Cherry Shortbread Cookies

Another one of my favorite Christmas cookies! This is another recipe that was passed down to me from my wonderful aunt. Although I only made red ones this year, you can also use green maraschino cherries and green food coloring, and dip them into milk chocolate.

Cherry Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients:

• ½ cup chopped, drained maraschino cherries (put on paper towels to drain after chopping)
• 1 ¼ cup flour
• ½ cup butter
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• ½ tablespoon mlk
• ½ tablespoon almond extract
• food coloring
• 1 bag of white chocolate chips

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees
• Stir together flour and sugar
• Cut in butter using a stand mixer or pastry blender until dough resembles fine crumbs
• Stir in cherries, milk, food coloring, and almond extract
• Form dough into a ball, knead until smooth
• Roll dough into 1" balls, use the bottom of a glass to flatten them (I put a small piece of parchment paper on top of the dough first, so the dough does not stick to the glass)
• Bake for 20 minutes until the cookies are firm and light brown on the bottom
• Let cookies cool competely
• Melt white chocolate chips in microwave
• Dip half of each cookie into white chocolate, place on parchment paper to dry