These apple cheesecake snack bars have a streusel coating that is crumbly and delectable. Every time I prepare them, my family gobbles up the entire pan.
| Servings: | 18 |
| Yield: | 3 1/2 dozen |
Ingredients
- ½ cup shortening
- ¾ cup white sugar
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ¾ cup flaked coconut
- ¾ cup candied cherries, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
- In a large bowl, cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and almond extract. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt. When the mixture is creamy, stir in chocolate chips, coconut and cherries. Drop the dough by teaspoonful onto a greased cookie sheet.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 191 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 26 g |
| Cholesterol | 10 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 2 g |
| Saturated Fat | 4 g |
| Sodium | 95 mg |
| Sugars | 18 g |
| Fat | 10 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I followed the recipe exactly. Very good!
Loved these, only made two small changes (due to family member not into cherries!) added 1/2 cup walnut pieces, and used 1/2 cup mini choc chip morsels with 1/2 cup white chocolate chip morsels. Absolutely fantastic! Rolled into balls as mentioned in many other notes, they turned out perfect!
Excellent cookie. Not just for Christmas. Candied cherries and coconut give them extra chewiness.
I made these today, with a few changes, in order to clear out some of the leftover Christmas treat ingredients that tend to hang around until I throw them out. I used vanilla flavoring because that’s what I had, dried cherries, coconut, and sliced almonds (after giving them an additional chop for smaller pieces). I rolled the dough in small balls and used a fork to criss-cross the cookies to flatten them. Husband loved them!
I made these cookies exactly as the recipe directed. My best cookie critic said that this is the best new cookie recipe he has tried in several years. He also requested that I ensure that I do not lose the recipe. Great combination of flavors!
These are fabulous. I substituted butter for shortening (because everything’s better with butter!), and sliced almonds instead of chocolate chips. The almond-cherry flavor is amazing, and the coconut adds moistness and chewiness. I will definitely be making these again!
These are like eating a chocolate covered cherry in cookie form! So delicious!! If you are getting flat cookies it might be because you are using maraschino cherries instead of candied cherries (they are much “wetter”, so will thin your batter out even if you drain them first). I like using maraschino cherries, so I cut them up, squeeze the extra juice out in a paper towel, then up the flour by 2 Tablespoons and my cookies come out perfectly. 🙂
These were so good. I like bold flavors so I added 1 teaspoon almond extract and the temperature I had to adjust to 350F for 10 minutes, but that has more to do with the my elevatin (6750) than the recipe itself. Fantastic and they have my made my Christmas Cookie list!
Yummy! Will make this one again.
These made a nice addition this year on my Christmas cookie trays!!They are a very tasty cookie im only giving 4 stars because they are not the prettiest lol i added a hanful of chopped nuts! they are delicious!!
I used red and green cherries and took the suggestion of another reviewer and used mini chocolate chips and added some chopped pecans. Very tasty! The mini chocolate chips gave it some chocolate flavor without being overpowering…the almond and cherry was able to shine through. The coconut adds the right amount of chewiness to the cookie. I did refrigerate the dough and roll into balls before placing on the cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, hoping to avoid the problem reported of flat cookies. That did the trick…no flat cookies here! They were very festive looking with the red and green cherries. These were my first Christmas cookies this year…now I’m on a roll!
Thank you for posting this recipe. I modified it by using maraschino cherries. It gave them a little bit of a pink tinge but they were still awesome!
Made these today hoping to use up the last of some candied cherries I had left over. I made a batch and a half which called for 1 1/2 eggs…well, since I didn’t want to use only half an egg I used two, but I probably should have only used one, my batter was a bit thin and spread out way too much when baking. The cookies tase good so I may need to try again next time I need to use candied cherries for something.
Oh yummy! I chose these for my annual cookie exchange. The ingredients are totally holiday appropriate (I used red / green candied cherries for added color)! I must admit… I read Theresa’s recipe incorrectly…. I thought the yield was 18 cookies! It was not until I started spooning the dough onto my cookie sheet that I realized this made 3.5 dozen (ikes!)!!! I am really glad I have so many cookies though. These are DEEELICIOUS and rich – their small size is perfect for this very reason. 🙂 These and a cold glass of milk would be a great gift for “Santa” lol! I can’t wait to share my “treasures” with my train buddies and co-workers (and my hubby’s co-workers too!). NOTE: My cookies baked perfectly in 13.5 – 14 minutes (just be sure to allow to rest BEFORE transferring to wire racks to finish cooling). These will most definitely become part of my yearly holiday rotation and are definitely a GREAT find on here. Thanks SO much for sharing, Theresa! 🙂
Very Good! Made these exactly as written except I used a combo of red and green cherries (for Christmas), and used mini chips instead of regular. These really have a nice texture and great flavor! Thanks for posting. 🙂
This recipe was great! Just the thing I needed to get rid of the candied cherries in my cupboard. The only things I changed in this recipe was that I added 1/2 c. finely chopped pecans and 1/4 c. more flour to the mix and rolled them into balls like others have suggested. They were so cute and tasty I decided to include them in my cookie gift boxes instead of leaving them out for my siblings. I will DEFINITELY make this cookie again.
Relatively easy cookies, although it’s a pain to cut up the cherries. If I make them again, I might chop them in the food processor. Just a little too sticky! I used softened butter instead of shortening, only bc I took out the butter for another recipe but realized I didn’t have the ingredients I needed, so I used this one instead. The dough is very pretty, and the cookies turn out cute with the different colors. I’m not a big fan of the amount of chocolate chips, though–the cookies turn out a bit too rich for my liking. With less chocolate chips they’d be better. The recipe doesn’t make a ton of cookies, though, which is good for my waistline. :o) Thanks for the recipe!
I made this recipe in GIGANTIC volumes this past Christmas – probably made a double or triple batch 3 times for gifts for family and friends, as well as for my hubby and I 😉 The changes I made were to add extra chocolate chips, half the coconut, and extra mixed candied fruit on top of the cherries – finishing touch was to add 1 (or 2, depending on the size of batch) bottle of red food colouring to make them reddish for Christmas. These are the most delectable cookies EVER!!! Every person I gave them to, and my hubby’s colleagues at work were raving about them! In a nutshell, these are like cherry cordials and chocolate chip cookies all rolled into one!!! You MUST make this for the holidays – you won’t be disappointed!!! 😀 😀
Great Recipe. Followed other advice, rolled the cookies into balls to keep their shape better. I like chocolate, so I didn’t reduce them. If you don’t enjoy choc. chip cookies, them I would reduce by at least 1/4 cup.
Love the taste and the crispyness – but as other reviewers mentioned – they really flattened out for me – anyone know of a solution for that? Also next time I’ll use half the chocolate chips recommended – otherwise too much like a chocolate chip cookie
YUM, these are so good, the only change i made was i use half reg. chocolate chips, and half white chocolate chips. at first hubby and my oldest daughter were complaining they were not going to like them, hubby says he does not like coconut, and oldest daughter says she does not like cherries, well let me tell you they both loved these, so much so that when i woke up this am, they were all gone. they were up watching a movie late and ate every crum. thank you for a great recipe, i will be making these often, and i will be sure to hide some so i can eat more too.