This is the easiest recipe for chocolate sugar cookies that exists! The dough does NOT have to be chilled and the cookies taste wonderful. These are cookies you can actually enjoy making with kids and I’ve included a great buttercream frosting recipe to decorate with!
Last December a reader named Kira wrote me and asked about a easy chocolate sugar cookie she could roll out and decorate with little kids. At the time I had no idea what to tell her. I had never eaten or baked chocolate sugar cookies. (I know, kinda crazy but there are a lot of amazing cookies in the world and I have not gotten to all of them yet!
When readers ask me for recipes I love to see what I can pull off. This year I started playing around in the kitchen and tweaked my original no chill sugar cookie recipe to make a chocolate version!!! As you can see, the results are beautiful.
These cookies are less of a sweet milk chocolate flavor and more of a dark chocolate flavor. I like them best frosted with a sweet vanilla buttercream because it perfectly balances the cookies. However, if you enjoy less sweet dark chocolate these would be perfect unfrosted for coffee dipping!
Kira, I hope you and your children enjoy making these this Christmas season!
Have a great week. Thanks for stopping by to cook with me!
My Favorite Cookie Making Equipment:
This rolling pin takes the guess work out of getting all your cookies the same thickness. It is well constructed and costs less than $20. It was my favorite new kitchen item in 2016 and I’m still loving it in 2017.
Using a quality cookie cutter will make a difference both in how easy it is to cut out cookies and how good they look afterwords. I personally dislike the plastic Wilton cutters because they have blunt cutting edges. Look for cutters with an easy grip system such as handles and a sharp cutting edge either plastic or metal. I tried some by plastic cutters like this by Sweet Creations and was impressed.
I love this Side Swipe for many baking projects. It does a great job of mixing dough together. I just toss it in the dishwasher afterwords so clean up is easy. Unfortunately it has become more expensive recently.
Parchment Paper is a baker’s best friend! I use it to roll out he cookies and line my baking sheets. In my experience all brands are created equal. This is the one I use, bought at Costco in a two pack (I use a LOT of it).
Every kitchen that bakes needs two or four quality cookie sheets (I’m a frequent baker and wish I had six!) A quality baking sheet helps create better results where a cheep baking sheet will give you problems. I love these sturdy ones from Calphalon. They are non stick and dishwasher safe.
I like these Calphalon cookie racks. Again, they are very sturdy and hold up well year after year. Most households need two. Serious bakers might like to have four. (And again I’m eyeing a few more since my level of baking is total insanity land.)
Looking for my regular No Chill Sugar Cookies? Her ya go!
Perfect No Chill Chocolate Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup granulated white sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp. almond extract
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup baking cocoa such as Hershy’s
Instructions
-
Please read the notes section at the end of this recipe before beginning.
-
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
-
In the bowl of a stand mixer use the paddle attachment to beat the butter and sugar together at medium-high speed for 1 minute.
-
On medium speed, beat in the egg, vanilla, almond extract, baking powder and salt.
-
Measure the flour correctly (see note) and add to the mixer 1 cup at a time, beating until combined after each addition. Add the baking cocoa and beat again until combined.
-
Don't chill the dough!!! Divide it into two balls and roll out to exactly 1/4" thick on a clean piece of parchment paper using just enough flour on your rolling pin to prevent sticking. (I suggest a rolling pin with measuring disks.) Because you are not using much flour to roll the dough out you can continue to roll it out as many times as needed until all the extra is used up.
-
Line cookie sheets with clean parchment paper space out cookies on sheets with enough room to rise. Bake at 350F for 6-8 minutes until the cookies start to look set.
-
As each pan of cookies is done I recommend gently lifting the parchment paper holding the cookies out of the pan and setting it on a cooling rack or allowing cookies to cool on baking sheets. Do not disturb the cookies until cool and set.
Recipe Notes
How to Measure Flour: Too much or too little flour makes bad cookies. The correct way to measure flour is to spoon it into the measuring cup and then use the flat edge of a knife to level the cup. This ensures exact measuring.
Saving Dough For Later: Yes, you can refrigerate the dough and roll it out later. You will need to knead the dough a bit until it becomes softer or allow it to come up in temperature by leaving it on the counter for about 20 minutes.
Rolling Out Dough: I have tried multiple ways of doing this. My favorite is to lay a piece of parchment paper on the counter and roll the cookies out on that. You do not need to flour the paper but will need to lightly flour your rolling pin / the top of the cookie dough. You can use the same piece of paper for the entire batch of dough. When you are done just discard the paper!
Freezing Cookies: These generally freeze well for short periods. If you want to freeze them seal them up as soon as they have cooled.
Buttercream Frosting for Decorating
Ingredients
- 2 cups salted butter softened
- 2 pounds of powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup heavy cream (or whipping cream)
- 1 Tbsp. real vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp. salt
Instructions
-
n the bowl of a stand mixer with the whip attached beat butter until creamy. Add powdered sugar and beat on slow speed until incorporated. This is a good time to use a shield or throw a towel over the mixer.
-
Add the cream, vanilla and salt. Beat on low speed until combined and then beat on medium-high speed for two - three minutes. The frosting will be fluffy and light. Taste for salt and vanilla if desired.
-
Use at room temperature to frost cookies by spreading or piping.
-
Leftovers can be saved in the fridge for a month of frozen for long term storage. This stuff is always great to have around!
Free Simple Weeknight Meal Plan!
Sign up here for your free plan and start rocking dinner!
Free Simple Weeknight Meal Plan
Sign up here for your free plan and start rocking dinner!
Glad i found chocolate cut out recipe. Brings back memories when my grandmother made them and frosted them….soooooo good. Have her recipe but unfortunately back than they didn’t use measurements and eyeballed ingredients. I do remember in her recipe she used baking chocolate but Hershey cocoa is a winner. I wanted to ask you about cream listed in your recipe, is this whipping cream, heavy cream or regular cream/half-half? Thankks
Oh Denise! You made my day. It is always wonderful to find a recipe that brings back special memories of family. I’m honored to get to be a part of this! I have many old recipes where the measurements were not quite exact and they can be a real adventure to try to make today. For the frosting in this recipe I usually use heavy whipping cream because it is what I keep on hand. You could use cream or half and half if you like and should have a good result. My mom just used milk in her buttercream but I find that using a heavy cream helps create a buttercream that stands up well. My mom just wanted something that tasted like heaven where I’m trying to make the cookies pretty too 🙂
Your other cookie recipe is my favorite, but I live in a house of chocoholics! Thankful for this recipe – turned out great! Gingerbreadmen, but chocolate. Love it!
I’m partial to the regular sugar cookies myself but the chocolate ones are so pretty and as you say – chocoholics surround us! Thanks for popping in to tell me you liked it. Hope the rest of your holiday season was lovely!