Expect a sweet, festively red maraschino cherry in the center of each of these melt-in-your-mouth cherry snowball cookies.

Every good Christmas cookie tray has variety, often including at least one type of confectioners’ sugar-covered bite. With a tender cookie and gorgeous cherry in the middle, these cherry snowball cookies are a strong contender for the coveted tray spot. Plus, four ingredients make them so easy and cost-effective—a must when there’s so much time and money spent on the other Christmas cookies.

Russian tea cakes, crescent-shaped Mexican wedding cookies and pecan-studded snowball cookies are the usual players on a Christmas cookie tray, but every single one includes some kind of nut. These cherry snowball cookies are nut-free, so whether you’re feeding someone who’s allergic or just simply doesn’t like them, these are the best choice.

Ingredients for Cherry Snowball Cookies

• Butter: Bring two sticks of butter to room temperature. You can soften butter quickly by cutting it into smaller cubes or shredding the sticks on a (very clean!) cheese grater. The smaller pieces will come to room temperature much quicker than whole sticks.
• Confectioners’ sugar: Instead of granulated sugar, we use confectioners’ sugar to sweeten the cookie dough, which makes for a much more tender, melt-in-your-mouth cookie. Make sure you have enough to coat the outsides of the cookies too.
• All-purpose flour: The cookie’s texture is integral to the eating experience. It can’t be too dry or it will fall apart after the first bite. Measure the flour properly so you don’t accidentally add too much to the measuring cup.
• Maraschino cherries: Stores will sell maraschino cherries with or without stems. For ease, buy the de-stemmed cherries to save time later on. Drain the cherries from their juice and cut each one in half.

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