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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

    • Hi Maria,

      I’m not actually sure the dough would be sturdy enough, although I do remember people leaving comments that they had used it to make a “gingerbread” house, and that worked. Please let me know how it goes if you try!

  2. Thank-you for this Marian. Made them yesterday – soooo good rich and buttery and as promised no spreading. Dough was easy to work with. I used Rodelle Dutch dark baking cocoa which gave it a distinct dark chocolate flavor. So yummy. Looking forward to decorating them today.

    Reply

    • Ha ha, I’m sorry Tracy! I did get side tracked, and forgot to reply to you the first time. I use various kinds of cocoa powder, whatever I have on hand, sorry to disappoint and not be specific. I have used Fry’s, Ghirardelli, Hershey’s, Dr. Oetker and Bensdorp. I like all of them!

  7. i made these and they were to sticky to work with. i could barely roll them out let alone cut them out. i tried and i couldn’t get them off the parchment. i followed the recipe to a tee. how did i mess them up?!??

    Reply

    • Hi Aislinn,

      The recipe isn’t sticky and should work, so a few things to consider, measurements might have been off, butter was overly soft working in a warm environment, possibly overmixed. One thing you can do to test any cut out cookie; once you’ve mixed it, pinch a bit of dough between your fingers… if it is soft, but not sticky it’s just right. Also, did you use a kitchen aid mixer? If you did, the dough should peel away from the sides of the bowl and clump around the mixer attachment. Back to the pinch test… if your dough is sticky, while it’s still in the mixer, add 1/4 of flour at a time and mix… test until you get the soft yet not sticky mixture. Hope that helps!

  11. Hi. Absolutely love your work. How do you get this gold color on the unicorn horn? I read that you’ve used gold luster dust with a clear extract. I use gold luster dust ( Wilton pearl dust) not sure if it’s the same thing but it never looks like this!

    Reply

  13. These cookie shapes look great! I’m curious; this recipe does not include baking powder; how is it they don’t bake too flat? Also, to what thickness did you roll out the cookie? Thanks

    Reply

    • Hi Jan,

      That’s right! I don’t include leavening agents in any of my cut out cookie recipes. The cookies still have a nice texture, taste great, and omitting the baking powder ensures the cookies keep their shape better. They are definitely flat, but that’s an ideal surface for cookie decorating.

      If you don’t want to decorate, you can add one teaspoon of baking powder to the recipe. Hope that helps!

    • Hi Pat,
      I omit leavening agent in my cut out cookie recipes, as it helps keep the shapes nice and crisp, and helps prevent spreading. The cookie is still nice and soft on the inside. Hope that helps!

  16. I have made these two years in a row because they are delicious. The only problem is they break very easily, which is disappointing with all the work I do to make them pretty. Any idea why this happens?

    Reply

    • Hi V,
      Bake them longer to make them crisper and more sturdy.
      Do you store them together in containers? As soon as you do that moisture from the cookies contained in an air-tight space makes them softer. Decorate right away or freeze them until you’re ready to decorate. Once thawed, keep them on a cookie sheet, exposed to the air, for an hour or so before decorating.
      You can also try making your shapes thicker.

      Hope that helps!

    • Hi Bec,

      I haven’t tried it, but I imagine it would. Make sure not to put any levening agent in (baking powder or baking soda), and chill it before baking.

  20. Hi! Im sorry if this gets posted twice, my internet was sketchy. Anyways, I made the cookie dough last night and got it in the fridge and then had to leave. I’m not going to be able to make them until tonight, about 22 hours. Do you think they’re still safe to eat? Thanks in advance.

    Reply

  24. Marian, Thank you for this recipe! These cookies always turn out perfectly. I’ve been baking them for a few years now. I roll them out really thin and create sandwich cookies with mint cream in the middle.

    Reply

  26. I think this is the best tasting chocolate cookie recipe! I needed to let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for a couple minutes or else they crumbled when I tried to pick them up with the spatula. I also found that the cookies came out better if I chilled the dough overnight instead of just 1-2 hours.

    Reply

  28. Hi Marian! Thanks for sharing your recipe! I’ve been wanting to make chocolate cookies for a while and would love to try out your recipe. Would you know the ingredients quantities by any chance?

    Love,
    Maria

    Reply

  29. Hi Marian ,
    I am only learning to bake and I never used cup measurement before just wondering how to convert to grams?

    Love your recipes
    Xx
    Aisling

    Reply

  30. I have made these with a patterned rolling pin and they came out great! There wasn’t any distortion in the pattern from spreading. The only downfall is I didn’t want to cover the beautiful pattern with icing! 🙂

    Reply

  32. Could I sub the vanilla for peppermint for a chocolate peppermint Cookie? Would I use the same amount of peppermint as vanilla?

    Reply

  33. What changes would I need to make if I wanted sugar cookies and not chocolate? If I don’t add the cocoa powder do I need to in the flour?

    Reply

  35. My absolute favorite. So delicious. I’ve been making these for years. I love chocolate so I use special dark. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

  36. This is by far my fav choc cookie! Using a good quality cocoa makes all the difference. So rich! These go wonderfully with peanut butter, dulce de leche, white choc/crushed candy canes…so many options so little time! Thanks so much for sharing.

    Reply

  38. Hello!

    These look delicious! I’m just wondering if you use unsweetened or sweetened cocoa powder? I have unsweetened, but wasn’t sure if I’d have to change anything if it’s supposed to be sweetened powder? Thank you!

    Reply

  39. hi!!! so i’ve been making the same sugar cookie recipe for years and it uses baking powder. this is my first time making a chocolate sugar cookie recipe but am wondering what acts as the leavening agent without baking powder or soda?

    thanks so much!!
    Sarah

    Reply

    • Hi Sarah,

      I omit the leavening agent (baking powder or baking soda) as I like my cookies to have sharp edges and not spread too much. Taste is still delicous!

  40. Perfect recipe!! I used a cookie glaze instead of royal icing (I prefer the flavor), and used both vanilla and orange extract in the glaze. The orange vanilla glaze on the soft, rich chocolate cookie was wonderful. Thank you for such well thought out recipes.

    Reply

  42. Hi, was wanting to know if I could use dark Cocos with this recipe. I’m looking for a good cookie recipe to use with dark or black cocoa. Thanks ever so much. Kimberly

    Reply

  43. OMGoodness! This is the yummiest, “funnest”, and easiest cookie dough recipe ever. It is now my fave. I was expecting a dry cookie because of all the cocoa, but it was quite the opposite. The taste was like eating your favorite brownie. The cookie was dense but tender, everything you would want in a chocolate sugar cookie. We made them into gingerbread man cookies that my granddaughter loved decorating, as I knew she would not love gingerbread, but would scream if they weren’t brown(lol). The dough was easy to work and the rollout was amazing. Thanks for all your hard work because it definitely paid off!

    Reply

  44. Wow! These are delicious and ADDICTIVE!! Make sure you have people to share these with if you make them because you will want to devour one after another. Great recipe and so easy to make — even if you don’t bake regularly (like me)! I also recommend checking out the link to the sugar cookie tips. I would not have used my fridge to stage the cookies as suggested (DOES help with spreading) and the silipat mat made the cookies come right off the pan with no sticking.

    Reply

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