These festive gluten-free cherry pie cookies give you all the flavor of a cherry pie in bite-size cookie form. A tender melt-in-your-mouth sugar cookie that's so easy to make!
If making homemade cherry pie filling, prepare that first. If using canned cherry pie filling, skip to Step 2. To make the homemade filling, combine the cherries, sugar, water, and lemon juice in a small saucepan (reserving 2 tablespoons of water). Bring to a boil and cook, stirring regularly, for 5-6 minutes, until the cherries begin to soften, but are still whole. Mix the remaining water with the corn starch to make a slurry. While mixing, pour the corn starch slurry into the cooking cherries and cook for another 2-3 minutes until the sauce has thickened. Transfer to a bowl and chill completely before using on the cookies.
Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Place ¼ cup sugar in a small bowl for rolling and set aside.
Sift together almond flour, tapioca flour, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and mix to combine.
Slowly add the dry ingredients into the butter and mix until well combined. Mix for 30 seconds longer to moisten the dough until very pliable.
Working one at a time, roll 1-1½ tablespoons (~20g) of dough into a tight 1-inch circle, smoothing any cracks (the tighter you roll the dough, the less likely it is to crack). Gently flatten into a disc and toss the disc in the bowl of sugar to coat. Place 1-inch apart on the baking sheet and carefully and slowly use your thumb or the back of a 1 teaspoon measuring spoon to make a deep indent, smoothing any cracks if desired. Repeat with remaining dough.
Fill each cavity with 2-3 cherries with a bit of its thick syrup. Overfill the cavities, stacking cherries if needed, to ensure they're filled to the brim even after baking.
You can chill or freeze the cookies on the baking sheet or bake it immediately. Bake for 14-15 minutes (adding 1-2 minutes if baking from frozen), until the cookies are set and the bottoms are just barely golden brown. Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
This nutritional information has been automatically calculated, and as such, may be incomplete or inaccurate. Please reference the specific ingredients you use for the most accurate nutritional information.