Blackforest as a cake is very fascinating, when suddenly I had the idea of make its cookie form. I was in the hunt of finding new flavors and how to put the flavors to work. I got opened up to the new perspective of infusing flavors into cream and making truffle out of it. Here truffle in other terms is our very own ganache. So with no further delay I decided I will bake it for this week.

The blackforest in form of cake is a rich chocolate genoise, soaked with sweetened cherry syrup, filled with a light version of whipped cream and finely chopped chunks of cherries, frosted with the same cream and decorated with chocolate shavings and whole cherries. Yumm!!

To covert this into a cookie form, I have made chocolate shortbread cookies, filled a pair of cookies with dry cherries infused white chocolate ganache. Golden!!

1. Line a baking tray with butter paper / silicon mat. Sift together all-purpose flour, cocoa power and salt. Set aside. Pre-heat oven to 180 degree C.

2. Add butter into the bowl of your electric beater. Beat for 2 minutes on medium speed until light and fluffy.

3. Add icing sugar into butter and beat for 4 to 5 minutes on medium high speed until the mixture becomes pale, fluffy and creamy.

4. Add vanilla extract and beat on medium speed until incorporated.

5. Add the flour mixture all at once and beat on slow speed until just incorporated. Do not over beat.

6. The final dough is a soft, non-sticky dough which is not too dry. If it gets sticky when you have finished beating, add a tablespoon of flour at a time and beat slowly until the dough is soft and non-sticky.

7. Dust your work surface with flour. Place the cookie dough on top and dust the top of the dough also with flour. Press it down flat to an approximate circle.

8. Roll it out evenly to about 2 to 3 mm thickness. Cut them out into circles or squares or any shape that you would prefer.

9. Use a metal scrapper or a flat spatula to lift the cut out cookies and transfer them into the prepared baking tray. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 12 minutes until the cookie bases are slightly brown.

10. Cool on wire rack.

1. Chop the cherries into small pieces

2. Add cream into a heavy bottomed saucepan and add the chopped cherries along. Bring it on the stove on medium heat.

3. The cream will begin to boil. Switch off stove. Cover the saucepan and let the flavor to seep for 30 minutes.

4. Chop the white chocolate and microwave in 30 seconds burst on medium power until melted.

5. Once after the cherry flavor has seeped into the cream, heat the cream again just until it is hot and sieve the cream if you do not want the chunks of cherries, like me . You could choose to keep the cherries along with cream.

6. Add the warm cream into the warm melted white chocolate and mix well until they have combined well together. Store in refrigerator to chill and firm up for 1 hour.

7. Once the ganache is set and cold, whip it up until it is smooth, creamy and fluffy. Do not over beat.

8. Fill a piping bag with the ganache. Fill half the number of cookies with the ganache in the center, piping out a big doom which is just in the center and does not get to the outside edge of the cookies. Sprinkle grated dark chocolate on top of the cream. Cover it up using the remaining plain cookies. Press down gently to let the cream get sandwiched and come just till the edge of both the cookies.

You can decorate the top with dry cherries. To get the cherries sticking on top, pipe some ganache on top and place the cherries.
The subtle cherry flavor infused into the ganache, is going to open up a lot of ideas in which we can infuse our ganache with.
Just get spiced up !!