I’ve been wanting to make chocolate sugar cookies for awhile.
But not just any sugar cookies because I don’t even really like sugar cookies.
Sugar cookies are usually too crispy, crunchy, and dry. Those adjectives don’t belong with cookies.
These cookies are moist, soft, and chewy. And thick. So you can really sink your teeth into them.
And I didn’t want white-sugar sugar cookies. Way too boring.
So I made them dark in two ways. With dark cocoa powder and dark brown sugar.
If you don’t have dark cocoa powder and run into snags trying to find it like I did for over two years, order it to save time and a headache. Or use regular unsweetened natural cocoa powder. Your cookies just won’t be as dark.
I tested and wrote the recipe with dark brown sugar rather than light, and recommend it. If all you have is light brown sugar, you can make dark brown sugar by stirring in about 1 or 2 teaspoons of molasses into the 3/4 cup dark brown sugar. It’s not a perfect conversion, but it’ll work.
The recipe has a very short ingredients list and the batch size is small, only making about 15 cookies.
The dough comes together in no time. Make sure to chill it before baking so your cookies bake up thick. Baking with unchilled, warm dough will result in thinner, flatter cookies.
Although they’re thick, the cookies stay soft from using cornstarch. I have written about cornstarch so many times and why I love it. It’s my secret weapon for creating super soft cookies that stay soft, but not cakey.
They’re fudgy, rich, intensely chocolaty, and not overly sweet.
I try to judge a cookie overall by the quality of the dough. These aren’t loaded up with add-ins, candy, chocolate chips or chunks, or anything else. Just boldly chocolaty dough.
Cookies with Reese’s Pieces and M&M’s are destined to be good. It’s what you get when you strip that all away and focus on the dough, sans fillers. And these cookies deliver.
They’re the cookies I recommend for bad days, PMS days, or when the chocolate monster is calling your name and nothing else will do.
I imagine some people would like to wash these down with a big glass of milk or a cup of coffee. I recommend red wine, Homemade Baileys, or champagne. It’s a holiday week, after all.
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Dark Chocolate Dark Brown Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup dark brown sugar, packed (I have not tried using light brown sugar)
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup unsweetened natural dark cocoa powder, I used Hershey’s Special Dark; regular cocoa powder or Dutch-processed may be substituted
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
Instructions
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until well-creamed, light and fluffy, about 5 minutes (or use an electric hand mixer and beat for at least 7 minutes).
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the remaining ingredients and mix on low speedy until just combined, about 1 to 2 minutes.
- Using a medium 2-inch cookie scoop, form heaping 2-tablespoon mounds (I made 15). Place mounds on a large plate, flatten mounds slightly, cover with plasticwrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 5 days, before baking. Do not bake with warm dough because cookies will spread and bake thinner and flatter.
- Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat Non-Stick Baking Mat or spray with cooking spray and place mounds on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart although they don’t spread much. I bake 8 cookies per sheet.
- Bake for 8 to 9 minutes, or until edges have set and tops are just beginning to set. It’s hard to tell with dark cookies when they’re done, but do not bake longer than 10 minutes as cookies will firm up as they cool; baking longer causes cookies to set up too crunchy and crumbly. (The cookies shown in the photos were baked with dough that had been chilled overnight, allowed to come to room temp for 15 minutes, and were baked for 8 minutes, with trays rotated at the 4-minute mark). Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing and transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
- Cookies will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored airtight in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Thanks for the 25 Buttery and Cheesy Recipes and Kerrygold Giveaway entries
What’s your favorite chocolate cookie recipe or dark chocolate recipe?
I wanted an even smaller batch and I haven’t made your exact recipe but it’s kind of a head-scratcher. I did 1 cup flour, 1 stick butter, 1/3 cup cocoa, 1 egg, no cornstarch, 1/2tsp baking soda, pinch salt, 1/2 T vanilla, cup of semi-sweet chocolate chunks and I did not reduce the brown sugar and it still wasn’t sweet enough.
Also I meant to put 5 stars not 4… 🤷🙈
Thanks :)
Wowzers!! Ok so, I went looking for a chocolate cookie recipe without other stuff in it, no chips, etc… I’m not usually a huge fan of dark chocolate, but for what I was trying to do, stumbling across your recipe was PERFECT! Because……
I had this amazing idea to sprinkle them with SHARP CHEDDAR CHEESE! And let me say… this idea works!
So… feedback: Test batch i made 4 cookies using the unchilled dough. I tried both with and without cheese underneath. I didn’t have a dough scoop, so just a spoon and the dough was quite thick, so i rolled it into balls and flattened them to about 1/2″ thickness. Some of them I also added caramel bits into the center. Always a flavor wizard… hah!
I used parchment paper too which helped i think. But yeah, I did NOT get the spread I thought I would having used the unchilled dough. They didn’t expand at all really. So then tonight I made the rest of the batch that i HAD chilled, and was surprised to see how much they DID expand! I thought they wouldn’t go anywhere but…… maybe I put them too close to each other and didn’t get the proper air flow/heat current… or whatever. Not sure. I made them fairly small so I got 24 or out of the batch. (Well, 25 if you count the uncooked dough I ate! Lol Honestly it’s the first batch of dough that has made it to the oven in yeaaaaarrrs! )
Anyhooo! We shall see what my family thinks of my crazy experiment, as I am taking them to Christmas dinner tomorrow. =) Thank you so much for sharing your recipe!! I believe I will be utilizing it a lot in the future. Merry Christmas!!
I am glad you loved the recipe and will utilize it in the future!
Also I meant to put 5 stars not 4… 🤷🙈
Wowzers!! Ok so, I went looking for a chocolate cookie recipe without other stuff in it, no chips, etc… I’m not usually a huge fan of dark chocolate, but for what I was trying to do, stumbling across your recipe was PERFECT! Because……
I had this amazing idea to sprinkle them with SHARP CHEDDAR CHEESE! And let me say… this idea works!
So… feedback: Test batch i made 4 cookies using the unchilled dough. I tried both with and without cheese underneath. I didn’t have a dough scoop, so just a spoon and the dough was quite thick, so i rolled it into balls and flattened them to about 1/2″ thickness. Some of them I also added caramel bits into the center. Always a flavor wizard… hah!
I used parchment paper too which helped i think. But yeah, I did NOT get the spread I thought I would having used the unchilled dough. They didn’t expand at all really. So then tonight I made the rest of the batch that i HAD chilled, and was surprised to see how much they DID expand! I thought they wouldn’t go anywhere but…… maybe I put them too close to each other and didn’t get the proper air flow/heat current… or whatever. Not sure. I made them fairly small so I got 24 or out of the batch. (Well, 25 if you count the uncooked dough I ate! Lol Honestly it’s the first batch of dough that has made it to the oven in yeaaaaarrrs! )
Anyhooo! We shall see what my family thinks of my crazy experiment, as I am taking them to Christmas dinner tomorrow. =) Thank you so much for sharing your recipe!! I believe I will be utilizing it a lot in the future. Merry Christmas!!