Chewy Chocolate Cookies are soft and full of chocolate flavor like your favorite bakery cookie in just 20 minutes and you can add any mix-ins you’d like!
This chewy dark chocolate cookie recipe is just as easy and tasty as my Cake Mix Chocolate Cookies, but made completely from scratch. Chocolate Cookies are sure to be a new favorite Cookie Recipe for your family!
CHOCOLATE COOKIES
Sometimes when my inner chocolate lover comes out, a Chocolate Chip Cookie is simply not enough. You need a cookie that is more chocolaty, more chewy like a bakery cookie.
These chewy Chocolate Cookies are simple, chocolaty goodness, made with unsweetened cocoa powder and butter so you get rich, decadent chocolate down to the last crumb. These Chocolate Cookies are made without chocolate chips or chocolate chunks, but feel free to add them if you like!
Butter makes these Chocolate Cookies extra gooey and chewy. Be sure to allow your butter to come to room temperature, but not melted, for the perfect cookie dough that won’t spread or over bake.
It can be easy to over bake Chocolate Cookies. To bake cookie dough evenly, line use a light baking sheet with parchment paper. A dark cookie sheet heats up faster, so if you don’t have a light one, stack two pans and line the top with parchment paper.
These cookies go great with a cold glass of milk, one dunk and the will be melting in your mouth. Serve them all year round or make them your new favorite cookie for Santa. For decoration, top them with Buttercream Frosting or dust with powdered sugar.
For an extra special treat, we like to turn our Chocolate Cookies into an ice cream sandwich. It’s actually super easy, just takes a little preparation ahead of time. If you make mini cookies, these ice cream sandwiches would make great birthday party treats.
Easy Chocolate Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches
You will need 24 small baked Chocolate Cookies. Allow Vanilla Ice Cream to soften on the counter until it is soft enough to spread but not melted. Place a small Chocolate Cookie in each cup of a 12 cup muffin tin. Using a cookie scoop, top each cookie with a small scoop of ice cream (about 2-3 tablespoons). Press the remaining cookies on top of the ice cream. Freeze for 1-2 hours, until solid.
DELICIOUS COOKIE CLASSICS:
Flourless Chocolate Chewy Cookies
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ginger Cookies
Brown Sugar Cookies
HOW TO MAKE CHOCOLATE COOKIES
- Prepare Batter: Cream together the butter and sugar, then beat in the eggs one at a time and stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt, then mix into the wet ingredients.
- Prepare for Baking: Spoon globs of the dough onto a cookie sheet.
- Bake: Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.
VARIATIONS ON CHOCOLATE COOKIES
- Chocolate Chips: Mix in your favorite kind of chocolate chips, like dark chocolate chips or semisweet chips, to give your cookie bursts of chocolaty flavor. For a creamier bite, try white chocolate chips.
- Chocolate Chunk: Chop up Hershey’s chocolate candy bars into large chunks and stir into your batter. I like to do a mixture of milk chocolate bars and Hershey’s Cookies and Cream bars.
- Peanut Butter: Chocolate and peanut butter taste amazing together. Mix in a handful of peanut butter chips and chopped peanuts for a delicious peanut butter cup flavor.
- Other Mix-ins: For crunch in every bite, mix in chopped walnuts, almonds, or other nuts into this chocolate cookie dough. Some more tasty ideas to mic in are chocolate candy, dried berries, or Marshmallows.
- Brownie Cookies: Use brown sugar to make these more like Brownie Chocolate Cookies. Replace half of the white sugar with brown sugar. For gooey brownie cookies, reduce the butter to 3/4 cup and increase to 3 large eggs.
UNSWEETENED COCOA POWDER: NATURAL VS. DUTCH PROCESS
To get richer dark chocolate color and flavor, use Dutch processed unsweetened cocoa powder. The difference between natural cocoa powder, like Hershey’s or Ghirardelli, and Dutch process is that “Dutched” cocoa powder has been alkalized. Basically this means that the cocoa powder is less acidic and the cocoa is darker. They use Dutch processed cocoa powder in Oreo cookies. If you used Dutch process, swap your baking soda with baking powder.
