Black Forest Sandwich Cookies

Over the summer, there was a point where I had an excess of cherries. Far too many for Adam or I to just eat, and even after making these yummy  bars, we had lots and lots. I ended up making a nice batch of Black Forest Conserve – and while it was amazingly rich in chocolate-cherry flavour, I was never quite sure what to do with it. It ended up much thicker than I’d anticipated, so it didn’t really work as an ice cream topping as I’d originally envisioned. It was also far too sweet (in my opinion) to be used simply as a jam for sandwiches, though I suppose it would work for a fairly decadent scone/toast topping.

The first jar we opened largely went unused, and only recently did I think of a good idea for what to do with the rest of it: a layer for a cake, preferably chocolate. But… the trouble with making a big cake is that then? You have to eat it. And one cake in a house with two people is not the best plan. So, alas, this yummy not-quite-a-jam-but-not-an-ice-cream-topping has spent the past few months just sitting in storage, waiting to be used.

My mother-in-law to the rescue – she planned a Christmas Day Brunch (an annual tradition) and asked if I could bring a few types of cookies. I made her favourite again (Madeleines), and then had a vague chocolate-sandwich-cookie-with-conserve idea. I debated many options, but came up with something that I thought was quite good.

A big thanks to Deb over at Smitten Kitchen for this recipe for homemade oreos (which I must try again sometime with the intended cream filling):

No – I didn’t bake them this crowded. I made up a batch of the cookie dough, shaped it into cookie form and froze it before baking. It worked out quite well – when it was time to bake, I baked them from frozen just a few minutes longer than the recipe called for and then sandwiched the black forest ooze between two layers and done! The chocolate cookies served as a perfect combo for the black forest flavour, and the resulting cookies were full of pure yum.

The cookies themselves are quite crunchy upon first baking, which for some reason I wasn’t quite expecting, but the textures worked well together. After a few days (yes, we ended up with lots of leftovers – so much food at this brunch!) the cookies that were left got a bit soft as they soaked up the inner layer, but the soft version was just as enjoyable. I wouldn’t keep them more than a week (not that they’d last that long).

Tags: black forest, cookies, sandwich cookies