Soft Chocolate Sugar Cookies

These delicious little Soft Chocolate Sugar Cookies are almost like a little brownie…they have a deep, satisfying flavor, thanks to the brown sugar in the recipe. The dough freezes very well too.

Jump to:

• Why You’ll Love This Recipe
• Ingredients You’ll Need
• Step-By-Step Instructions
• Tips for Freezing Cookie Dough
• Tips for Success
• Serving Ideas
• Frequently Asked Questions
• More Recipes To Try:
• Soft Chocolate Sugar Cookies
• Subscribe

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Chocolate lovers alert! There are lots of recipes for Soft Chocolate Sugar Cookies out there, and you’ve found the right one.  Once I tasted these cookies, I never looked back:

Here’s some good reasons to try them:

• This chocolate sugar cookie recipe doesn’t have a lot of butter or sugar in it, though you’ll never miss it. In other words, the perfect cookie.
• This is an easy cookie recipe that makes chewy sugar cookies with a combo of soft texture and rich chocolate flavor –  thanks to dark brown sugar and a double dose of vanilla extract.
• Unlike a traditional sugar cookie which often calls for a cookie cutter or rolling pin, this is an easy drop cookie
• These delicious chocolate cookies freeze well!  Make a double batch and pull out a few or ten whenever you need them 🙂
• Love these kind of recipes? Bookmark these recipes for later: Butterscotch Shortbread Cookies, White Chocolate Dipped Krispy Treats, and Jelly Filled Peanut Butter Cookies.

Ingredients You’ll Need

For the full recipe, please scroll to the recipe card below.

• Flours and Cocoa Powder:  Dry ingredients are half all-purpose flour, half whole wheat pastry flour = Tender Cookies
• Butter: Unsalted butter is best in this recipe
• Eggs/Sugar/Oil:  Dark brown sugar makes a big flavor difference in these cookies
• Vanilla: Extract:  This is double the amount you normally see in a cookie recipe, and more is better in this case.  Also, vanilla is shown in the white square dish above (oops.)
• Chocolate Chips:  Semi-sweet and milk chocolate chips work together so well, why don’t we do this more often?
• Pecans: Toasting them makes all the difference in the flavor, so don’t skip this step for best results

Step-By-Step Instructions

For the full recipe and list of instructions, please scroll to the recipe card below.

1. Mix: You know how this goes –  cream butter, sugar, oil, egg and vanilla and then the flour mixture are combined at medium speed in a large bowl with a hand mixer. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
2. Add: The two flours and cocoa powder.  A little salt makes the flavors really sing.
3. Refrigerate:  Don’t skip this step!  Chilling the dough and letting it rest is the secret ingredient to super delicious cookies.  Even better if the dough can sit in the fridge overnight. Just cover in plastic wrap and let it chill!
4. Scoop: You want well-rounded tablespoons of cookie dough balls. Use a cookie scoop or spoon to have a consistent size of the cookies for even baking.
5. Bake: Bake time is usually 12 minutes, but oven temperatures vary, so the best way I’ve found is to test two cookies first and eat them immediately to properly and thoroughly evaluate this 🙂
6. Cool the cookies on a wire rack.

Tips for Freezing Cookie Dough

It’s super easy to freeze these cookies, so you can pop a few in the oven at a moment’s notice.

Here’s how: 

• Scoop the cookie dough into portions
• Place the shaped cookie dough on a large baking sheet lined with wax or parchment paper
• Freeze the dough balls for 2 hours
• Line a freezer-safe container (with a tight fitting lid) with wax or parchment paper
• Transfer the dough balls to the container, one layer at a time, adding a sheet of wax or parchment paper in between each layer.
• When you’re ready to eat a few, just remove cookies from the container and let them sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes, then bake as directed.

Tips for Success

• If you have time, the best chocolate sugar cookies spend one night in the fridge to let the favors develop.
• Take a few extra seconds to shape the cold cookie dough into round balls so they stay compact when baking.
• I wouldn’t substitute regular whole wheat flour for whole wheat pastry flour in this recipe, but I’ve had good success with using spelt flour instead of whole wheat pastry flour. The cookies will be more brownie-like, but very, very good.

Serving Ideas

• Pretty much right off the cooling rack is the situation at my house, preferably while they’re still a little warm.
• Overnight guests will love you and possibly never leave if you give them warm cookies on a pretty plate with a little glass of vanilla almond milk 🙂
• These cookies travel well, so pack some in cellophane bags tied with a cute ribbon for co-workers, party favors or hostess gifts
• I love to have a couple of these cookies after a virtuous lunch of something light, like the Superfood Salad.

Frequently Asked Questions

More Recipes To Try:

Butterscotch Shortbread Dipped in Chocolate: OMG on these. Really.

Lemon Shortbread Cookies: See above. These are amazing too!

Naan BLT with Sun Dried Tomato Mayo: A great lunch item..so good!

California Fig Banana Bread: With or without frosting, thank you very much 🙂

Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies: Everyone says this, but dang these are good!

Fresh Banana Cake: Moist and delish...

White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups: Easy and so pretty!

White Chocolate Popcorn with Sprinkles: Great for gifting too!

If you’ve tried these Soft Chocolate Sugar Cookies, or any other recipe on Studio Delicious, please tell me about in the comments below!

Looking for more tips and fresh, homemade recipes?  Join my email list, tag and follow me on Instagram using #studiodeliciouseats, follow my boards on Pinterest, and see what I’m up to on Facebook and Twitter!