Black Forest Cookies – vegan recipe

By lucylox on April 5, 2025

Imagine a rich dark chocolate cookie, studded with decadent chocolate chips and juicy sweet cherries. Sounds good, right? Well these Black Forest cookies are more than good - not only are they dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free and vegan but they will add a touch of the exotic to your cookie repertoire.

straight out of the oven

There is something magical about the combination of cherry and chocolate, like all these classic combos, they've stood the test of time for a reason. The fruity juicy cherry brightens up the chocolate flavour and you get a spectacular flavour combination.

It may seem to be a fair few ingredients in these cookies, but they're all there for a reason and you won't find anything too unusual that you wouldn't be able to buy in your local shops.

Top tips:

You can just use either plain or strong bread flour, but you will get better results if you use both
Equally, you can use just soft brown or caster sugar, but again you'll get best results if you use both
if you don't have any chocolate vermicelli there is not need to use it, i just quite like the way it looks
This cookie dough can be formed into balls and cooked immediately, but if you can let it rest in the fridge for at least a couple of hours you will get far better cookies!

Black Forest Cookies - vegan recipe

dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free, soya-free, sesame-free, vegetarian and vegan

baking sheet

60 g dairy-free butter
50 g soft brown sugar
40 g caster sugar
½ tbsp cornflour or custard powder
1 tbsp dairy-free milk (or Kirsch)
40 g plain flour
50 g strong bread flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 pinch salt
20 g chocolate chips
40 g glace cherries (roughly chopped)

optional

2 tbsp chocolate vermicelli

Cream together the butter and sugars
stir in the cornflour, milk and cocoa powder
sift in the flours, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt and mix to form a soft dough
stir in the chocolate chips and chopped cherries, making sure they're well distributed
you can form into 6 equal sized balls and bake immediately, but i recommend rolling into a log shape about 12-14 cm long, you can then sprinkle the chocolate vermicelli onto the surface and roll the dough log over so it picks up the sprinkles. Then wrap in baking paper or clingfilm and placing in the fridge to firm up
When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 170℃
slice the dough into 6 or 7 slices and place, well spaced apart onto a lined baking sheet
bake for 12-13 minutes. Let sit on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack