Quadruple Chocolate Pudding Cookies — These pudding cookies are packed with cocoa powder, chocolate chips and chunks, and chocolate pudding mix to deliver seriously chocolatey flavor!
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Chocolate Fudge Cookies … Using Pudding Mix!
My first foray into pudding cookies went so well that I wanted to try a chocolate version. So I did with four kinds of chocolate in one cookie. May as well go big or go home.
These chocolate fudge pudding cookies are super soft, tender, slightly chewy, and are for true chocolate lovers. Chips, chunks, cocoa, chocolate pudding.
They’re thicker, bakery-style cookies that are bold and rich, not overly sweet, and oozing with melted chocolate. As you bite down, there’s a little chocolate explosion that happens in your mouth.
There’s an abundance of melted chocolate in every bite between the chips and chunks. I like to use both so that there are varied chocolate flavors and textures present. If you only have one or the other, use what you have.
Keep in mind that chopped chocolate melts in an oozing way, whereas chocolate chips have stabilizers. So while they do melt, they stay more intact.
Sometimes darker chocolate cookies can be almost overpowering but these are one of my favorite non-peanut butter, all-chocolate cookies that I’ve ever made. Pudding mix, I’m sold.
Chocolate Pudding Cookies Ingredients
These chocolate chip pudding cookies use most of your typical cookie ingredients, plus lots of chocolate. Here’s what goes into these chocolate fudge cookies:
- Unsalted butter
- Light brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Instant chocolate pudding mix
- Unsweetened cocoa powder
- All-purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Chopped dark chocolate
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Chocolate Cookies with Pudding Mix
These chocolate chip pudding cookies are made like most of my cookie recipes are. Quick, easy, and no-fuss!
Here’s an overview of how the fudgy pudding chocolate cookies are prepared:
- Cream together the butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla.
- Then, mix in the dry ingredients followed by the chocolate chips and chunks.
- Scoop out the cookie dough and shape it into balls.
- Place the cookie dough onto a plate, cover with plastic wrap, and chill for at least 2 hours in the fridge.
- Once chilled, place the cookie dough onto a Silpat-lined baking tray and bake until the edges of the pudding cookies have set and tops are just set, even if slightly undercooked and glossy in the center.
Recipe FAQs
The pudding mix helps keep the cookies softbatch-style soft, supple, and gives them a surprising lightness. That’s paradoxical considering how much chocolate is packed into them, but they’re not lead balloons. Nor are they airy or cakey. They’re just right, says Goldilocks.
Yes, absolutely. Do not bake with unchilled dough because the chocolate chip pudding cookies will bake thinner, flatter, and be more prone to spreading.
If you’re not into pudding mix or don’t have it in your area, this probably isn’t the recipe for you. You can simply omit it, although the results won’t taste the same. There’s really no substitutions. Luckily I have oodles of other chocolate cookie recipes that don’t use it and recommend one of those.
The instant pudding mix gets added to the cookie dough like a dry ingredient. You do not actually make the chocolate pudding — just dump it into the cookie dough straight from the box.
You likely can add other mix-ins like chopped nuts or dried fruit, but you’d need to scale back the amount of chocolate chips you add to the cookie dough to compensate for the extra mix-ins.
Make sure to buy instant pudding mix and not the cook and serve kind. You also can’t use sugar-free pudding mix in this pudding cookie recipe. Don’t ask me why, sugar-free instant pudding mix just doesn’t deliver the same results.
Yes! I prefer using dark chocolate in this pudding cookie recipe, but you’re welcome to use a mixture of milk and dark chocolate if that’s what you have on hand.
I have made these for my family and friends on many occasions and everybody loves them! Around the holidays I’ll dip them in white chocolate and sprinkle peppermint crumbles on top. My favorite cookies ever!
Patty
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Fudgy Chocolate Pudding Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened (1 1/2 sticks)
- ¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 packet instant chocolate pudding mix, about 3.7 to 3.9 ounces (not sugar-free and not ‘cook & serve’)
- ¼ cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 5 ounces dark chocolate, chopped (I used Trader Joe’s 72% Pound Plus Bar)
Instructions
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or large mixing bowl and electric mixer) combine the butter, 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, and add the pudding mix, cocoa, and beat on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the flour, baking soda, optional salt, and beat on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the chocolate chips, chopped chocolate, 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 17 equal-sized mounds of dough. Roll into balls, and flatten slightly.
- Place mounds on a large plate or tray, cover with plasticwrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, up to 5 days. Do not bake with unchilled dough because cookies will bake thinner, flatter, and be more prone to spreading.
- Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat or spray with cooking spray. Place dough mounds on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart (I bake 8 cookies per sheet).
- Bake for about 10 minutes, or until edges have set and tops are just set, even if slightly undercooked and glossy in the center. Don’t overbake which is easy to do with dark cookies. Cookies firm up as they cool.
- Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for about 10 minutes before serving. I let them cool on the baking sheet and don’t use a rack.
Notes
- Cookies will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week 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, 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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More Chocolate Cookie Recipes:
German Chocolate Cookies — An EASY recipe for soft, chewy, fudgy chocolate cookies that are topped with a rich and creamy pecan coconut frosting! If you love German chocolate cake but don’t want to deal with layering and frosting an entire cake, these cookies are PERFECT!
Dark Chocolate Chunk and Peanut Butter Chip Chocolate Cookies — Rich, soft chocolate cookies with chocolate chunks and peanut butter chips
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies — These chocolate crinkle cookies are slightly chewy around the edges with a very fudgy interior and perfectly crinkly seams!
Hot Chocolate Cookies — These gooey hot chocolate cookies are complete with big gooey marshmallows and chunks of melted dark chocolate. This is the perfect holiday cookie recipe!
Andes Mint Chip Soft Fudgy Chocolate Cookies — These quadruple chocolate Andes mint cookies are big, bakery-style cookies that are rich, not overly sweet, and loaded with chocolate and mint chips.
Caramel-Stuffed Quadruple Chocolate Cookies — The cookies are thicker, bakery-style cookies that are bold and rich, and are oozing with melted chocolate and stuffed with Rolos.
Chocolate Ganache Chocolate Cookies — There are chocolate chips and cocoa powder in the cookie dough and the cookies are topped with a rich, cream, fudgy chocolate ganache.
Mexican Chocolate Shortbread Cookies — These buttery shortbread cookies are full of chocolate, cinnamon-and-sugar, and a bit of spice thanks to a couple unique ingredients! They remind me of a good cup of Mexican hot chocolate, in cookie form.
Originally published February 8, 2014 and republished with updated text February 5, 2020.
I made these cookies today and substituted white chocolate chips for the dark chocolate chips (I was originally making your Soft and Chewy Nutella White Chocolate Chip Cookies, but realized I didn’t have enough Nutella)…. But, oh, my goodness, I am so glad I made these cookies instead because they were absolutely amazing! I also made your Soft M&M Chocolate Chip Cookies and Caramelitas this past week and everyone was obsessed! I love everything you post, they always turn out perfectly!
Thanks for trying the cookie recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! Sometimes running out of Nutella can be a good thing…I guess :)
And the fact that you made my M&M Cookies AND Carmelitas all this past week…you are baking up a storm and I love it! So glad everyone’s obsessed and happy too and that everything turns out perfectly for you! Such a wonderful comment to read – thank you!!
What happens if I use a “cook and serve” pudding?? Is t going to affect the final result??
I haven’t tried it so can’t speak to what will happen.
What do you mean with : “refrigerate for at least 2 hours, up to 5 days.”
Every day I need them to refrigerate for 2 hours until I complete the 5 days?? Is it ok to leave them not in the fridge the rest of the hours?
