Salted Cherry Cookies

This year, the sugar cookie deserved a major glow up, and that’s where the salted cherry sugar cookie comes in. Think of this cookie as your traditional sugar cookie, but with the addition of extra salt (for flavor and gluten! Chewiness of course!) and frozen cherries that get all rich and delicious in the oven.

It’s not your traditional cookie, but what you lose in tradition you gain in unique flavor. It’s one of my new favorites to add to my holiday rotation, and I promise it’s not just because of the flakey salt 😉

What is a traditional sugar cookie?

A traditional sugar cookie is made with just granulated sugar, butter, flour, baking powder, salt and sometimes egg and vanilla. It can either be a cookie-cutter style dough, designed to be rolled and pressed, or it can be a drop-style cookie, which is more common in the United States. Either form of a sugar cookie is delicious, but with this recipe I wanted to add a few twists.

Why is this cherry cookie different than a traditional sugar cookie?

This cookie uses the addition of salt, brown sugar and of course, flakey salt 😉 The whole emphasis on this cookie is to maintain the sweetness and texture of a sugar cookie, while adding in a few other subtly different flavors.

Of course I added in cherries, which is the main difference, but the homage to the sugar cookie still comes through in the baking process.

Ingredients for these salted cherry cookies

The ingredients for these cookies mirror your traditional chocolate chip, but with a few tweaks. Here is everything you’ll need:

Dry Ingredients

• 1 & 1/4 cup flour 175 grams
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 & 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp flakey salt, for topping
• 2 tsp granulated sugar, for topping

Wet INgredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter or vegan butter, 113 grams
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar lightly packed, 40 grams
• ½ cup white sugar, 110 grams
• 1 flax meal mixed with 3 tbsp water
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup frozen cherries thawed & drained, 80g

How to make these salted cherry sugar cookies

Here’s a step-by-step breakdown:

• Preheat the oven to 350F.
• Whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder in a small bowl.
• In a stand mixer, beat together the butter and sugars, scraping down the sides, until the butter mix is light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.
• While this is happening, create the flax egg by whisking together the flax meal and water. Let this sit to form a gel.
• Add the flax and vanilla to the stand mixer and beat again until the batter is smooth, about 2 more minutes.
• Gently fold in the dry ingredients to form a dough. Then fold in the thawed cherries (make sure you drain any excess liquid from them before you add them in!)
• Portion the cookies out into 8 equal balls, about 64 grams each. Sprinkle the top of each cookie with sugar and flakey salt.
• If you have the time, let them chill for 30 minutes before baking on a parchment lined baking sheet.
• Bake at 350F for 14-16 minutes. Let the cookies cool on a baking sheet.
• Serve whenever!

A note on creaming the wet ingredients

The difference between a cookie recipe giving you five cookies versus giving you eight is all about how you cream the wet ingredients.

Seriously, creaming butter creates aeration in a dough that can increase recipe yield by up to 30%. That’s why even though amazing cookies can be made with melted butter, so many recipes call for the butter to be softened and creamed first (there’s also the whole other issue of how melted butter only creates a dense cookie…but we can deal with that later).

So I implore you, if you take away one thing from this recipe and one instruction from this post – cream your butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy! Not only will you get a lighter, chewier cookie, you’ll also get MORE COOKIES. And who doesn’t want more cookies, y’know?

How to fold in the dry ingredients

Just as important as creaming the butter, is how you fold in the dry ingredients. You can use your mixer, but I far prefer doing it by hand. It helps preserve the air bubbles you worked so hard to cream into the wet ingredients, and it gives you a light, fluffy, almost ~whipped~ dough.

I like to fold in my dry ingredients with a spatula and a circular rotation of my arm. It might take a bit longer, but it’s worth it in the end.

Looking for other cookie recipes?

All of my holiday favorites for 2021 are below!

And that’s everything for this chewy salted cherry cookie recipe!

If you make it, please tag me on Pinterest or Instagram so I can see! It’s my favorite thing to scroll through stories, and I’m so excited to see what you all are making.

And of course feel free to leave any questions, comments or reviews! This is the best place to reach me, and I’d love to hear from you!