How to Freeze Chocolate Cookie Dough:
- To freeze unbaked cookie dough, start by rolling your dough into even balls (or use a cookie scoop) and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Freeze in single layer for at least 30 minutes, or until the dough balls are frozen.
- Transfer frozen dough balls to a freezer safe bag or airtight container and freeze for up to 2 months.
- Bake cookies straight from freezer for about 2 minutes longer than normal.
MORE DELICIOUS COOKIE CLASSICS:
Black and White Cookies
Coconut Macaroons
Peanut Butter Blossoms
Hershey’s Kiss Cookies
HOW TO STORE CHOCOLATE COOKIES
- Serve: Chocolate Cookies are okay at room temperature for up to 2 days. Store in an airtight container.
- Store: Keep cookies longer in the refrigerator. Place in a sealed bag or container and store for up to 1 week.
- Freeze: Freeze baked cookies for up to 2 months. Allow cookies to cool completely before putting in a freezer safe bag.
Recipe
Chocolate Cookies
- Yield: 24 cookies
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Course: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
- Author: Sabrina Snyder
Chewy Chocolate Cookies are soft and full of chocolate flavor like your favorite bakery cookie in just 20 minutes and you can add any mix-ins you'd like!
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups butter , softened
- 2 cups white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Instructions
Note: click on times in the instructions to start a kitchen timer while cooking.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth.
Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.
Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until just blended.
Drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven.
Cool for a couple of minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
Nutrition Information
Yield: 24 cookies, Amount per serving: 200 calories, Calories: 200g, Carbohydrates: 26g, Protein: 2g, Fat: 10g, Saturated Fat: 6g, Cholesterol: 39mg, Sodium: 159mg, Potassium: 60mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 17g, Vitamin A: 315g, Calcium: 10g, Iron: 1g
All images and text © for Dinner, then Dessert.
Every one in the house loved these. I used crisco instead of butter. They definitely taste like brownies. Every cookie reminds me of eating the corner piece. I will be making these again. Thank you for sharing.
You’re welcome, Kimberly.
mine came out completely FLAT ?
Oh no! Flat cookies usually means a few different things. It could possibly be that the dough was overbeat. You really only want to beat it until it’s blended, no more. Also, make sure to use room temperature pans and try using a silicone baking mat on them. That also helps to distribute heat while the cookies are the in the oven. I really hope this helps for next time.
I didn’t over beat just until mixed used parchment paper
I think 11/4 c butter too much No semblance of a cookie Batter all ran together into a bib flat shee
I made these tonight with York Peppermint Patties in the middle, and they didn’t work out. I don’t know what went wrong! The dough was really sticky, so I added more flour. But it was difficult to work with, and the cookies have white peppermint oozing out the sides. That’s never happened to me before with other recipes? I did everything the recipe said.
This recipe doesn’t have enough flour to support being stuffed.
These are delicious! Everyone raved about them. I just added walnuts and increased the baking time because we live over 5000 ft.
Thanks for the 5 stars, Debi. I’m so glad they were a hit.
I’ve made these before with the specified amount of butter (though I substituted it with margarine) and then I made them with the reviewer suggested half a cup. The latter came out super dry. Don’t be stingy – use the specified amount.
can this recipe be adjusted for high altitudes (over 5,000 ft.)?
It can but I am not an expert on that, sorry. I’m sure you can find an online resource that could help make those adjustments. Good luck!
I made these with what I had in my kitchen so I had to substitute some ingredients. Instead of white sugar I used coconut sugar and maple syrup and instead of cow butter I used oat butter. And since I used dutch chocolate I used baking powder as directed. I also added a bit of cinnamon. They came out AMAZING! Everyone in my house can’t get enough of them. Thanks for getting me started with this great recipe! ?
I’m so glad you were able to use what you had on hand. Thanks for all of the suggestions, Pamela.
Made these and added a little peppermint extract, crushed peppermint stick, and rough chopped dark chocolate and they were divine
Claire, thank you for posting your cookie add ins. What you made is what I was planning to do. I specifically came to the comments looking to see if anyone else tried peppermint and how it turned out.
Thank you!
wut duh hek 2 cups of flour and sugar?!!!
Cookies gotta cookie. Its for 24 good sized ones so its like 4 teaspoons of each per cookie. Happy Thanksgiving!
