Spiced Chocolate Cherry Cookies

Try something special with this spiced chocolate cherry cookies recipe. It’s the perfect balance of sweet, spicy, and oh-so-delicious!

Are you feeling stuck in a cookie rut but don’t quite know how to spice up your baking? Start the holiday season with something different and unique—these Spiced Chocolate Cherry Cookies!

Combining cayenne powder, ancho chili powder, and ground cinnamon with semisweet chocolate chips and maraschino cherries, creates cookies that are bursting with flavor.

Get ready for your kitchen—and your taste buds—to be filled with the wonderful aroma of spicy sweetness!

Tips for the BEST Spiced Chocolate Cherry Cookies

• When measuring your flour, make sure you spoon and level it to avoid ending up with dense cookies.
• Don’t go crazy mixing your cookie dough, or you’ll end up with dense cookies.
• Use a cookie scoop to make sure your cookies are all the same size and bake evenly.
• Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for better and more consistent results.
• Oven temperatures and bake times will vary. You’ll know they’re ready when the cookies start to crack slightly.
• If you’ve got a food scale handy, I like to weigh the cookies to 3.5oz so they bake nice and even.
• Make sure your cherries are completely dried to avoid ending up with a sticky mess in the dough.

How to Store Spiced Chocolate Cherry Cookies

You can just keep the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for about a week. If you wanna keep them for longer, just pop ’em in the freezer.

You can freeze the dough to bake later. Simply allow the dough to come to room temperature before you bake.

You can also freeze the baked cookies for longer storage. To do this, you want to partially freeze them for about an hour in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet. This helps ensure that the cookies don’t stick to each other. Wrap each cookie with plastic wrap, then transfer to an airtight freezer bag.

About the Ingredients for Spiced Chocolate Cherry Cookies

Butter – Using unsalted butter and then adding salt gives you the best control over the amount of salt in the recipe. You can use salted butter if you prefer but you will want to halve the additional salt.

Sugar – Just plain old white granulated sugar, and some light brown sugar for just the right amount of sweetness. Make sure you pack the brown sugar when measuring.

Eggs – It is best if you use room temperature eggs.

Cocoa powder – Make sure you are using unsweetened cocoa powder, and not hot chocolate mix. I used Hershey’s dark cocoa powder.

Flour – If you don’t have any cake flour on hand you can use all-purpose flour with cornstarch to achieve the fluffiness that cake flour gives this cake. To make your own cake flour substitute, measure out your flour, then remove 1 Tablespoon. Add back in 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch. Then sift your flour twice over so it is nice and fluffy like cake flour. Ready to use! Spoon and level both of the flours when measuring it, otherwise you’ll wind up with a dense cake.

Cornstarch – Helps make the cookies super tender.

Baking Soda – To leaven your cookies, so they are nice and fluffy. Make sure it is still active for best results!

Salt – Makes all the ingredients shine, if you use salted butter you may want to use only half of the salt.

Spices – Cayenne powder, ancho chili powder, and ground cinnamon combine to spice these chocolate cookies.

Chocolate chips – Semisweet chocolate chips are best but dark chocolate chips and milk chocolate chips can work too.

Maraschino cherries – You can also use fresh or frozen and thawed cherries instead and just follow the same directions.

Looking for More Cookie Recipes?

Check out more of my favourite cookies!

These Crumbl Salted Caramel Cheesecake Cookies feature a buttery cookie frosted with creamy cheesecake frosting drizzled with salted caramel.

Make your own Crumbl Key Lime Pie Cookies from the comfort of your home with this easy copycat recipe of the beloved cookies.

Love Crumbl Frozen Hot Chocolate cookies? Then you’ll love these copycat cookies that taste just like the real thing!

How to Make Spiced Chocolate Cherry Cookies

Yields: 18 Cookies | Prep time: 10 Minutes | Cook time: 11 Minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, cold and cubed
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
½ cup granulated white sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
½ cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup cake flour
1½ cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cornstarch
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cayenne powder
½ teaspoon ancho chili powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup maraschino cherries

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Fahrenheit.

Chop the cherries and place on a paper towel lined plate. Lightly squeeze the moisture out of the cherries with the paper towels.

Uncover the cherries and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. Place the cherries in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove and set to the side.

Preheat the oven to 410 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two to three baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar on high speed until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

In a large bowl add cocoa, cake flour, all-purpose flour, cornstarch, baking soda, cinnamon, cayenne, ancho chili, and salt. Whisk to combine.

Set the mixer on low and begin to add the dry mixture 1 cup at a time, and continue to stir on low until the dough is just combined. (Image 1)

Add the chocolate chips and diced cherries to the dough. Mix on low speed until just combined. (Image 2)

Cover the dough and place the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes to chill.

Measure out about 3.5 oz of dough ( an ice cream scoop size ) and roll into a ball. (Image 3)

Place the dough balls onto the prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Flatten each ball slightly, add more chocolate chips and cherries to the tops if desired. (Image 4)

Bake the cookies for about 10-11 minutes. Remove and let cookies cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.