Cherry Chip Cookies (Gluten Free & Vegan)
Maraschino cherries are my weakness. Those canned bright red sugar-soaked cherries are too good to resist. In my deep love for them, I created a Cherry Chip Cookie packed full of sweet white chocolate chips and delicious maraschino cherries. These fun pink cookies are perfect for Valentine’s Day or simply when you’re craving a cute and tasty treat.
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The Best Gluten-Free & Vegan Cherry Chip Cookies Cookies
Without a doubt, these are the best gluten-free vegan cherry chip cookies you’ll ever make. A thick cookie with a soft chewy center and crisp light golden edges. Loaded with chopped maraschino cherries and all the white chocolate chips make these cookies have a fun fruity flavor party in every single delicious bite.
Why These Cherry Chip Cookies Are The Best
No chill time is needed with these amazing gluten-free vegan cherry chip cookies. Simply mix them up and bake them away. Cookies don’t get much easier than that! Better yet, the dough freezes like an absolute dream. Mix up a double, heck, even triple batch and pop any extra straight into the freezer for those last-minute cookie needs. These cherry chip cookies are hard to beat!
Cherry Chip Cookie Ingredients & Substitutions
As always this recipe is gluten-free and vegan. That said, I do test each recipe with “regular” ingredients and make notes of alternatives or swaps so that everyone can enjoy it.
Here are a few key ingredients for these cookies but make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom recipe card for the complete ingredient list.
- Gluten-Free Flour: Check to see if your blend contains xanthan gum and omit it from the recipe below if it does. Note that gluten-free flour blends can vary in weight so I recommend measuring by the cup. I made these cookies with XO Baking Co. all-purpose flour blend. If you are not gluten-free, swap the flour with regular all-purpose flour and omit the xanthan gum.
- Vegan Butter: I enjoy baking with Becel plant-based bricks but any vegan butter substitute will work. You can also use regular butter if you are not vegan/dairy-free.
- Vegan Milk: Unsweetened almond milk is always my go-to for baking. Any vegan or non-vegan milk will work for these cookies though.
- Maraschino Cherries: No way around this ingredient. Whether they are store-bought or homemade, maraschino cherries are a must.
- Almond Extract: The almond extract really gives these cookies a delicious spin and it pairs beautifully with the cherries. If you don’t have it on hand though simply swap it out for some vanilla extract.
- Vegan Chocolate Chips: Pascha makes these fabulous vegan white chocolate chips. They could easily be replaced with regular chocolate chips if you please.
How To Ensure Easy Cherry Cookie Success
Let’s double-check all our cookie bases to ensure we have the most incredible life-changing gluten-free and vegan cherry chip cookies.
- Cream the butter & sugar: To create thick bakery-style cookies, creaming the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy is so important. Tiny little microscopic air pockets are being formed, which creates leavening and will help achieve that lift.
- Medium cookie scoop: We’re going for thick cookies and that means using a good quality cookie scoop. Use a 1.5-tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop your cookie dough.
- Chopped cherries: Give those maraschino cherries a good chop at least into quarters if not smaller. The smaller they are chopped the higher the cherry-to-bite ratio will be. Yum!
- Don’t overbake the cookies: These gluten-free and dairy-free cherry chip cookies are gloriously chewy and soft because they are ever-so-slightly underbaked when removed from the oven. The heat from the cookie pan will continue to bake these cookies after they come out so don’t worry about them being raw.
Can I Freeze The Cookie Dough?
Yes! Woohoo! You can absolutely freeze this cookie dough for when that cookie craving hits. I recommend scooping each cookie dough ball and placing the dough into a large Ziploc freezer bag. This will allow you to pull out however many cookies you desire to bake at any time.
And no need to thaw, simply preheat the oven, pop them in, and bake for approximately 1 minute longer than the time listed below on the recipe card.
How To Store Cherry Chip Cookies
Store these perfectly pink cherry cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 7 days. Likewise, they can be frozen in an airtight container for up to 6 months.
The Easiest One-Bowl Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Cherry Chip Cookies
Chewy and soft, packed full of bright red maraschino cherries and white chocolate chips, these fun cookies will become your new go-to pink sweet treat recipe. Gluten-free and vegan, cherry chip cookies are an absolute delight in every delicious bite.
I would love to know if you make these fantastic pink cherry chip cookies. If you do, tag me on social media @cakedbykatie and leave this recipe a 5-star rating and review below. I can’t wait to see!
