Chocolate Cherry Kiss Cookies

My grandma loved chocolate-covered cherries, so I combined 2 recipes to come up with these yummy cookies. She loved that I made a special cookie just for her. These are also Jessie's favorite cookie.

Ingredients

• 2 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour
• 0.5 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup shortening (such as Crisco®)
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 4 teaspoons maraschino cherry juice
• 4 drops red food coloring
• 0.75 teaspoon almond extract
• 0.125 teaspoon cherry flavoring (such as Wilton®)
• 0.75 cup drained, chopped maraschino cherries
• 48 milk chocolate kisses (such as HERSHEY'S), or more as needed

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Whisk flour and salt together in a small bowl.
3. Combine shortening, powdered sugar, cherry juice, red food coloring, and cherry flavoring in a large bowl. Add flour mixture and mix well. Stir in maraschino cherries.
4. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; arrange 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
5. Bake in the preheated oven until edges are light golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Immediately top each cookie with a chocolate kiss, pressing firmly. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely.