Sounds like a CHOPPED basket! Good luck with that!

Maybe... mix one of the tubes of sugar cookie with some almond paste and a different color. Stack the plain and almond cookie dough and roll it out. Refrigerate till firm. Slice and top with a cherry and a bit of cornstarch thickened syrup. This would be a cherry topped pinwheel cookie.

I went to the website to see the yield and found there were only three reviews for the cookie dough--all really awful. I don't know if it's from a bad batch, or if the dough was mishandled, but a couple of them say they taste like fish. Before you go further, you might bake a couple slices and see if they're okay. If it tastes fishy, toss it out and tell them it went bad.

Are these sponsored items that must all be used? Is there enough of that dough for a gross of cookies?

Cleo's suggestion is great.

You could also make a plain cookie with a cherry in the center, and a plain almond cookie with a whole almond in the center.

If the cherries taste good, you could blend some into cookie dough for a cherry cookie, which might also be good with some chopped almonds. If they don't taste good, stick to putting one on top so people can just pick it off.

You can also do ball cookies, with cherries or almonds in the center and/or dough. Coat an almond in a thin layer of almond paste and wrap it in cookie dough.

Spread a plain cookie with almond paste then chocolate ganache (the kind that sets) over the top.

Blend the cherries into some dough and roll the pink dough into long, 3/8" logs, and do the same with plain dough, twist together and cut, possibly flatten, to make "peppermint sticks" or candy cane shapes. You can add some peppermint oil or extract to the dough, but it's very powerful and getting little enough, distributed well, and still getting the flavor is tricky, especially starting with ready made dough. Alternatively, crush some peppermints finely, and roll into the dough as you're making the logs.

What about some sort of tiny cherry tartlets and a sandwich cooky with almond paste filling?

I've only done this with cooky mix, but I'm wondering if a bar cooky with sugar cooky base, topped with fruit and almond paste swirled together and topped with streusel or crumbled cooky dough?

Is my math off?? Two tubes of Pillsbury Refrigerated Sugar Cookies is for making 6 different cookies--2 dozen of each cookie??

That's what I was thinking 6 x 24 = 144 cookies from 2 tubes of dough???

Is this a game, like "what would you do with these ingredients"? OP says they are the main ingredients, so it sounds like there's more. If given those 3 things I had to use, I'd make some marzipan treats, bake the pkg cookies according to the directions (I have never in my life made anything baked from a package!), and I'd thicken the cherry juice and use it as a topping on some cherry bar cookies. What else is in the basket? I want something with chocolate and nuts. :)

I only have to make 2 dozen of the cookies using the items. The 144 cookies can be anything I would like.

You could make a sort of version of “Maids of Honour” with the ingredients.

Line tartlet pans with the cookie dough. Thicken and sweeten the cherry juice. Put some cherries and thickened juice into each tartlet (not too full unless you’re also crimping the top on). Top with a circle of almond paste. Bake until the cookie dough is done.

My favorite cookie takes almond paste, the Italian Flag or "rainbow" cookie. Fortunately I seldom make them because I eat them all, no one else likes them.

With your ingredients, though, I'd make the cookie tart like mentioned above, and mix the almond paste with about 1/2 - 3/4 cup of sugar, and use that as filling for the tarts. I haven't used Solo brand, but the almond paste I get is not sweet enough to just eat without some additional sweetener, so taste before you add the sugar. Top with a cherry or make a cherry jam/filling and dollop a bit on top of each cookie.

I don't know how the texture or flavor of refrigerated cookie dough would be mixed with almond paste, so I probably wouldn't do that, but the idea of a bar cookie is a good one too, maybe a layer of cookie dough, a layer of sweetened almond paste and a layer of thickened cherry filling, with the remainder of the cookie dough crumbled on top before baking.

Good luck, and have fun!

Annie

Are you donating the basket or did you get it and have to use it? If you're donating the basket, a couple of these recipe here on pretty cards and maybe also a small bag of chocolate covered almonds or cherries, some fancy coffee and a little bottle of amaretto and I'm in to buy!!

Both Annie's and Colleen's versions sound good! I was thinking I'd wrap a cherry in a layer of almond paste, then wrap that in cookie dough and call it a cherry almond bomb. :)

Excellent! that sounds a lot easier than anything I thought of and probably seemed impressive to your coworkers. :)