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Black Forest Cookies are thick and fudgy chocolate cookies flavored with kirsch and filled with cherry preserves. Drizzle on some white chocolate and prepare to fall in love with these incredibly delicious, rich cookies!
These Black Forest Cookies are incredibly delicious – and they look fancy enough for a special occasion, but are actually easy enough to throw together any old time! Let’s make ’em together.
Why you’ll love these Black Forest Cookies:
- Fudgy Chocolate Cookies – These are fudgy, rich, and chewy chocolate cookies. They’re like thick and soft sugar cookies, but with chocolate!
- Cherry Preserves – Store bought cherry preserves keep this recipe super easy while still providing tons of cherry flavor.
- White Chocolate Drizzle – A drizzle of white chocolate finishes these cookies off beautifully.
Ingredient Overview:
- Salted Butter – I always use salted buter for the best flavor, but feel free to use unsalted if you prefer.
- Cocoa Powder – Use unsweetened cocoa powder as always.
- Brown Sugar & Granulated Sugar -Granulated sugar and brown sugar mixed together helps these bake into chewy and ultra soft chocolate cookies.
- Vanilla Extract – Use real vanilla for the best results.
- Kirsch – Kirsch is the alcohol traditionally used in a Black Forest Cake and adds a true Black Forest flavor to these cookies. It takes these from chocolate cherry cookies to true Black Forest Cookies.
Ingredient Substitutions:
- Kirsch – Substitute 3 tbsp milk for the 3 tbsp of kirsch if needed. Try Cherry Brandy if you can’t find kirsch.
- White Chocolate – Feel free to skip this or substitute milk, semi-sweet, or dark chocolate.
- Cherry Preserves – Feel free to use your own homemade cherry preserves or jam if desired.
How to Make this Black Forest Cookie Recipe Step-by-Step:
Step 1: Make the Cookie Dough. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugars. Add the eggs and vanilla, then add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. You’ll have a slightly wet dough. Chill it for 30 minutes to make it easier to scoop. Scoop into balls that are 60 grams.
Step 2: Chill the Cookie Dough. Chill the cookie dough balls for at least 2 hours, or up to 48 hours.
Step 3: Fill the Cookies. Once the dough has chilled, roll them in granulated sugar, and then use the back of a teaspoon to make an indent in the center of each cookie. Fill with 1 and 1/2 tsp of cherry preserves. Place about 6 cookies a few inches apart on each prepared baking sheet.
Step 4: Bake the Cookies. Bake as directed in the recipe card below. They may not look the prettiest when they come out of the oven, but you can round them out with a round cutter (don’t cut the edges, just swirl the cookie inside the cutter to tidy it up). Add a drizzle of white chocolate for a final finishing touch.
This black forest dessert is easy to make and the cookies are incredibly fudgy and chocolatey! The kirsch flavor comes through in the cookie and marries beautifully with the cherry filling.
Expert Success Tips:
- Chill Time – Don’t skip the chill time or these cookies will melt into puddles in the oven.
- Don’t Overfill – Don’t overfill the center of the cookies or the jam can leak out and get messy while the cookies bake. 1 and 1/2 tsp may sound like a little, but it’s the perfect amount of filling. You can dollop a bit of extra cherry preserves once the cookies are baked to fill out that center a bit more.
FAQs:
Yes! If you don’t, they will melt into a messy puddle in the oven. The chill time also helps develop a deeper flavor.
Yes. Dough balls can be frozen on a sheet pan until solid, then transferred to an airtight container in the freezer for 1-2 months. Let the balls thaw in the fridge overnight before rolling in sugar, indenting, filling with the cherry preserves, and baking. Dough balls can also be chilled in the fridge for up to 3 days before being rolled, filled, etc.
Yes, see tips above about chilling or freezing the dough in advance of baking. `
Recipe Variations:
- Other Jams – Feel free to try other flavors of jams or preserves like blueberry or raspberry. You can use cherry pie filling, too, if you can’t find cherry preserves.
- Chocolate – Feel free to swap the white chocolate drizzle for any other type of chocolate if preferred.
Serving + Storing these Chocolate Cherry Cookies:
Store the cooled cookies in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.
Special Tools:
- Cookie Sheet – These are my favorite cookie sheets, I’ve used them almost every day for 6 years and they’re still in great shape.
- Cookie Scoop – Use this cookie scoop to make your cookies the size I did. It’s technically an ice cream scoop, but it’s the perfect size for large bakery-style cookies.
- Silicone Baking Mat – I love silicone baking mats because they’re reusable and dishwasher safe.
- Round Cutters – Use this set of round cutters for rounding cookies, cutting donuts or biscuits, and much more.
More Delicious Cookies to Love:
- Blueberry Lemon Cookies
- Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Cherry Pie Cookies
- Key Lime Slice and Bake Cookies
- Peanut Butter & Jelly Thumbprint Cookies
Did you make this recipe? Snap a photo and leave a comment!