Other Cookies Recipes To Try
- Raspberry Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Honey Sugar Cookies
- Key Lime Pie Cookies
- Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Dairy-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Funfetti Sugar Cookies
- Cherry Oatmeal Cookies
- Dairy-Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Gluten-Free Sparkle Cookies
- Gluten-Free & Vegan Coconut Orange Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
Cherry Chip Cookies (Gluten Free & Vegan)
- Total Time: 25 Minutes
- Yield: 2 Dozen 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
The cutest pink cherry chip cookies loaded with maraschino cherries and white chocolate chips. Such a fun and simple recipe for a Valentine’s Day sweet treat.
Ingredients
Cherry Chip Cookies
- ½ cup (113g) salted vegan butter, room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (59ml) vegan milk, room temperature
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 ¾ cup (210g) gluten-free baking blend flour *
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum **
- 1 cup (175g) maraschino cherries, chopped
- 1 cup (240g) vegan white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and prepare two large cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large mixing bowl with electric beaters, cream the butter and sugar together on high for 2 minutes or until light and fluffy.
- Add in the milk and almond extract and mix on high for another 2 minutes.
- Add in the flour, xanthan gum (if using), baking soda, cornstarch, and salt and turn the mixer on low and allow it to mix until a dough forms.
- Add in the chopped maraschino cherries and white chocolate chips and mix until just combined.
- With a medium 1.5 tablespoon scoop, scoop the cookie dough and place it on the prepared cookie sheet approximately 2 inches apart from each other.
- Bake for 10 minutes or until the edges are a light golden brown and the center of the cookie appears to be just slightly underbaked.
- Remove from the oven and, with a butter knife or spoon, gently push any melted white chocolate or cherry bits back to form a perfectly round cookie if desired. Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheets fully. Enjoy!
- Store leftover cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 7 days or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Notes
* Check to see if the gluten-free flour blend contains xanthan gum.
** Omit xanthan gum if your gluten-free flour blend already contains it or if you are using regular all-purpose flour.
- Prep Time: 15 Minutes
- Cook Time: 10 Minutes
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Cookie
- Calories: 183
- Sugar: 19 Grams
- Sodium: 187 Miligrams
- Fat: 8 Grams
- Saturated Fat: 3 Grams
- Trans Fat: 1 Gram
- Carbohydrates: 26 Grams
- Fiber: 1 Gram
- Protein: 2 Grams
- Cholesterol: 14 Miligrams
Keywords: cherry chip cookies, cherry chip cookie recipe, gluten free cherry chip cookies, vegan cherry chip cookies
These look amazing but do you have a brand of GF baking flour you recommend? There are so many options and I’d hate to mess up a batch by using the wrong brand. Thanks!
Yes, I mention the blend I use under the ingredients section of the post!
Can you use non vegan butter and milk to make the cherry cookies??
Yes, totally! If you scroll up and read the blog post you’ll find an ingredient swap list! Woohoo!
Yum they look awesome thx u for sharing love more recipes
Hope you give them a try Donna!
Such a fun recipe! The cookies turned out beautiful and taste delicious! I did use ‘regular’ milk and flour. Thanks Katie!
★★★★★
I’m thrilled you made them with the “regular” substitutions!
Hello 🙂
If I was to make these with regular flour and non vegan milk – would you add an egg? Or just leave them as is? Thanks 🙂
Follow the recipe as is with regular flour and milk.
Love this recipe! I am usually not a maraschino cherry fan but they make these cookies so fun! They are nice and chewy and I love the natural colour they got from the cherries. Definitely recommend for Valentine’s Day or annoy special occasion!
★★★★★
The soft pink color is so darn fun right?! Thanks for sharing Alaina.
Delicious!!! Omg these are amazing! We gobbled them down in a day and half ? definitely will be making them again.
★★★★★
Yay! A cherry cookie is a winning cookie in my books ?
Made it with 3/4 cup coconut flour and 1 cup almond and it tastes like a macaroon! Heh
★★★★
That sounds delicious
Hey Katie, first thanks for all for all of the GF / DF recipes! 🙂 Two questions. Can I swap the cherries for dried cranberries? I know there’s some liquid in the cherries that dried cranberries won’t have. I’m hoping I can do an even measurement swap.
Also, I know you mention freezing the dough. Are these just as good if we make the cookies ahead of time and freeze them cooked? We’re making them for my wedding so I’m trying to do as much ahead of time as possible.
Hi Rachel! Yes, you can swap in the cranberries while keeping everything else the same. They freeze baked like a dream. You’ll have no problem doing that. And an early congratulations!
Help! These cookies are insanely delicious, but they spread and don’t seem to be fully cooking in the center. If I leave them in the oven longer than 12 min they burn. I used Cup 4 cup flour the first time and Bobs red mill 1-1 the second time. I dried the cherries and I refrigerated the dough.
They’re a soft chewy type cookie and wont fully crisp up due to the cherries. Allow them to fully cool on the baking sheet after you’ve taken them out of the oven and that will continue to bake them.