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These soft chocolate sugar cookies are fast and easy to throw together and they are full of rich chocolate flavor. They are soft and chewy in the center and a little crisp around the edges. The perfect chocolate sugar cookie!
These are the BEST chocolate sugar cookies. They are soft, chewy, chocolatey, and devilishly tempting. I promise, they won’t last long, but you will be glad to know that they are fast and easy to make.
Easy drop cookies!
These little morsels are the best chocolate sugar cookies. No rolling pin or cookie cutters needed either. They are easy drop cookies that you plop on a baking sheet and stick in a hot oven. Fast and easy. That’s a perfect sugar cookie.
After you mix the batter, roll balls of dough in chocolate sugar then press them onto a baking sheet. They cook into perfect, chocolatey, buttery, soft and chewy sugar cookies. The edges are ever-so-crisp while the center stays perfectly soft.
Grab a glass of milk and go dunk these!
How to make chocolate sugar cookies:
Some sugar cookies take a bit more time than others. For example, cut-out sugar cookies require you to roll out the dough, chill in the refrigerator, cut the dough with cookie cutters and repeat.
Not these cookies. This is a fast and easy cookie recipe and they make the best chocolate sugar cookies around.
Preheat the oven:
Start by preheating your oven. You want to stick the cookies in a HOT oven that gets the cookies baking immediately.
If you bake a lot that might sound like a silly thing for me to say. If your mom taught you how to bake cookies then you already know that the oven has to pre-heat before you start to bake them. But I get a lot of emails that are very enlightening. Yep, not everyone turns the oven on before they stick cookies in the oven.
Prepare the baking sheets:
You can use non-stick spray, parchment paper or silicone baking liners. They all work great to keep your cookies from sticking to the baking sheet.
I personally love using parchment paper. I will prepare a batch of cookie batter on a sheet of parchment while another batch is baking in the oven. When I take the hot cookies out of the oven, I slide them off the baking sheet, then slide on the waiting batch and stick them in the oven.
Cream the butter and sugar:
When you cream the butter with the sugar it is much, much easier to cream if you start with softened butter. It only takes a few minutes to make the butter a soft, fluffy, light texture if you start with softened butter. Do not start with melted butter with this recipe, it will change the texture of the cookies.
Add the eggs:
It is best to start with room temperature eggs because they will blend easier. Add them one at a time and blend thoroughly. The butter mixture may look a bit curdled after you add the eggs but that is completely normal.
Add the dry ingredients:
The dry ingredients should be blended together before you add them to the butter mixture. You can add them to a separate bowl and whisk them together. Alternatively, you could toss them into a sifter that you suspend over the mixing bowl.
When I use the second method, I give the dry ingredients a stir while they sift out into the batter.
Either method works to make sure all the lumps are broken up and the small amounts of salt, baking soda, and baking powder are well incorporated throughout the batter. If you skip this step you could end up with a lump of baking soda or salt that does not get well distributed.
If you want perfect sugar cookies, you need to make sure everything is perfectly blended.
Roll balls of cookie dough in chocolate sugar:
You can roll the sugar cookies in regular ole sugar but these are chocolate sugar cookies so why not make some chocolate sugar?
Add some cocoa powder and sugar to a pie plate and give it a stir. After that grab a cookie scoop and make balls of cookie dough. Roll the balls around in the sugar then place them on the prepared cookie sheet.
The balls of cookie dough will need to be smashed down a bit. I use the bottom of a measuring cup to flatten them. Make sure the cookies are spaced about 1-1/2 inches apart so they have room to spread.
Bake, eat, repeat:
Bake the cookies for about 10 to 14 minutes. All ovens are a bit different so you will have to gauge how long your oven takes to bake the cookies. You can also adjust the cooking time based on how well done you like them.
Bake them a bit longer if you like them extra crispy and a bit less if you like them kind of gooey in the center. I like them soft and chewy in the center and a bit crisp on the edges. Perfect sugar cookies!! Eat them plane or decorate them with cookie icing.
Can you freeze these chocolate sugar cookies?
You can freeze these sugar cookies before OR after they bake. If you freeze them before you bake them I suggest rolling them into balls then coating them in sugar. Place them on a platter or baking sheet and stick them in the freezer.
After the balls of dough are frozen, pop them in a re-sealable freezer bag. Now you have perfect little round balls of frozen sugar cookie dough that are waiting for a hot oven!
