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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!
Table of Contents
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.
We made these for our cookie decorating party, and they turned out wonderful! Everyone loved the subtle hint of coffee and the chocolate option in addition to regular sugar cookies. I chilled the dough, then rolled it out very thin, then chilled again before baking. They held their shapes very well. Everyone ate the cookies as they decorated so there are no pictures, oops!
Yay, so glad they were a hit at your party!! Love the idea of giving both regular and chocolate sugar cookie options for decorating. So thoughtful!
These are AMAZING!!! I made them this morning for my husband’s work cookie exchange. They turned out so pretty and the center of the cookie is delicious!!!! Thanks for posting these for us.
Aww, so happy you like them!! I hope all of your husband’s coworkers love them too! Thank you!!
Love these cookies! The coffee really enhances the taste and they’re really easy to make, which is a huge plus!!
Thank you! So glad you liked them and found them easy to make!!
Love this delicious and easy cookie! It has great chocolate flavor and the little bit of espresso powder really amps it up! It was a perfect addition to my cookie trays this year!
Yay! So happy you liked the recipe!! Thanks!
Hello, I was just wondering if you could make the batter ahead of time and freeze it instead of baking it right away?
I haven’t tried this myself yet but I think it would work well. Please let me know how it turns out if you end up trying it!
I had family over this evening for dinner and I made these for dessert. They were A M A Z I N G! They came out just like the recipe says: crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. I was a little worried because I decided not to add the coffee or espresso but no need…:they were DELICIOUS! The recipe was easy to follow, and the tips helped make the perfect cookie! We always bake with my mom for Christmas and I’m definitely adding these.
Aww, thank you!! So happy you and your family liked them! I hope you enjoy baking the second round with your mom—how fun!!
Made these super yummy chocolate sugar cookies today! Any tips on how to achieve that puffier look as shown in the pictures?! While mine turned out delicious, they were a little flatter & more spread out, thank you for a great recipe! It’s a keeper!
Hi Beth, it’s possible your butter melted too much. If the butter is too soft, it can cause the cookies to spread out as they bake. They could also be flat from overmixing—if you beat the butter and sugar for too long, it can cause air bubbles that quickly rise when heated and then collapse.