Place cherries in a strainer over a bowl and drain well. Once drained, lay out some paper towels and add the drained cherries and pat dry. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle, cream butter until pale and creamy, about three minutes.

With mixer running on low, slowly add the sifted confectioner’s sugar. Scrape and mix again.

Add extract and again mix.

Sift flour and corn starch together and slowly add with mixer running on low.

Scrape and mix one last time.

Use a #40 scoop (1 ½ tablespoons) and scoop out dough onto ungreased cookie sheets, 12 per pan (3X4). If you are using a kitchen scale, they will be just shy of one ounce each. They spread some so no more than 12 per pan.

Press the top down with your fingers to about a half inch thick and press a cherry in the center of half the cookies and/or sprinkle holiday sprinkles, pressing into the tops. You can use one or the other or half and half as we did.

Bake one pan at a time in center of oven for 22 minutes. I set my timer for 15 then moved the pan up a rack for the final 7 minutes. The results were lightly browned on the bottom and firm in center when lightly pressed.

Remove from the oven and let sit for a few minutes on the pan then with a small thin spatula, gently move to a cooling rack. Do not try and pick them up with your hands while warm, they are very delicate and will break while warm. Once they cool completely, they are still delicate but firm to hold.