Chocolate Sugar Cookies are soft, rich and perfect for cutting out shapes and making holiday cookies. Easy chocolate sugar cookie recipe that is absolutely delicious!
It’s tradition in our house to make sugar cookies for all the major holidays, but this is the first time we’ve made chocolate sugar cookies. Totally different flavor from traditional sugar cookies, but it’s a good different! The cookie dough rolls out easily and the cookies hold their shape perfectly when baked. Perfect cookies for Valentine’s Day when frosted with pink frosting and sprinkles!
TIPS FOR MAKING THE BEST SUGAR COOKIES
- Sugar cookie dough is sticky, but once it’s sufficiently chilled, it’s much more workable. Resist the urge to add more flour to the dough before chilling! If you add too much flour, the ratio of wet to dry ingredients is off and the cookies end up drier and more crumbly.
- Do not melt the butter! The butter needs to be softened (at room temperature). Using melted butter will ruin the cookies.
- Spend a little extra time when you mix the butter and sugars. Creaming them together for 2-3 minutes will improve the consistency of your cookies.
- Preheat the oven. This will help your cookies turn out right every time!
- Use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Doing this will make it really easy to remove the cookies from your cookie sheet so that you don’t have to scrape them off the pan. They will just slide right off in perfect shape!
- Make sure that you don’t roll out the dough too thin before cutting your sugar cookies out. You want the dough to be about 1/4″ thick. If the dough is too thin, your cookies will be crispy and hard and easily breakable. But if the dough is too thick, the cookies may not bake all the way through the middle.
- Make sure not to over bake your cookies. It’s really hard to tell when chocolate sugar cookies are done, because you can’t see when they barely begin to brown like you can with regular sugar cookies.
Ingredients in Chocolate Sugar Cookies
-Sugar: Can’t leave this one out – kind of an important ingredient in sugar cookies!
-Eggs: The eggs to help bind the dough together so that the cookies cook properly and don’t crumble.
-Vanilla extract: I suggest using a good quality vanilla extract or a Vanilla Bean Paste.
-Flour: I usually use all purpose flour, but you can use bread flour, or even pastry flour in this recipe.
-Salt: Adds just that little bit of extra flavor to the cookies.
-Cocoa: 3/4 cup baking cocoa
-Baking powder: Leavening agent in the cookies. Make sure your baking powder isn’t old or expired for best results.
Frosting:
-Butter: Again, I use salted butter, but you can use unsalted if you prefer. No margarine!
-Cream cheese: Can use regular cream cheese or a low-fat or non-fat variety.
-Powdered sugar: Gives us that thick frosting texture packed with sweetness and smooth creamy results. Yum!
-Milk: You can use almond milk, coconut milk or cashew milk in place of cow’s milk. You can make the frosting a little thicker or thinner based on how much milk you add.
-Food coloring and sprinkles – Gotta have this to make them pretty!
How to make Chocolate Sugar Cookies
Preheat oven to 375°.
Cream butter and sugar for at least 2-3 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well for another 2 minutes.
Add dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours.
Roll out on a floured surface and cut into shapes. I like soft and thick cookies so I roll out the dough to be about 5/8″-1/4″ thick.
Bake cookies on a cookie sheet for about 8-9 minutes. Cool for about 10 minutes on the cookie sheet and then place on a wire rack to cool completely.
Mix frosting ingredients together, beat until smooth. Frost the cooled cookies and store in an airtight container.
HOW DO YOU KEEP SUGAR COOKIES SOFT?
This is another reason to love these cookies, thanks to the cream cheese in the dough- they stay softer for longer! After the cookies have cooled, simply place them in an airtight container to keep them fresh for as long as possible. It also helps to make sure that when you roll out the cookie dough that you do it to the right thickness so that they don’t become brittle when baking.
HOW LONG WILL DECORATED SUGAR COOKIES LAST?
If you keep your cookies properly stored you can expect them to last up to a week at room temperature.
OTHER DELICIOUS COOKIE RECIPES:
- Cinnamon Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Coconut Macadamia Nut Cookies
- Banana Oatmeal Cookies
- Lemon Slice and Bake Cookies
- Chocolate Cake Mix Cookies
- Buckeye Cookies
- Birthday Cake Cookies
- Reeses Peanut Butter Pudding Cookies
- Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vanilla Meringue Cookies
- Orange Creamsicle Cookies
- Strawberry Shortcake Cookies
- Frosted Italian Cookies
- Fluffernutter Cookies
- Lemon Cream Pie Cookies
Chocolate Sugar Cookies are soft, rich and perfect for cutting out shapes and making holiday cookies. Easy chocolate sugar cookie recipe that is absolutely delicious!
This is my third child, third daughter and third child to finish the first phase of orthodontics. Just in time for my fourth child to begin. And let’s not forget that the older two kids are currently in their second phase of braces. Yep, I feel like I spend half my life at the orthodontist these days! But it’s always worth it when I see those pretty smiles, right? 😉
wilhelmina says
I love these sugar cookies! They have the perfect amount of chocolate flavor and such great, tender texture. The frosting just takes them to the next level!
Kim says
why have I never thought to make chocolate sugar cookies before! DOH! Thanks for the recipe!