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To me, sugar cookies are the ultimate holiday cookie. They’re soft, chewy, rich, and easy to make. These Chocolate Sugar Cookies take it up a notch! They call for cocoa powder and instant coffee, which enhances the cookies’ chocolate flavor. However, they still have that crunchy sugary exterior the classic cookie’s known for!
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These easy chocolate sugar cookies start like most other cookies: creaming butter and sugar until they’re light and fluffy, then adding the dry ingredients and mixing until a dough forms. The rest of the recipe is simple too! Unlike cut-out sugar cookies that have to rest in the fridge and then be rolled out, these are chocolate sugar cookies no chill! That means after making the dough, you just have to portion it into balls, roll in sugar, and bake. These cookies are so chewy and delicious!
This recipe is part of our monthly Cooking Challenge for December 2024!
Recipe At a Glance
Cuisine Inspiration: American
Primary Cooking Method: Oven
Dietary Info: Vegetarian
Key Flavor: Chocolate, vanilla, and sugar
Skill Level: Easy
Why This Is So Good
- Fast: Because these cookies require zero chilling, they’re ready in less than 30 minutes.
- Easy technique: These chocolate sugar cookies call for just scooping, rolling, dropping them on the baking sheet, and baking. There’s no need to break out a rolling pin or cookie cutouts!
- Simple chocolate flavor: Instead of melted chocolate (or even chocolate chips), these cookies use cocoa powder, which easily adds chocolate flavor to each bite.
Ingredients to Make Chocolate Sugar Cookies
- All-purpose flour: This adds structure, allowing the cookies to easily bake up and not fall apart. Just swap the all-purpose flour for a gluten-free blend.
- Cocoa powder: You can use regular or Dutch-processed cocoa powder. If you go with the latter, the cookies will be darker and have a fudgier texture.
- Baking powder: This helps the chocolate sugar cookies soft rise and spread.
- Unsalted butter: I like to use unsalted butter to control the final amount of salt in the recipe!
- Granulated sugar: You’ll use this in the cookies and to coat them. To make the cookies even chewier, you can use dark brown sugar in place of the granulated sugar in the cookies (but not the coating!).
- Instant coffee or espresso powder: This is optional, but it doesn’t make the cookies taste like coffee! Instead, it just enhaces the chocolate flavor.
- Egg: I like to use a room temperature egg so it’s easier to mix into the rest of the ingredients.
- Vanilla: If you’re a fan of vanilla, you can double the amount of extract the recipe calls for.
Popular Substitutions & Additions
- Add a little heat. Sprinkle a bit of dried cayenne into the dry ingredients for a sweet-spicy treat.
- Add spices. Nutmeg, cinnamon, or cardamom would all be delicious and compliment the chocolate so well.
How to Make Chocolate Sugar Cookies
If you’ve baked before, making these chocolate sugar cookies will be familiar! I actually really love rolling the cookies in the sugar, too—it makes them look all sparkly.
Tips for Making the Best Chocolate Sugar Cookies with Cocoa Powder
- Start with softened not room temperature butter. Softened butter will easily and more quickly mix with the sugar. I also find that softening butter takes less planning ahead than waiting hours for butter to come to room temperature!
- Use a parchment-lined baking sheet. This will allow the cookies to come off of the baking sheet easily! Don’t try to just grease the baking sheet—the cookies are likely to stick and brown too much.
- Make sure the cookies are evenly sized. This will ensure they bake at the same speed! I like to use a portion scoop, so I know every single ball has the same amount of dough.
- Let the baked cookies cool on the baking sheet first. The residual heat of the pan will help the cookies cook a bit more and set so they won’t fall apart when you transfer them to a cooling rack!
Frequently Asked Questions
I recommend storing these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days!
Yes! You absolutely can. A hand mixer might take a little longer to properly cream and mix the ingredients, but it’ll work fine.
When the cookies are fully baked, they will puff up in the center and be set around the edges. However, they should still be soft! The cookies will continue to set as they cool, so you want to avoid overbaking.
More Cookie Recipes:
- Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
- Blueberry Cookies
- Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies
- Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
- Christmas Sugar Cookies
- Pecan Snowball Cookies
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Gingerbread Cookies
- Lofthouse Sugar Cookies
- Peanut Butter Blossoms
If you try this feel good Chocolate Sugar Cookies recipe or any other recipe on Feel Good Foodie, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave a comment below! It helps others who are thinking of making the recipe. We would love to hear about your experience making it. And if you snapped some shots, share it on Instagram so we can repost on Stories!
Chocolate Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar divided
- 1 tablespoon instant coffee or espresso powder, optional
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add softened butter, 1 cup of the sugar, and instant coffee. Cream the butter, sugar, and coffee on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add the egg and vanilla. Continue mixing for another 2-3 minutes to combine well.
- Add the flour mixture gradually, mixing until just combined and no flour streak remains.
- Pour the remaining 2 tablespoons of the sugar into a small bowl.
- Using a 1.5 tablespoon-size spring loaded cookie scoop, scoop 9 dough balls on each prepared baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Gently roll into even balls, then coat each in the sugar.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the cookies puff in the middle and set around the edges. Allow cookies to cool for 1 minute on the cookie sheet and transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information provided is an estimate. It will vary based on cooking method and specific ingredients used.
These were so easy and delicious! Will be making them a lot!
Yay, so glad you liked them!! Thank you, Gail!
So yummy! The perfect amount of chocolate goodness.
Yay! So happy you liked them, Amber!
These look so festive! Bet they’re incredibly delicious, too!
They are! I hope you’ll try them!
I finally made these today! I have to admit it was a challenge since I do not own a mixer. I used a good ole spatula and my hands. I also measured with my heart for the 1.5 tsp balls at the end. They are sooo good! I absolutely love them! I wish I could post a picture! I’ll tag y’all on it! My new favorite cookie!
Aww, that makes me so happy to hear!! Thank you, Patricia!
I’d love to try this recipe! I’ve never been a huge sugar cookie fan, but add in some chocolate and I’m here for it. I wonder if it has the same rich taste as a chocolate chip cookie?
Yay, I hope you’ll try it!! They are very rich thanks to the cocoa powder and coffee. Enjoy!
What a delicious cookie! Soft and chewy and so chocolatey. I will make them again, and add a small amount of heat with a dash of cayenne pepper and maybe a little cinnamon.
SO GOOD!
Oooh yum, love the idea of a little kick with cayenne! Thanks for the inspiration, Betty! So happy you liked the cookies!!
This recipe is a keeper. I wasn’t sure the kids would like the coffee flavor but they did! So did the adults.
Aww, so glad adults and kids all loved them! Yay!! Thank you!
I made a batch of these cookies and they tasted amazing. They were perfectly gooey on the inside and rich with chocolate flavor. The batch of cookies that I made were flatter than what you’ve shown but they were a hit and disappeared in no time! Will make again.
Yay, so happy everyone loved them!! Thanks so much, Mike!
I made these gluten free using Bob’s Red Mill GF flour. They are soft and crispy, and the coffee gives them the perfect kick.
Yay!! So happy you liked them, Amy! I’m glad they worked with gluten-free flour, that’s great news!! Thanks!
Love this recipe. It tastes so good and super easy to make. My 12 and 10 years old kids made it on their own! Thanks for not letting them down 🙂
Aww, that makes me so happy!! Thank you, Racelle! So glad you all loved it!!