Black Forest Cookies

This cookie recipe has made it up onto my top 20 list of favourite cookies, the recipe comes from a New York City bakery, called Baked, which I have only ever visited in my dreams and in my kitchen thanks to their cookbook.
This recipe was inspired by the classic flavours and kitsch appeal of traditional black forest torte, a ubiquitous cake in old-school European bakeries. True to form, this cookie has all the appeal of the best possible version of a black forest torte, in a convenient bite-sized package.
This cookie dough is more cake batter than cookie dough, with very little flour, a base made by beating eggs to the ribbon stage, and a whopping 16 ounces(!) of deep dark chocolate melted into the batter. Once you mix the batter, it is very loose and liquidy, it looks more like it should make a cake than cookies, but a chill in the fridge firms the dough up, into a dense fudge-like cookie dough. It took Herculean effort not to eat vast quantities of raw cookie dough. Don't even get me started on the substantial amount of the dried cherries, and white and dark chocolate chips distributed throghout the batter. These cookies are rich and decadent to say the least, and that is exactly what I want to see in a chocolate-chocolate cookie.
The recipe says you can make 24 tablespoon-sized cookies,but I made at least 40 teaspoon sized cookies and the batter is so rich you wouldn't really want anything bigger anyways.
The baked cookies are dark, with crackly pebbly tops from the chips , and soft fudgy centres. The white chocolate chips create pockets of vanilla creaminess while the dried cherries almost disappear in the darkness of the cookie, only to resurface as sweet tangy counterpoint to the overall chocolate cacophony.
If you have periodic, chocolate cravings, these are the cookies to satisfy you.




Black Forest Cookies

makes 24-40 cookies(I made really teeny cookies, I got a lot out of the batter)
dairy
time: 1 hour mixing, overnight refrigeration, 20 minutes baking time total

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 salt
• 16 ounces dark chocolate(60-70% percent cacao- I used a mix of bittersweet, unsweetened and semisweet), coarsley chopped
• 10 tablespoons, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 6 large eggs
• 1-1/4 cup granulated sugar
• I cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 1 cup dried cherries

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, and sat together in a medium bowl and set aside.
2. In a large non-reactive metal owl, combine the dark chocolate and butter. Set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and cook, stirring with a rubber spatula, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and the mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs and sugar on high speed until the mixture is pale and thick, about 5 minutes(the batter will get to ribbon stage.)
4. Add the cooled chocolate mixture and the vanilla and beat until just combined. Scrape down the bowl and beat again for 10 seconds.
5. Add the flour mixture and mix on low until just combined, about 10 seconds. Do not over mix.
6. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, fold in the chocolate chips, white chocolate chips and dried cherries. The dough will look very loose, but it will harden in the refrigerator. Refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight.
7. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with silpat mats or parchment paper.
8. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart, bake for 10-12 minutes, the time may be more or less than this depending on your oven, until the tops of the cookies are set and begin to show a few cracks. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly before removing from the baking sheets. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Adapted from: Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito