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Chocolate Sugar Cookie Recipe {Cut Out Cookies}

 

This new recipe has been a looong time coming, and I’m so excited to share it with you! Batches and batches of experimentation – playing with flour and delicious cocoa powder amounts, some input from readers over the years (especially Marina who tried a similar version of my sugar cookies – thank you!), and finally, the yummiest chocolate sugar cookie recipe!

I was happy to put the final touches on the recipe for Go Bold With Butter, a must-see baking and savoury recipe resource for those serious about all-natural ingredients and excellent buttery taste. You can find my chocolate sugar cookie recipe here as well, and enjoy all the other mouth watering recipes there!

I have a few notes to share with you about baking cookies in general as well:

Notes:

  • One of the reasons I experimented with this recipe so much, is that I wanted to find the best ratio of butter to flour etc., to create the perfect cut out cookie which holds its shape. This one definitely does, but no matter what recipe you use, these tips on how to prevent cookies from spreading are important to know.
  • Use the best quality ingredients you can. The cocoa powder will make a big difference in the final taste of your cookies.

Enjoy baking and nibbling on decorating these!

xo,

Marian

Print Recipe

Chocolate Sugar Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

  • 2 cups unsalted butter (at room temperature)
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 3 tsp vanilla extract
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp salt

Instructions

  • Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer on low to medium speed (Use a paddle attachment). Mix until thoroughly incorporated – for about one minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a plastic spatula and mix again for a few seconds more. Over mixing the butter and sugar in this step will cause too much air to be incorporated into the dough. If you’d like a light and fluffy cookie, that’s ideal, however the dough will spread more during baking; not ideal if you’d like the cookie to hold its shape.
  • Add eggs slowly and mix. Scrape down the bowl with your spatula at least once and mix again.
  • Add liquid vanilla extract. Stir briefly.
  • Sift your dry ingredients together. (Flour, cocoa powder and salt).
  • Add all of the flour mixture to the bowl. Place a large tea towel or two small tea towels between the edge of the bowl and the electric mixer so that the flour won’t escape. Mix on low speed for 3o seconds. Remove the tea towels and observe the dough mixing; when it clumps around the paddle attachment it’s ready. It’s also important at this stage not to over mix the dough.
  • Roll the dough out between 2 large pieces of parchment paper. Place on a baking sheet and into the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour.
  • Roll out the dough further if you need to, and cut out cookie shapes. Place on parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Re-roll scraps and repeat.
  • Put cookie dough shapes back into the fridge for 10 minutes to 1 hour to chill again. They will then hold their shape better when baked.
  • Preheat your oven to 350°F or 176°C.
  • Bake cookies for 8-12 minutes or until the center of the cookie no longer looks wet. The baking time will depend on the size of your cookie.
  • Let cookies cool to room temperature and decorate!

Notes

Yield: Approx. 35 medium sized cookies

Don’t miss out!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. thanks for this recipe, I do have to ask… looking over your site you state you typically roll dough out to 3/4cm-1c m (about 1/4in to just under 1/2in) These look at least 1/4in to me and you still get out about 30+ cookies with a 3-3.5 inch cutter? and by the way I will be trying these and your tips on spreading… Thanks so much.

    -Jeff

    Reply

    • Hi Jeff,
      Was that you on Facebook mentioning you made them? How did it go? It makes quite a few doesn’t it?

  3. Thank you! I’ve been searching endlessly for a good chocolate cut-out recipe!

    Do you have a go-to brand of cocoa powder that you would recommend?

    Reply

    • Hi Melissa,
      There are quite a few excellent ones out there, but the most readily available to where I live, at the best quality I could find locally, was Ghirardelli.

  8. Hi Miriam,

    I am your #1 fun in Argentina! Thank you for sharing these yummy recipes!!

    May you have a merry Christmas and a happy new year! 😀

    Virginia

    Reply

    • HI Sebby,
      I’ve left the option in, in brackets, and have always had the tip to take out the baking powder in the notes.

  14. Oh, I’m excited to try these! Are the firm enough to be made into a house? (Similar to a gingerbread house but made of sugar cookies) Thanks for sharing 😀

    Reply

    • Hi Cilitra,
      You could bake them longer to make the cookie firmer, but I think it would dry them out a bit, sorry! xo

  15. I’ve been meaning to print out ur sugar cookie recipe & royal icing recipe. My sister is coming up for Christmas and I wanted to make pretty cookies for her. Thank goodness I waited. Since we are both chocoholics I will use this recipe instead. Thank you for all your hard work in helping us make pretty cookies.

    Reply

  16. Was waiting for this and I think that I will try this out for New Years. Since I prefer to cook my cookies on a silpat I have been rolling them out on a silicone sheet and then with a spatula that has been cooling in the freezer I am able to easily lift them up for the transfer without losing the shape. This worked well especially for my moose cookies whose legs were long and spindly.
    Merry, merry to you and yours

    Reply

  19. I’d like to say thank you for so generously sharing your recipes.
    My daughter loves choc sugar cookies & I will make them for her for Christmas.
    Thanks again & Merry Christmas! 🙂

    Reply

  21. Your recipe does not have baking powder! I must must try these out!
    I know its probably not a big deal but could you also provide measurements in terms of weight? What type of sugar – white only or brown works as well? please?

    Reply

  23. These look good! Do you think it would work if I switched half the cocoa for the black cocoa from KA Flour? I love that stuff.

    Thanks!

    Reply

  24. These cookies look so good. I’m going to try making them. What can I use instead of eggs if I don’t have the egg Ener-G egg replacer? My niece is allergic to eggs.

    Reply

    • I always use a mix of cornflour and water/your choice of milk, on a ratio of 1/2 cup water + 1 tbsp cornflour = 2 eggs. I got it from the Vegan Cookie Connoisseur book. Just combine the cornflour with the water or milk and heat for short bursts in the microwave until it gets gloopy. Leave to cool to room temperature, then use.

  25. Marian CookieQueenExtraordinaire,
    thanks for sharing the chocolate recipe. Your cookies are beautiful and I love the idea of something other than the butter……..chocolate makes everything better! <3
    Hugs,Patti

    Reply

  28. Hello Marian,

    Thank you for the recipe. These cookies look amazing!! Can you freeze the baked cookies? How long would the baked cookies last in room temperature?

    Thanks so much. Merry Christmas.

    Reply

  31. Hi Marian!

    I’ve just discovered your site ~ super excited! Thanks for sharing the way you do!!

    My daughter (Lilly)and I are planning on making your gingerbread house today, but no-one in the family is overly keen on the taste of ginger…. Lilly had the brain wave of using cookie dough and then I stumbled on this awesome recipe of yours… do you think it would work? We may just jump right in and give it a bash… I’ll let you know how it turns out!

    Thanks again and have a wonderful evening 😀

    Reply

  32. Mhmmm chocolate cookies!
    They look so perfect, Marian! 🙂

    It is so helpful you get a recipe online where someone *you* really experimented and chances are big that everybody will be able to make such beautiful cookies, like yours 🙂

    Thanks for sharing,
    xoxo..niner 🙂

    Reply

  33. Thanks so much for the recipe Marian. I need some help though. Do you have any cookie recipes at all that do not use eggs? How would this one be without eggs?

    Reply

    • Hi Elodie,
      I haven’t tried that with the recipe combination, so I’m not 100% sure. It might be more moist than the powder and you might need more flour. Let me know if you try it, how it goes!

    • I made a smaller batch of these tonight – they mix up great, roll great, cut great, look great, taste great… and don’t spread! Can’t do much better than that!

    • Sorry, I managed to reply to you rather than add a new comment (but the answer to your question is use plain flour – I’m not sure if Americans even have self-raising as I’ve never seen it listed in recipes).

    • Hi Kit,
      Plain flour, for sure. I don’t use leavening agent in these cookies so they keep their shape better.

    • Julianne, thanks again for helping out! I really appreciate it!!

      I’m in Canada and we do have self-raising flour (not sure if the U.S. does), but I don’t use it in my cookies as leavening agent makes them spread a bit.

  36. hi Marian,
    great looking cookies… I got to try the recipe.Your shaps stay so perfect. Hope it works for me too.
    ML

    Reply

    • Thanks Maria Theresia!

      Hi Amanda,
      Yes, you can make it in advance and store it in the fridge for a day or so, but if you’d like to leave it longer, just put it in the freezer until you’re ready. Hope that helps!

  40. Thanks so much for the recipe, made it today and OMG they were devine! Had to convert to metric and all worked out perfect, so much yummier than the recipe I was using.

    Reply

  41. Hi Marian !

    The cookies look so pretty & perfect ! Love the dark brown color, going to look for a US supermarket to find the brute (sound so funny !) cacao described above…our supermarkets only sell very light brown unsweetened cacao, and even with brown sugar instead of white sugar, they never get the beautiful dark brown color ! Thank you !

    Have a very merry X-Mas and a SWEET 2014 !
    XO Debbie

    Reply

  42. Hi Marian,
    I can’t wait to try this recipe!
    Is it ok to double this recipe and also make half a batch if needed?

    Thanks Marian!
    Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy New Year!!!!!

    Reply

    • Hi Milena D,
      I actually haven’t tried that yet! Did you end up trying it? I think it should be fine, but please let me know. xo

    • I made a half batch. Worked fine as far as I can tell – except my own slip-up with using dark cocoa instead of regular!

  43. I still need to know more about my oven… I tryed and some stayed a little raw, and then, when I left few more minutes, they were toasted. But anyway the taste was deliciouuus!

    Reply

  44. Fantastic recipe! I’m so happy to have found this chocolate cutout cookie! The deep chocolate flavor is wonderful and the cookies keep their shape fabulously! I know the kids will enjoy having these for Christmas and I plan to use these to make ice cream sandwiches later in the year, too. I can’t say enough about these cookies. Thanks for creating this keeper.

    Reply

  45. I doubled this recipe today and these cookies came out super great. The dough was easy to work with and tastes so yummy. This is my new go to recipe for chocolate cut outs, So delicious!!! Thank you for posting this.

    Reply

  46. HI! i love the website and i am eager to try these recipe! i have a question about the cocoa powder. do I need pure cocoa powder (like the Hersey brand) or can i use the Ducht style cocoa powder?

    Reply

  48. I just made your recipe for our cookie house at Christmas. I am allergic to gingerbread, so no gingerbread houses for us. I wanted it to look like gingerbread (dark color) so I looked for a well-rated chocolate cut-out cookie recipe and stumbled upon yours.

    It is WONDERFUL. Thank you so much! The dough was super easy to work with, kept its shape beautifully, and the cookies were soft and dense (how I like them) rather than cake-like or hard/crispy. The chocolate flavor was intense, and I thought they tasted even chocolatier the second day. They held up well for our house and for royal icing.

    This is definitely a keeper. I have already shared it with a few friends and posted it to my “Pin WIN” board on Pinterest. 🙂 Thanks again!

    Reply

    • Hi Anjea!

      Oh that’s so wonderful to hear that the recipe worked out for your “ginger”bread house! Thank you so much for sharing! xo

  49. Eek! Your site is too adorable! The gingerbread image is very cute and seems fitting for your material. There are sooo many recipes I’d like to try on your site. I <3 desserts.

    Keep up the great work! 🙂

    ~Stephanie

    Reply

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