Cherry Bakewell Cookies (2024)

These Cherry Bakewell Cookies are packed with flaked almonds, white chocolate chunks and have a black cherry jam filling! With crisp edges and a soft gooey middle, these cookies will go down a storm with anyone who loves traditional Bakewell tarts.

If fruity flavours are your thing, be sure to check out the other recipes in my “Dessert Cookie Series”: Eton Mess Cookies and Lemon Meringue Cookies.

Let’s talk about the cookie dough

The cookie dough will take less than 10 minutes to make and uses the usual ingredients you’ll find in my cookie recipes: melted butter, white sugar, brown sugar, eggs and flour. To give the dough that delicious almond flavour you find in Bakewell tarts, we will add a few extra ingredients:

• Almond extract – half a teaspoon is all that’s needed to give the cookie dough a sweet and nutty almond flavour. Almond extract can be a little difficult to get hold of, so feel free to swap for one whole teaspoon of vanilla extract.
• Flaked almonds – folded into the cookie dough to pack in more almond flavour but also to add a little crunch throughout each bite of the cookie. Whole almonds can be used instead, but just roughly chop them up beforehand.
• White chocolate chunks – okay so I know white chocolate isn’t typically found in a Bakewell tart. But it just feels wrong to make a cookie and not have some kind of chocolate chip or chunk! Plus, white chocolate pairs beautifully with the almond and cherry flavours.

The cookie dough will need to be chilled in the fridge overnight to allow the flour to fully hydrate and make the texture firmer. This makes it easier to shape the dough around the cherry jam filling and stop it from leaking out when the cookies are being baked.

Filling the cookies with cherry jam

For the jam filling, I used Bonne Maman’s Black Cherry Conserve which has a delicious, sweet and strong cherry flavour. It worked a treat in this recipe! Remember to keep the jam in the fridge until you need to use it so it’s super cold and as firm as possible.

Before filling the cookies, take the dough out of the fridge and let it soften at room temperature for about 20 minutes. Then scoop up a heaped tablespoon of cookie dough and mould it into a small bowl shape. Fill with a teaspoon of cherry jam and shape the dough around it to make a ball. Repeat to make 12-14 balls of cookie dough in total.

Two tips for the perfect finish!

1. Shape the cookies – as soon as the cookies are out of the oven and still warm, spin a round cutter around the cookies to shape them into perfect circles.
2. Decorate the top – give the cookies an extra special Bakewell tart-inspired finish by decorating the top with white icing and flaked almonds.

More cookie recipes to love

This post contains affiliate links which means I will make a small commission if you purchase through those links. I only recommend products that I know, trust and use myself.