Black Forest Bonanza
A classic Black Forest gateau recipe AND some Black Forest cookies
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This week I’m coming at you with not one but TWO Black Forest gateau inspired recipes; a quick cookie recipe with a fudgy chocolate cookie, boozy cherries and kirsch cream cheese centre for free subscribers and a classic(ish) Black Forest gateau for paid subscribers.
The combination of chocolate and cherries has been one of my favourites for as long as I can remember, my mum makes the most delicious chocolate and cherry trifle with layers of amaretti biscuits and sponge fingers soaked in amaretto, jarred sour cherries, a super thick chocolate cream, Bird’s custard and whipped cream. I loved this trifle so much as a child that I would request it rather than a birthday cake and it is now known as birthday trifle.
History
Black Forest gateau hales from the Black Forest region of Germany, a region famous for it’s cherry trees. There’s some dispute about the exact origins but it’s generally believed that it was invented in the early 1900s by Josef Keller, the pastry chef at Café Ahrend, originally sold as a dessert Keller’s combination of cream and cherries was so popular with the clientele that he made a takeaway option in the form of a large cake made up of a chocolate sponge, kirsch soaked cherries and whipped cream, named “Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte”. Since that’s is a bit of a mouthful for non-German speakers like myself I’ll stick with Black Forest Gateau or BFG for short.
Black Forest Cookies
Let’s Start off with the cookies! A lot of the recipes I share are fairly extravagant, so I’m trying to incorporate some more accessible recipes because I am aware that not everyone can dedicate an entire weekend to one bake. These cookies come together really fast, and if you want to make them even simpler you can leave out the cherry and cream cheese elements to make straight up chocolate cookies. I’ve included two options for the assembly, one makes cream cheese stuffed cookies and the other topped cookies, you get more filling in the stuffed ones but they can be a bit fiddly to make so I’ll leave it up to you!
Ingredients - makes 9 cookies
Boozy Cherries (you can buy these if you don’t feel like making them or use fresh)
240g pitted morello cherries (I use frozen)
60g caster sugar
30g water
40g kirsch, amaretto or brandy
Cookie Dough
70g soft butter
70g caster sugar
50g dark brown sugar
1 medium egg/50g
50g 70% chocolate
150g plain flour
20g cocoa powder
1/2tsp baking powder
1/4tsp salt
Cream Cheese Filling
150g cream cheese
15g caster sugar
20g kirsch, amaretto or brandy
1tsp vanilla extract or paste
To Roll
Approximately 100g caster sugar (you don’t need to weigh it)
Method
Start by making the boozy cherries, put the cherries in a sterilised jar.
Bring the water and sugar to the boil.
Pour the syrup over the cherries, followed by the alcohol.
Leave in the fridge to marinate at least overnight or up to 2 weeks.
Make the cookie dough by creaming together the butter and sugars.
Add the egg and mix until incorporated.
Melt the chocolate and add.
Add the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt and mix until there are no lumps of flour.
Set aside in the fridge while you make the cream cheese filling (if you’re just making chocolate cookies you don’t need to chill it before baking).
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/350°F and line 2 trays with baking paper.
To make the cream cheese filling mix all of the ingredients together.
Drain the cherries and pat dry with some kitchen paper (save the juice, it makes a delicious drink).
For easy assembly, weigh 50g of cookie dough, form into a ball, flatten slightly and roll in sugar. Spread out on a baking tray, using the back of a measuring spoon, make an indentation in the centre of the cookie, fill with the cream cheese by spooning or piping it in and top with boozy cherries.
For stuffed cookies, weigh 50g of cookie dough and form into a ball, flatten out so that it has a diameter of about 10cm, the edges should be thinner than the centre or you’ll get cream cheese leakage. Pipe 10-15g of cream cheese filling into the centre followed by some cherries, I could fit 4-5 small cherries in. Encase the cream cheese by folding the cookie dough into the centre. Roll in sugar, arrange on a baking tray and lightly press to flatten. Even with chilling this is a soft dough so the stuffing process can be tricky, don’t worry if you get a tear, you can easily patch it up.
Bake at 180°C/350°F for 10-15 minutes, in my oven they were perfect after 12 minutes. Enjoy!
These cookies keep in the fridge for 5 days.
Onto the star of the show! Our classic Black Forest Gateau!