You need to bake with chilled dough. You can keep the dough parked in your fridge for up to 5 days before baking it. Therefore you can literally bake 2 cookies at one time to have always-fresh-cookies if you do it this way. Or bake the whole batch at once, whatever you’d like best.
Yes there is always a pint to baking at home and I do it all the time, I just don’t agree with using processed ingredients. I will certainly try some of your other recipes that don’t use processed stuff.
I don’t see the point in making your own cookies if you use processed ingredients (pudding mix) you may as well buy them from a shop.
There is always a point in baking at home in my opinion. If you don’t like pudding mix (it’s not the devil, really it’s not) but you can make another chocolate cookie recipe that doesn’t use it. In fact I have about 20+ chocolate cookie recipes on my site that don’t use it such as today’s recipe, with backlinks to dozens more.
I made my dough balls about 2T. in size and made 29 balls. How long do you recommend I bake them for?
I’d go with 8-9 minutes but it’s VERY dependent on your oven and climate so go with what looks right!
I am dying to make these, but I want to add some espresso- can you tell me how much to add in, ground or brewed?
Also, can you simply put the cookies on the cookie sheet with silpat into the fridge to chill and then right into the oven, or is it better to transfer from a cold tray to a room temp sheet before baking?
Thanks!
When adding espresso, I use 1 tsp instant espresso granules (i.e. instant coffee, but rather than instant coffee, it’s instant espresso – sold in regular grocery store near instant coffee).
The method of chilling that you describe with a Silpat would be handy only if you could adequately seal off the dough so it’s not just exposed to air and getting all dried out in the fridge. Hence, I find a plate that I can then wrap tightly with clingwrap works best for me.
I was thinking about making these for my friends birthday party. Do you make the pudding before adding it to the cookie mix or just add it straight from the box to the cookie mix???
Just add the pudding mix DRY into the mixing bowl as if it was flour or another dry ingredient.
Great recipe! I’m not too much of a baker, but I tried these out last night. The consistency of the cookie is great but the taste is a little off, kind of like stale bread. I think followed the recipe exactly, but something must’ve gone wrong. Any ideas?
If something tastes stale then I would suspect the ingredients may have been past their freshness prime because I’ve never had that happen or heard from that from any readers who’ve tried these. That’s my guess.
I decided to make these and they were so delicious!!! For some reason though mine didn’t spread much. I used a rather small cookie scoop so mine came out in more of a silver dollar size than a large cookie but still worked out well!
Glad they came out great for you and if they didn’t spread that could mean that the dough was super cold and well-chilled which isn’t necessarily a bad thing; or possibly you slightly over-added the flour, which creates a stiffer dough that spreads less. Always use a light hand when measuring flour just as an aside. But regardless, sounds like they came out great and happy they tasted delicious!
Made these today… kinda… I used lemon pudding and lemon extract, neglected to put in the cocoa powder and turned them into lemon cookies. Came out looking and tasting pretty darned good. Crispy edges and soft center. The dough came out a bit wetter than normal cookie dough and I had to encourage the dough out of the cookie scoop into my hand then place on the sheet.
Been on a cookie making binge today. Wife was going to for her coworkers but had to run off to help her parents and I had to stay because we have dogs, so I baked for her. 55 triple chipper cookies {Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Potato chips}, 30ish {Still baking} of these, banana bread soon, and maybe some other cookie if I find a good recipe and have the stuff…
Oh, and I cooked them all on stoneware… It does matter. ;)
Wow you sound like you’re on a ROLL!! I just posted this if you want to take a peek for any ideas. 25 Holiday Favorite Cookies https://www.averiecooks.com/2014/12/25-holiday-cookie-favorites.html
I can see where lemon pudding/lemon extract worked great and of course omitting all chocolate. The reason the dough was probably wetter was because by removing the (dry) cocoa powder, the dough was probably on the loose side, unless you bumped up the flour slightly.
If you make anything else, let me know! Love your creativity with these! And the Triple Chippers sound great!