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Black Forest Cookies
Ingredients
For the Cookie Dough
- 1 cup salted butter, softened at room temperature , 16 tbsp, 2 sticks, or 226 grams
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 3 tbsp kirsch
- 2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned & leveled, 325 grams
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
For Rolling & Filling the Cookies
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar, for rolling
- One 12-ounce jar cherry preserves
For Topping
- 3 ounces white chocolate, melted, use white chocolate chips or melts
Instructions
- Make the Cookie Dough: In a large bowl, cream the softened butter with an electric mixer on high speed. Add the sugars to the butter mixture and mix until creamed together with the butter, about 1 minute. Add the vanilla and eggs and mix until just combined. Add the kirsch, and mix until just incorporated. Add the dry ingredients last, and mix until a slightly wet dough forms.
- Chill the Dough: Chill for 30 minutes to make rolling easier. Then, scoop the dough into balls 60-65 grams in size, and place in an airtight container to chill for at least 2 hours or up to 48 hours. You must pre scoop the dough balls before the full chill – the dough will be too hard to scoop them after, the dough will be too hard and you'll warm it back up in the process of trying to.
- Fill & Bake the Cookies: Preheat your oven to 350° F. Line a few cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Add granulated sugar to a small bowl. If you chilled the cookies longer than 4 hours, let them sit on the counter for 10 minutes before you begin. Roll the dough balls through the sugar to coat the surface of the dough. Then, use a teaspoon to make a well in each cookie and fill with 1 and 1/2 tsp of cherry preserves. Place 6 cookies on each cookie sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes, one sheet at a time (for the most even bake). The edges will appear just set, and the centers will appear a tad underdone. The cookies will set up as they cool.
- Serve & Store: Let cookies cool for a bit on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack and drizzle with white chocolate and dig in! Store cooled cookies in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hi! I want to make these, but my family doesn’t like the taste of kirsch. I know you say we can sub milk, but do you think it would also work to sub in bourbon?
I think bourbon would be a great sub! Otherwise I would use orange juice of water, not milk. Let me know how you like the recipe!
I love this recipe and always make it for our annual Oktoberfest. We have a really busy fall so I’m trying to do as much pre-prep as possible. Do you think I could freeze the dough in advance? Then obviously defrost it
I freeze a lot of doughs just wanted the expert’s opinion
So glad you enjoy this recipe! Yes, you could freeze the individual dough balls. You can then bake from frozen (lower the oven temp by 25 degrees, and bake for the time indicated, adding 1-3 minutes if needed). Or, you can thaw the dough balls in the fridge overnight and bake as usual. Happy baking!
Any tips on making these vegan?
Hi Andrea! You could try the egg substitute from my eggless chocolate chip cookies, although I haven’t tested it with this recipe. You’ll need to use 1 tbsp corn starch dissolved in 3 tbsp warm water PER EGG. And, use vegan butter. Let me know how it turns out!
I used 3 tablespoons egg replacer per egg and vegan butter and chilled them overnight and once they cooled they were extremely flat. Next time I will try the water and corn starch.
When I used regular ingredients they cam out perfectly!
Glad to hear these worked well for you Cindy! Sorry to hear the egg replacer and vegan butter made them flat – but that can happen with substitutions. I definitely recommend the water and corn starch substitute for egg! That one has worked well for me. I also recommend baking on a darker baking sheet – I know some people say they burn things, but I’ve never had them burn things and they tend to keep my cookies thicker (my cookies always come out REALLY flat on a light colored cookie sheet). Happy baking!
Excellent recipe! To make it even easier I made everything into balls before chilling. So I just had to take the chilled balls out after two hours and prep them with cherry preserve, instead of having to reroll them, and that was so low maintenance. Delicious flavor. People LOVED them!
So glad these were a hit, Jess! Happy holidays!
This recipe was a hit with everyone who tried it. The Kirschwasser is strong, but we like it that way. I work with many people from Germany, and they loved them. The 60-65 grams per cookie is waaaaay too big, however. 30 grams makes a nice size cookie. I baked them for 11 minutes and they came out wonderfully. Hate that the recipe didn’t say the amount for the cherry preserves. My jar was 8.5 oz., and that was enough.
Glad to hear you enjoyed these cookies, Diana! I added a note about the size jar of cherry preserves. Thanks for noting that!
One of my favorite cookies ever. I made these for Christmas and Valentines presents, they never disappoint! They stay nice and moist and have a delicious rich chocolate-cherry flavor. I love the added crunch of the melted white chocolate too!
So glad to hear you enjoyed these, B! 🙂
I made these today and loved them! I will be making another batch for a Christmas function next week. Thanks for sharing a fantastic recipe!
So glad to hear you liked these, Linda! 🙂
Its so good im making them again!
Thanks so much, Beni!