Vegan Black Forest Cherry Cookies (Schwarzwälder Kirsch Cookies)
The time has come – the long-awaited cookie season is finally here! And since we’d been waiting for it for a whole eleven months, of course, we immediately craved everything: chocolate, cream, fruit, and crunch. So, what dessert always manages to combine all these elements perfectly? That’s right – cakes! So why not bake cookies that aren’t quite traditional but are inspired by a cake?
Since my childhood, Black Forest cake (Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte) has been a classic on our family’s coffee table for birthdays and other festive occasions. It has everything that (almost) everyone loves: chocolate, cherries, and vanilla cream, and it’s soft, crunchy, and creamy at the same time, which makes it perfect for our cookie project! And so, an extraordinary cookie was born: made with chocolate, white vanilla cream with a hint of cherry brandy, and cherry compote as the filling. Topped with dark chocolate shavings – and voilà, the Black Forest cherry cookie (Schwarzwälder Kirsch Cookie) is ready!
We melted Naturata’s 100 % Latin American dark chocolate for an intense chocolate flavor and added it to the cookie dough. This chocolate is made from pure, Fairtrade-certified organic cocoa from Ecuador and the Dominican Republic and is refined with a touch of Bourbon vanilla. Its 100 % cocoa content is completely sugar-free yet delightfully creamy, thanks to a unique Swiss manufacturing process: extra-long conching. During this process, the cocoa mass is moved back and forth between thick rollers for an extended period, resulting in chocolate that melts smoothly on the tongue. You can find this chocolate in most organic supermarkets.
And now, let’s get to work on this cake – or rather, cookie – or perhaps both!
Vegan Black Forest Cherry Cookies (Schwarzwälder Kirsch Cookies)
Ingredients
For the cookie:
- 80 g (2.8 oz) dark chocolate (e.g. Latin American premium dark chocolate by Naturata)
- 250 g (2 cups) wheat flour (type 405)
- 150 g (0.75 cups) sugar
- 8 g (1 tbsp) vanilla sugar
- 150 g (1.33 sticks) vegan butter
- 1 pinch salt
- 0.5 tsp baking powder
- 3 tbsp soy milk
For the cream and filling:
- 80 g (2.8 oz) vegan white chocolate
- 200 ml (2 cups) vegan cream for whipping
- 8 g (1.5 tsp) cream stiffener
- 1 pinch vanilla
- 150 g (0.5 cup) cherry jam
- 1–2 tbsp cherry brandy
Additionally:
- 150 g (5.33 oz) vegan dark chocolate (70% cocoa content)
- 50 g (1.75 oz) dark chocolate shavings
Instructions
For the cookies, coarsely chop the chocolate and melt it over a double boiler. Combine the melted chocolate, flour, sugar, vanilla sugar, vegan butter, salt, baking powder, and soy milk in a large bowl and knead into a smooth dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.
Chop the vegan white chocolate, bring half of the cream to a boil in a small pot and pour over the chocolate. Stir a little until the chocolate has melted and leave to cool for about 10 minutes. Whip the remaining vegan cream with the cream stiffener and vanilla and slowly add the chocolate cream mixture while whipping until you have a firm cream. Store in the fridge.
Roll out the dough on a floured surface to about 0.3 cm / 3 mm thickness and cut out 32 cookies (⌀ 6 cm / 2.5 inches). From 16 of them, cut out the center (⌀ 2 cm / 0.75 inch) to create a donut shape. Chill the cookies again for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180 °C / 350 °F (top/bottom heat) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the cookies on the baking sheet and bake for about 12 minutes. Let cool down completely.
Chop the dark chocolate and melt it over a double boiler. Then, use a fork to drizzle chocolate stripes over the “donut” cookies. Sprinkle these with chocolate shavings and let them set. In a small bowl, combine the cherry jam with 1–2 tbsp of cherry brandy.
Transfer the cream to a piping bag fitted with a star tip. Pipe a ring onto the whole cookies, leaving a slight hollow in the center. Place a “donut” cookie on top and fill the hole with the cherry jam mixture. Store the cookies in an airtight container and consume within five days.
