These Black Forest Crinkle Cookies are a soft, rich delicious chocolate cookie loaded with chocolate chips and tart dried cherries. It’s rolled in powdered sugar so there is a beautiful contrast between the crackled white outside and dark chocolatey inside.
My family is crazy about cherries and chocolate, and they’re crazy about this chocolate cookie loaded with cherries and chocolate. I originally shared this recipe about 6 years ago, but when I made them to take to a family Christmas party, I decided it was time to update the photos and share them again.
Santa’s Milk Drive
What goes better with cookies than milk? Here’s a chance to make a difference in your local community. Contribute to Santa’s Milk Drive by donating a gallon of milk (the most under donated store-bought item across the nation). After entering their zip code, that gallon of milk will be delivered to their own local food bank, keeping the charity where it’s needed most: in your own communities.
AND if your local, you can visit Smiths’ Marketplace, at 3215 Valley Street (3300 South off Wasatch BLVD and I-215 by REI), Salt Lake City, Saturday 12/10/2016 from 12 pm to 4 pm to donate in person, get samples or be accosted by 7th graders in moo shirts.
Now back to the cookies!
I saw this recipe on Sweet Peas Kitchen and thought it sounded amazing. Christina found the original recipe in Taste of Home Fall Baking 2010. Black Forest is such a great name for a cookie. The name immediately conjures up memories of rich, delicious chocolate cake filled with cherries. And this cookie definitely lives up to it’s delicious name.
The original recipe calls for espresso powder, but I don’t like coffee. I don’t drink it and I don’t like coffee flavored candy or baked goods. I’ve tried using espresso powder in the past (it’s used to accentuate the chocolate flavor) but I didn’t like it because all I could smell when it was baking was the coffee. Nielsen-Massey sent me a selection of their extracts, including their high quality chocolate extract, so I decided to use the chocolate extract to boost the chocolate flavor instead of espresso powder.
I made the recipe twice because the first time my cookies came out too flat. The second time I left out the hot water and the consistency was better. I doubled the recipe because the original recipe made so few cookies it seemed more like half a batch of cookies.
The second time around I used a tip Martha Stewart uses in her chocolate crinkle cookies. She rolls them first in granulated sugar and then rolls them in powdered sugar so that they come out very white. I also added more cherries and chocolate chips. My adapted recipe is below.
Black Forest Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cup sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup 1 stick unsalted butter
- ⅔ cup cocoa powder not Dutch process
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon chocolate extract
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup dried tart cherries 1.5 ounces
- ½ granulated sugar
- ½ to 1 cup sifted powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.
- Melt butter in a second small bowl in a microwave or a small saucepan over low heat. Add cocoa to melted butter, whisking until smooth. Stir in the eggs, chocolate and vanilla extracts, fully blending in each one before adding the next.
- Stir chocolate mixture into flour mixture just until combined. Fold chocolate chips and cherries into the dough until evenly distributed.
- Shape into generous 2 inch balls using a cookie scoop or a heaping tablespoon measure. Roll balls in granulated sugar, then roll balls in powdered sugar (use lots of powdered sugar).
- Place on prepared baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake for 12 – 14 minutes or until cookies are cracked, yet still soft, do not overbake. (The look a bit uncooked even when they're done.) Let cookies cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack.
Here are my 12 weeks of Christmas Cookies all boxed up and ready to give away.
Thanks for baking/following along with me. I wish I could send one of these boxes out to all of my amazing readers. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!
Pin It:
Sarah Schulner
can i make these without the dried cherries?
Melissa Griffiths
Yep and you can always sub something else like dried cranberries if you’d like.
LInda T MacGregor
I made this recipe this past weekend and my batter was really dry. I don’t know if I did something wrong.
Barbara Schieving
Hi Linda – often how you measure your flour makes a big difference. Here’s a post about it https://www.barbarabakes.com/how-to-measure-flour/
Lisha
Just wondering if you can refrigerate the dough before using? I have a cookie making day on Sunday and was hoping to prep the dough a few days early but wasn’t sure if it would impact the crinkle if I do not bake them right away?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Lisha – I haven’t tried it, but you should be fine to make the dough a few days ahead and keep it in the refrigerator. I don’t think it will impact the crinkle at all. Let me know how it goes. Happy holidays!
Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella
I must send this recipe to a Black Forest obsessed friend of mine. She’d love them. I also just bought some dried Bing cherries! 😀
Brenda
Made these today and turned out terrific. I found that the dough was sticky when rolling so I found it easier to roll 12 cookies, each time placing in the granular sugar, then once all sitting in the granular sugar coat and then move over to the powdered sugar. I only needed to cook for 12 minutes. They are now in the freezer ready for next week.
Barbara Schieving
Hi Brenda. Thanks for sharing your tip. Glad you enjoyed the cookies.
Lindsay
I am thinking of making these for an event in the future. Does anyone know if these freeze well?? They sound delicious!
Barbara Schieving
Hi Lindsay – I’m sorry I don’t have any experience freezing these. My guess is they would freeze just fine.
cindy harris
Black Forest is my favorite flavor combo. They look delish!
Anne
Oh my goodness! I can practically inhale these – because I love a combo crunchy-soft cookie. Can’t wait to try them! What a great assortment you have here.
Jane
The above recipe doesn’t have enough liquid. I added three tablespoons of hot water. Two wasn’t enough, but three was slightly too much. Little harder to work with.
Taste was exceptional!
Melissa Griffiths
I assume you just measured you flour a little more heavily than I did, glad you could get them to work out.