Preheat air fryer to 325 degrees F.
In a medium bowl, sift together flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside for now. It’s important that these ingredients are sifted together to break up any little lumps in the flour and cocoa powder.
In a separate large bowl, beat the softened butter with the granulated sugar and brown sugar. Beat on high speed until well combined (about 2 minutes).
Beat the egg and vanilla into the butter mixture. Beat until light and fluffy (about 1 minute).
Slowly beat the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Beat on low speed just until the ingredients are well combined and you no longer see dry ingredients in the mix. Do not overmix or the cookies won’t rise properly.
Gently stir in the glace cherries and the mini chocolate chips (do not beat these ingredients in). Save about 2 tablespoons of the glace cherries and 1 tablespoon of the mini chocolate chips to top the cookie dough balls later (optional).
Scoop cookies into a 2-tablespoon size (about 30 grams per cookie). Place cookie dough balls on a large baking sheet (lined with parchment paper) that you can transfer to the freezer. The cookies can be close together for this step but not touching or they’ll stick together.
Use your hands to shape cookie dough scoops into round balls. Place these back onto the large baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
If you want to top the cookies with chopped glace cherries and mini chocolate chips, do that step now with the amounts of each you saved earlier.
Place the tray of cookies into the freezer for 15 minutes. This will help prevent them from spreading too much during baking.
Prepare your air fryer for baking. You can set the cookies right in the basket but it can cause a bit of a mess with ingredients leaking through the holes in the basket. I prefer to use a baking tray that fits into the air fryer. Another option is to line the bottom of the air fryer basket with parchment paper but you’ll want to poke a few holes in the parchment paper first to help prevent the paper from blowing around and curling up around the cookies. Place cookies two inches apart in the air fryer. You’ll have to bake the cookies in a few separate batches. The cookies that are currently waiting to be baked should stay in the freezer for now.
Bake cookies in air fryer for 7 to 8 minutes or until the tops look set but the cookies still look slightly undercooked. Remove the basket from the air fryer and let the cookies finish baking in the hot basket for 5 minutes. This helps the cookies to finish baking without drying them out.
Let the cookies cool completely before storing in a sealed container. Store leftovers in a sealed food-safe container at room temperature for up to 7 days.