Black forest cookies

This was my attempt at making the Cupcake Jemma Black Forest NYC Cookies. I came across their YouTube channel during lockdown in 2020 and it’s become my go to for really indulgent baking recipes. The kind of treats you figure you should probably only have once in a while, so full of goodies as they are.

Once lockdown in London ended, I did of course have to pay their actual shop (Crumbs & Doilies) a visit, I’d spent basically a year watching videos about all the amazing bakes they sell and so I went to their Kingly Court branch based in central London, Soho.

I really wanted to try their Oreo cupcake which I had attempted to make earlier in the year (you can read about that here), but this wasn’t in stock, however their Black Forest NYC Cookie was and I couldn’t resist. It was probably one of the best cookies I have ever tried!  So chocolatey and with a lovely cherry flavour coming through too. When I saw they had posted the recipe on YouTube I decided I had to give them a go myself (especially as each cookie is sold for about £4.80, definitely only a once in a while treat!). 

There’s a few slightly tricky ingredients such as black cocoa which I couldn’t get hold of and I did need to get a few things in especially such as the cacao nibs, but they do sell a bake at home kit for these cookies which you could buy if you don’t want to buy all the bits yourself.

From a budgeting perspective this is broadly what the costs break down to though of course it would vary greatly depending on where you shop:

• Buying 1 cookie from the shop: £4.80

• Buying the bake at home kit (currently seems to be out of stock): approx. £17.50 and makes 12 cookies.

• Buying the ingredients yourself from the supermarket: approx. £21 and makes 12 cookies plus you’ll have some excess ingredients left over e.g. cherries, sugar, cacao nibs, chocolate chips etc.     

Time: 45 minutes (plus it is recommended that you freeze the cookie dough before baking, ideally overnight)

Makes 12 cookies

Ingredients

• 190g cold unsalted butter, cubed

• 135g light brown sugar

• 135g caster sugar

• 300g chocolate chips (I used a mix of 4 different types just as that is what I had, the original recipe suggests using a mix of 50% and 70%  or whatever you have)

• 200g cherries – a mix of glacé cherries and dried sour cherries (I used 70g sour cherries and 130g glacé as that’s what I had but the sour cherries add so much to the flavour that I would switch round these weightings next time)

• 250g plain flour

• 110g self raising flour

• 60g cocoa – in the original recipe they use a mix of regular and black cocoa. I only had regular cocoa and so my cookies did not come out as dark and rich as the Cup Cake Jemma ones.

• 1tsp salt

• 1 ½ tsp baking powder

• 2 large eggs

• 1tsp vanilla extract

• 50g cacao nibs

A useful bit of kit! (Though you can mix these cookies by hand with a bowl and spoon).

Method

Mix the butter and sugars in a stand mixer on low speed until it is roughly combined (no need to thoroughly mix in to a paste)

Add the chocolate chips and mix again on low briefly to combine, about 30 seconds.

Chop the cherries roughly and then add to the mixer and combine again.

In a separate bowl combine the two flours, cocoa, salt and baking powder. It’s best to mix these together first to avoid having to overmix the main cookie dough mixture.

Add the dry ingredients to the main mixer and combine. You’ll see the cookie dough becomes quite dry and it will be quite lumpy from all the inclusions (the cherries, chocolate chips etc).

Crack the eggs in to a small bowl, add the vanilla extract and lightly beat then add this to the main mixture and mix for about 2 minutes until you can see the cookie dough is well mixed.

Pour the cacao nibs in to  a small bowl or plate ready to use.

Cacao nibs are crunchy with a chocolatey flavour and no sweetness

Weigh the cookie dough mix so each cookie is about 120g-125g each and lightly clump together and roll in to a ball shape.

Roll the cookie dough balls into the cacao nibs, covering about the top third to a half.

Place on a baking tray or a freezer bag or Tupperware and once all the balls are finished, place in the freezer for at least 2 hours but ideally overnight.

Freezing the balls mean that when they bake they will not spread too thinly, they’ll stay really thick and chunky and the middle of the cookie will stay gooey whilst the outside gets a lovely thin crispy layer.   

Once you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 190c.

Line the baking tray with baking paper and heat the baking tray in the oven as well, this will make the base of the cookie crisp as well.

Once the oven is up to temperature, place the cookie dough balls on the tray leaving at least an inch or two between each cookie as they will spread.

Bake the cookies, the original recipe suggests baking for 16 minutes but in my oven the cookies took 20 minutes.

Let the cookies cool somewhat before eating as they’ll be very soft straight from the oven.