I was on a roll… until the wife showed up and was like “What’s with all the cookies?!” and “No, you don’t need to make more, 7 dozen is enough.” So I stopped short of making the banana bread cookies, but I did get the three ingredient peanut butter cookies in. {2c Peanut Butter, 2 Eggs, 2c Sugar, bake at 350 for 8ish minutes} I was going to use some fancy maple peanut butter we had picked up on clearance a while back… but could not since it much have been a long while back. It expired a year ago on Dec 14 of this year…
This all started because of the triple chippers, they’re my wife’s favorite so I make them when she’s good. So, I’m blaming her. :D
55 Triple Chippers, 35 Lemon, 24 Peanut Butter was my final count. I was going to go for the Banana Bread ones and Hermits but got stopped… maybe tomorrow when she’s at work… Muahahahahahahaha!
I love those 3 ingredient PB cookies. I made them with chocolate chips and they’re one of my favorite PB cookies ever (and I wrote a PB cookbook!) https://www.averiecooks.com/2013/01/peanut-butter-chocolate-chunk-cookies.html I’ve found baking with those fancy PB’s doesn’t always yield too great of results because the PB tends to be more runny. So I just use the cheap stuff :)
Banana Bread Cookies sound amazing and you can’t go wrong with hermits! Happy baking! I love your holiday spirit!
I’m planning to use this recipe for a cookie exchange party. Do you have any suggestions on how to make them a little more for Christmas?
You could buy some red & green chocolate chips that they sell this time of year and use those.
Is it possible to use Sugar Free pudding mix in place of the regular? Will there be a huge change to the final result? The Sugar Free mix was all I could find at my local store…
I personally have never used SF pudding mix in any of my pudding cookies only because I have heard of bloggers I know not getting as good of results. Decent, but something about the non-sugar stuff, when heated, you don’t exactly know what’s going to happen. I would hate for you to put all these other sort of expensive ingredients into making the recipe, and then for the pudding mix to lend less than ideal results. But I’m not sure. I would say go to Target, etc. or any other grocery store and get some regular, but that’s me, since I know that’s a guarantee.
I made these today and the dough is now chilling in my fridge. I look forward to trying them once they’ve been baked, but I had to come comment on the dough itself – it tastes like a chocolate covered Oreo!
I used a cadbury dark bar and part of a ghiradelli dark bar for the chunks, and Hershey’s special dark cocoa powder, and I’ve been ponder all sorts of other varieties for future batches, but I have to ask about the process of making the dough. I don’t know if it’s just because I haven’t used my stand mixer in a while, or if I was doing something wrong, but both times I scraped down the bowl and added dry ingredients, I was met with an explosion of powders all over my kitchen. I’m a pretty experienced baker, and don’t usually have that much trouble with it, but maybe you have some tips to avoid that?
Also, am I the only one that ended up with cookie dough up to my elbows and all over like 5 utensils and ground into my palms and nail beds after the scooping and shaping? I was giggling in the kitchen, and had to get my wife to come help scoop the last 6 or so. Told her I felt like I was making mud pies.
For the flying powders you just need to start your mixer on literally level 1 until it’s somewhat incorporated and then you can increase the speed.
For these cookies I wear gloves when I make them to avoid looking like I have dirt in my nails and do as much as possible with my cookie scoop and spatula, which helps too. Glad you liked the dough!
Hi I was just wondering for the chocolate pudding cookies… Did you use sweetened or unsweetened dark chocolate?
The chopped chocolate chunks that are stirred into the batter are dark chocolate Trader Joe’s Pound Plus or the 72% Pound Plus. So dark chocolate on the not-so-sweet side.
My husband claims these are the best cookies I’ve ever made. I really appreciate the refrigerater/freezing instructions. The second batch I just baked 2-4 cookies each time over a week.
Glad your hubby thinks they’re the best cookies you’ve ever made and that you’re baking 2-4 at a time, as needed, and that my tips were helpful! So great all the way around!