2 cups butter, softened (if using unsalted butter, increase salt by ¼ teaspoon)
1 teaspoon cherry flavoring
A few drops of pink or red food coloring, if desired
2 egg yolks
1 cup mini chocolate chips
24 (to taste) maraschino cherries, finely chopped and lightly blotted with paper towels
4 cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup cornstarch
Instructions
Heat the oven to 350 F.
In a large bowl, combine powdered sugar and butter. Beat until light and fluffy.
Add flavoring, food coloring if using, and egg yolks, and blend well. (If using a stand mixer, you may want to switch to the dough hook at this point!)
Add the chocolate chips, cherries, flour, salt and cornstarch. Stir just until the mixture forms a smooth dough. Dough will be stiff! If you have a sturdy dough hook, let it do the work. If not, you might have to knead it together by hand.
Roll out the dough to about ¼ inch thick between sheets of lightly floured parchment. Cut with cookie cutters of your choice.
Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet and bake 11-12 minutes, The bottom edges should just be turning golden brown. Watch the cookies carefully - if they get too dark the pink will turn an unattractive orange color!
Move cookie sheet to a rack to cool for 1 to 2 minutes, then slide cookies onto rack to cool completely.
Recipe by The Rowdy Baker at http://www.therowdybaker.com/?p=4352