonbon cookies last?

Cherry bonbon cookies are best within one week. They last a week or two longer, but the cherries will start to soften the inner part of the cookie and the outer surface will become drier.

Can you freeze cherry bonbon cookies?

Cherry bonbon cookies freeze best without their glaze. Pack them in an airtight freezer-safe container and layer them with parchment to keep them from sticking together. Store the cookies in the freezer for up to three months. Let them come to room temperature, and then add the glaze and dusting of confectioner’s sugar.

Cherry Bonbon Cookie Tips

How can you avoid dense cookie dough?

These cookies intentionally have a denser dough than drop cookies, allowing them to retain their shape around the cherries as they bake. That said, if you cut the butter and sugar creaming time short and play lax with the sugar and flour measurements, you might create an overly dense dough. Creaming whips air into the butter, creating a lighter dough.

When you measure flour the right way, instead of packing it into the measuring cup, you avoid tough dough. Measure fluffy confectioners’ sugar in the same way as the flour, with a light touch. Once you add the flour to the dough, overmixing results in hard cookies.

Why is my dough crumbly?

Without the binding power of eggs, this dough tends to crumble more than other cookie dough. If your cherry bonbon cookies are excessively crumbly, you may have overworked the butter and sugar to the point where they start to separate again or have overworked the flour until it forms tough gluten strands. Imprecise measurements also create crumbly dough, but humidity and temperature also play a role.

To counteract ambient effects, add the flour in smaller portions, stopping when the dough starts to feel coarse. When you divide the dough into portions, let your hands warm it slightly until it forms a ball that you can mold completely around the cherries. Then, chill the dough-wrapped cherries before baking them to prevent excessive oven spread.