I’ve always wanted to make a chocolate lava cake.
I still haven’t made one, but cookies stuffed with chocolate that flows like lava is more than okay.
If you’re craving chocolate, these are the cookies to make because there’s chocolate incorporated three ways: Nutella, chocolate chips, and dark chocolate chunks. They’re rich, bold, and supremely fudgy.
The cookies are thick, slightly chewy on the outside with super soft and tender interiors. The puddles of melted chocolate keep the cookies extra moist.
The cookies are baked in a muffin pan so you don’t have to chill the dough. They’re ready in 30 minutes and perfect when you need chocolate in a hurry.
The recipe is adapted from Soft and Chewy Nutella White Chocolate Chip Cookies, a reader favorite. Form 12 equal-sized mounds with the dough, place them into the muffin pan, and stuff each mound with a chunk of dark chocolate.
Chocolate chunks melt in a free-flowing way as opposed to chocolate chips which have stabilizers in them that prevent easy-melting. For a true lava-like center, use a hunk of dark chocolate from a baking bar or candy bar. I used Trader Joe’s 72% Pound Plus bar.
The cookies rise while baking, but once out of the oven they sink in the center as they cool from the chocolate chunks weighing down the centers.
If you take them out of the muffin pan when they’re still warm, they’ll have a tendency to flatten and almost ‘break’ into bite-sized pieces. It was so easy to grab a piece, then another, and another.
Sinking your teeth into the squishy soft, super chocolaty interior is what dreams are made of.
A friend said she felt euphoric after there. I guess there’s some truth to the proverbial ‘chocolate high’ after all.
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Chocolate Lava Nutella Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened (1 stick)
- heaping 1/3 cup Nutella, stir well before adding
- ½ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 12 1/4- ounce chunks dark chocolate, divided (one chunk per cookie; I used Trader Joe’s 72% Pound Plus bar and 1/4-ounce is half of one square)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 12-cup standard-sized muffin pan with cooking spray or floured cooking spray; set aside.
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or large mixing bowl and electric mixer) combine the butter, Nutella, sugars, egg, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until creamed and well combined, about 4 minutes.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, optional salt, and beat on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the chocolate chips, and beat on low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds.
- Using a large cookie scoop, 1/4-cup measure, or your hands, form approximately 12 equal-sized mounds of dough, roll into balls, and flatten slightly.
- Transfer dough to prepared pan, placing one mound of dough in each cavity. Tip – Strategically place a few chocolate chips right on top of each mound of dough by taking chips from the underside and adding them on top.
- Stuff one 1/4-ounce chunk of dark chocolate in the center of each cookie, pressing the chocolate down so it’s flush with the top of the dough; repeat for all remaining cookies.
- Bake for about 11 to 12 minutes, or until edges have set and tops are just set (I bake for 11 minutes exactly); don’t overbake. Cookies will rise in the oven, but fall as they cool.
- Allow cookies to cool in pan for about 15 minutes before carefully removing. They should pop out easily but if they don’t, rim each muffin cavity with a table knife to help dislodge. Cookies will have a tendency to flatten and break apart somewhat after being removed from muffin pan.
- Cookies are best warm and fresh but will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 6 months. Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 4 months, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.
- Adapted from Soft and Chewy Nutella White Chocolate Chip Cookies
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I tried these in a 24 count mini muffin pan. They turned out perfectly! I baked them at the same temperature for 8-9 minutes. My Dad is going to love these! ?
Glad they worked great for you in a mini muffin pan!
Theses turned out great! I have a question though. Do you think these could be made smaller, using a mini muffin tin? I am making these to mail to my Dad in Florida and I am not sure how the would hold up being mailed from Colorado. If I use the smaller tins, do you think 6 minutes would be an appropriate baking time?
Thanks!
I’m not sure how you’d adjust baking time given the size of the muffin pan. It would really be trial and error.
Thanks for trying the recipe and glad it came out great for you!
OMG. Needed a spectacular cookie for my husband’s Cookie Bake-Off at work, and these Lava Cookies are incredible! Baked them for exactly 12 minutes, and they were gooey and perfect!! The only thing I couldn’t do was form them into balls (user error!), but even spooning the batter into the muffin cups worked out well. Love the site and can’t wait to try more recipes!!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! Glad they were a cookie bake-off success!
search in : https://womensplus.blogspot.com
yum these sound super delicious, thanks for sharing this.
Simon
I loved this recipe!! :> One of the things I couldnt get right was that the top always cooked faster than the bottom and when I try to get the cookie out of the tin, it splits in half. Any suggestions? other than that they turned out really well!!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad they taste is great for you! Move your oven rack down one notch lower (that may help the browning situation) and wait til they’re cooler in the pan before removing, as in almost ‘cold’ so they firm up and won’t split upon being transferred.
Hi!
I just came across these cookies and they look so good! I’m going to bake them as soon as I can! But I wanted to ask you, when I stuff the cookie with the piece of chocolate, should I add more cookie dough on top of it or is the chocolate meant to remain visible?
I purposely leave exposed chocolate so that it really POPS and stands out but do what you think is best.
I topped mine with left over cookie dough and they came out great!!!!
I can’t help but sit and stare at your photos in this post! If only real lava were made out of chocolate, Pompeii would have been a completely different story!
Thanks for the photo compliments!
Wow! I just made these cookies today and they are among the best cookies I have ever tasted! (and that’s saying something because I eat A LOT of cookies ;) ). The gooey chocolatey center is to die for!
Your blog has become one of my favorites this past year and I have made about fifteen of your recipes, all amazing! Friends and family always ask me where I get these amazing recipes from and now they have also become obsessed with your blog!
Greetings from Iceland! x
Thanks for trying so many of my recipes and that’s wonderful your friends & family always ask where you get them from – so nice to hear! Thanks for reading all the way from Iceland and so glad these cookies are among the best you’ve ever had!
Hi Averie!
Today we tried to make your nutella chocolate lava cakes…. they turned out so well! One of the few recipes where the result looks (and seemingly tastes) like the picture. This is definitely a front runner for the Santa cookies this year!
Thanks!
Bryanna (13) and Ashley (10)
That’s wonderful that you girls were baking today and that the cookies turned out so well and that they look (and taste) like my photos. Fabulous! Merry Xmas!
Hi Averie!
If i rolled the chocolate chunk in the center of a ball of dough, do you think they will come out the same or would they collapse? I currently don’t have a cupcake tin!
You won’t get the same results baking on a cookie sheet as in a muffin pan. It’s just not possible; but I think you could make the recipe as written and just bake as cookies on a baking sheet and then plunk a chocolate chunk in the center and see how it goes. All of baking is an experiment so just try it and see how things go with a few test cookies and change up from there if necessary.
These look amazing! Will definitely have to try them. Only problem is I don’t like dark chocolate so i’m thinking of swapping that for milk chocolate. Do you think they would they still taste as good as they look?
I personally do love dark chocolate in cookies like this but if you think milk would be better, than go for it. I mean I would prefer the taste of using dark, but use what you like.
Hey Averie! Do you think I would get away with substituting half of the butter with applesauce or would it really mess things up? I soooo want to try these!
No possible way. Use butter and enjoy!
Just tried this recipe. I barely ever bake cookies and these were so simple! They were also delicious!! Thanks so much! I only omitted the extra 1/4 cups granulated sugar and they still tasted very sweet :)
Glad they came out great for you even though you don’t bake that often! That’s wonderful!
Haha, I love Kayle’s comment! ^ That’s exactly my feelings for these cookies!! They look so decadent and AMAZING!! Pinned! :)
Thanks girl!
GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLY! must. make!!!!