If you only want a few cookies, grab a few out of the bag and bake away. You will want to let the balls of cookie soften long enough to flatten them down before you bake them.
Alternatively, you can bake the cookies, then after they cool completely, stick them in a freezer-proof bag to store in the freezer.
Some More Recipes You Will Love:
- These Italian Wedding Cookies are delicious little bite-sized morsels. They are rich and buttery and melt in your mouth. They are definitely a favorite!
- If you’re looking for an amazing, monster-sized chocolate chip cookie, you have to try this recipe for Copycat Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies. They are ooey and gooey in the center and absolutely insane if you eat them warmed up!
- These Crisp Double Chocolate Cookies are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. They taste like a crisp brownie bite from the grocery store, except even better.
- If you like dunking your chocolate bar into the peanut butter jar, you’re going to love these Salted Chocolate-Glazed Peanut Butter Cookies. They are the perfect combination of peanut butter and chocolate. We sprinkled them with some large flakes of crunchy Maldon salt. Perfection!
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Soft Chocolate Sugar Cookies
If you make this recipe, please leave a star rating and comment.
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, 2 sticks, softened
- 2 cups packed dark brown sugar, 420 grams
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 1-⅔ cups all-purpose flour, 200 grams
- 1-¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 100 grams
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
Chocolate Sugar topping:
- ½ cup granulated sugar, 100 grams
- 2 teaspoons cocoa powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Place the butter, brown sugar, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl and beat until smooth and creamy. Beat in the eggs.
- Sift the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, and baking powder over the butter mixture and stir until just barely combined.
- In a separate bowl or pie dish, combine the sugar and cocoa powder.
- Use a large cookie dough scooper to scoop some dough and roll into balls. Roll the balls into the sugar mixture then place on the baking sheet. Make sure you leave 2 inches of space between the cookies. Push the cookies flat to about 1/3 inch thick.
- Bake for 10 to 14 minutes. They will puff up slightly, crack, and look wet in the cracks. Don’t bake them longer or they won’t be soft and chewy.
- Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this recipe? Rate & comment below!
Can you add a tsp. vanilla without ruining the cookie? I do like a little vanilla in my cookies….
Yes, that would work just fine, thanks for your question
These are so good! They are a bit messy but put them in the fridge for about 30 mins and works just fine. They are still a bit sticky for a scoop so use a tablespoon…not a measuring tablespoon. Only chocolate cookie recipe I need.
Thanks for the comment, Marie
Could I use a measuring spoon instead of a cookie scoop and if so what size
Yes, you can make balls of dough about the size of 1-1/2 to 2 tablespoons. Thanks for your question
I made these cookies for the second time. First time I followed the recipe to a T. They were so good. My family loved them. Just made them for the second time and made a minor change to the recipe. Instead of 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract, I used 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon orange extract. The cookie has a hint of orange flavor. So yummy.
That sounds really good with the orange, thanks for the comment Dawn.
Rolling this cookie at all was a nightmare, even with putting oill and water on my hands. I am hoping that putting them in the freezer will allow them to be more manageable
hmmm, it sounds like it might need a bit more flour if it is that difficult to roll
This was a good chocolate cookie but so sticky to roll into balls!
If the dough is too sticky you could get your hands wet or rub them with some oil. Wet or greasy hands won’t stick to the sticky dough 😉
Hello! I am hoping to try this recipe and was wondering about substituting the dark brown sugar for light. Will this work? Should I use a different measurement or add anything else?
Thanks!
That will work just fine, use the same measurement for dark brown or light brown sugar. Thanks for your question
This is the ONLY chocolate cookie recipe you need! I use gluten-free flour (for Mr. Celiac) but there is absolutely no change in taste. A #40 scoop yields 50-2” cookies. Some I made into sandwich cookies with cream cheese frosting to lessen the sweet overload. Thus is a keeper!!
Thanks for the kind comment Cindy. The sandwich cookie sounds amazing!
These are delicious! Thanks for sharing!
Glad you like them Anna, thanks for the comment.
I did everything according to your recipe and instructions. I baked mine 10 minutes and they puffed up as you said. I removed them to the cooling rack and as they cooled, they became really flat. They were crinkled, but flat not with the Brownie-like consistency that yours looks like. What did I do wrong?
Hi Theresa, it sounds like they did what they were supposed to do. They puff up when they are hot but as they cool they flatten out like sugar cookies. They won’t stay puffy like a brownie but they are soft and chewy in the center.