Is butter or margarine used. Recipe calls for butter. Instructions call for margarine????
Thank you for catching that misprint. You should use butter for this recipe. I hope you enjoy them.
Made these for friends today, following suggestions of others in the comments. Used 1 stick of butter (1/2 c), 1 cup of sugar, added 3/4 c dark chocolate chips and they were terrific. They were not too sweet but I prefer a rich chocolate flavor as opposed to an overly sugary cookie. Sprinkled powdered sugar which was pretty. Great, super simple and quick recipe I highly recommend.
These are delicious! Highly recommend! I reduced butter to 3/4 cup and it worked great. Thanks for sharing this recipe! I plan to make again and again with all kinds of add-ins.
These are AMAZING!!! My family and I finished them in 2 days, they are so delicious. Definitely making these again sometime!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them, Sam. Thanks for the 5 stars.
They’re ok. Mixture is pretty runny.
1/2 cup of butter works better!
Hello there, so I followed this recipe accordingly the only thing I did differently was instead of using the required amount of butter I went ahead and followed what others were saying in the comments which was to use only 1/2 cup of butter rather than the 3 sticks. Other than that I have to say this recipe is surprisingly easy and the cookies taste amazing!
So glad you enjoyed them!
I love these cookies! They are amazing. My family loves them. I did add chocolate chips in them, its super good. Thanks for sharing this recipe
You’re welcome, Rose.
Came out lovely! Really yummy and exactly what I wanted.
Thanks for the 5 stars, Jenine!
These cookies are really yummy – my granddaughter and I made them today. She said they were the best cookies she ever ate. We did follow one of the comments and only used 1/2 cup of butter. Terrific texture and flavor.
I’m glad you both enjoyed them, Sharon. Thanks for the 5 star rating.
Cookies were delicious and super easy to make!
Thanks for coming back to let me know you enjoyed them, Jolyn.
I made these today and they are brilliant! I halved the recipe, and increased cocoa. They were devoured in no time 🙂
So glad you enjoyed them!
OMG!!! These are absolutely FAB cookies using 1/2c granulated sugar & 1.5c packed dark brown sugar, so I knooooow they are even more FAB made as written!!! I gently rolled each into quarter sized balls which resulted in nearly perfectly rounded edges, baked for 12 mins & topped some with a dusting of powdered sugar! My neighbor friends REALLY enjoyed them almost as much as I did!!
THANK YOU for this perfect chocolate cookie recipe (can’t wait to try it with chopped walnuts)!!
Why is everyone reducing the butter? Would you recommend that?
I just made these and it was extremely easy and didn’t take a lot of ingredients. I did lower the amount of butter as one reviewer did. I think next time i may go with a tad less sugar but all in all they turned out great. Thanks for the recipe.
I halved the recipe, and it turned out perfect!! I love recipes like these that don’t have a lot of ingredients, and the end result is a very yummy cookie!! Thank you!!
Thanks, Hunter. So glad you enjoyed them.
Heyo! Just out of curiosity, by “Halved the ingredients” do you mean that you divided ALL of the ingredients by 2? Or just some? Thanks!
This was one of the best chocolate cookies ever!! However the first time I made them the 1 1/4 cup of butter was too much so the second time around I added only 1/2 a cup and it worked perfectly didn’t change anything else though! Look exactly like the picture.
So glad you enjoyed them!
I added an egg as suggested for a brownie cookie consistency. Added peanut butter chips. They are outstanding. Thank you for this recipe.
Thanks for letting me know, Melissa.
I like how easy chocolate cake cookies are, but I like how these taste so much better! Delicious! And, really, they’re not THAT hard! Definitely worth it! My family loves these.
So glad you enjoyed them.
Give me all the chocolate cookies! The whole family loved these!
You really can’t go wrong with chocolate.
Absolutely delicious! Added dark chocolate chips and chopped almonds, one of the best cookies I’ve ever had.
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
I love this super simple chocolate cookie recipe!
So glad you enjoyed them, Sarah. Thanks for the 5 stars.
I luv the chocolate cookies but want to incorporate and make orange chocolate ricotta cookies can I add these new ingredients…help pls…
I haven’t tested it with those ingredients. I’ll have to add it to my research. Thanks for the suggestion.