Cherry Vanilla Cream Cheese Spritz Cookies

If a cookie is breathtaking, I jump to the conclusion that more effort was taken in its appearance than in its flavor.  The pretty cookie is never the one I reach for first.

With these cherry vanilla cream cheese spritz cookies, that changes.

These cherry vanilla cream cheese spritz cookies are some of the most beautiful cookies in this Cookie Project.  In fact, if my cookie project had been a cookbook, I would have chosen these cookies as the cover image.  But, these cookies are in no way lacking in flavor.  They have a vibrant vanilla flavor and the juice from the real cherry placed in the center oozes out a bit to give the whole thing a cherry taste.  These cookies impress on every level.

Like any spritz cookie, you’ll need a cookie press to make the beautiful pattern.  You could pipe the dough or just make flattened balls with it, but your cookies won’t look the same as mine.

The Pampered Chef New Style Cookie Press with Disks

I got my cookie press last year from Pampered Chef and shared some tips on how to use the cookie press in my post on orange cardamom spritz cookies.   If you are new to using a cookie press, I suggest reading over some of those tips.

Fine Glitter Dust Silver, 4.5 grams

You may need to zoom in on the photo to see this really well, but these cookies are sprinkled with edible silver glitter.  It makes them literally sparkle!

Most cherry cookies that I have seen use maraschino cherries.  There’s nothing wrong with that, especially if you make your own homemade maraschino cherries.  However, these cherry vanilla cookies use frozen, pitted and de-stemmed cherries.  There’s no fake red dye or added sugar needed.

Cherry Vanilla Cream Cheese Spritz Cookies Recipe

Southern Living Incredible Cookies

I got the inspiration for these cookies from the vanilla-cherry cookies in this book, but ended up adapting a cream cheese spritz recipe from AllRecipes.

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Cherry Vanilla Cream Cheese Spritz Cookies

Servings 36 cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature
• 3 ounces cream cheese room temperature
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste You can substitute vanilla extract, but it's nice to have the beans.
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 36 frozen pitted and de-stemmed cherries
• edible glitter optional

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, mix butter, cream cheese, and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Mix in egg yolk and vanilla bean paste.
4. Whisk flour and salt together in a small bowl.
5. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients a little bit at a time until just combined.
6. Using a cookie press, press cookies onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
7. Place a frozen cherry in the center of each cookie.
8. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly golden.
9. Cool on a cookie sheet for a few minutes. Then, transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.
10. Optionally, sprinkle with edible glitter.