Like my regular sugar cookies, these chocolate sugar cookies are soft and thick with crisp edges and a nice smooth top for decorating. Use cookie cutters to cut this chocolate dough into shapes, and after baking and cooling, you can decorate them with cookie decorating buttercream, royal icing, or this super easy cookie icing.
I originally published this recipe in 2016, and I’ve since updated it with new photos and more success tips to ensure every batch turns out to be the best chocolate sugar cookies you’ve ever had.
Bakers, you know I aim to bring you only the very best when it comes to sugar cookies. (I solemnly swear on my cookie cutters.) They need to hold their shapes in the oven, have a nice flat surface for decorating, and, obviously, taste amazing! So, in the mid 2010’s, developing a chocolate version of this popular recipe was not a task I took lightly.
Why You’ll Love These Chocolate Sugar Cookies
- Soft & thick centers with lightly crisp edges
- Rich chocolate flavor (not dry or bland!)
- Holds shape beautifully for cookie cutters
- Smooth surface for decorating (I used cookie buttercream and naturally-colored sprinkles)
- Make-ahead-friendly dough for easy planning
One reader, Abbey, commented: “These are one of my go-to recipes for cookie orders. People love them! It’s like a brownie in cookie form. These are the ones that get requested most often. ★★★★★“
Another reader, Pam, commented: “These rolled out well, baked up perfectly, and were SO delicious! My family and friends went crazy for them, and I’ll be making them again soon. Who wouldn’t love a ‘brownie cookie?’ ★★★★★“
Another reader, Peggy, commented: “My kids have labeled these Brownie Cookies because they taste like the perfect combination of a cutout and a brownie. They were so easy to make and very sturdy like your gingerbread cookie recipe. We used the easy glaze and just did a quick drizzle over the top. This is a great addition to my cutout cookie rotation. ★★★★★“
Key Ingredients & Why They Matter
With only 8 ingredients in this recipe, each and every one has an important job to do:
- All-Purpose Flour: Provides structure so the cookies hold their cut-out shapes.
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder: The star of the show! You can use natural or Dutch-process for slightly different flavor profiles. See the section below on this.
- Baking Powder: Gives a slight lift without puffing too much (important for flat tops!).
- Salt: For flavor balance.
- Butter: Unparalleled for buttery sugar cookies. Make sure it’s properly softened to room temperature. And if you’re a baking beginner, check out my tutorial on how to cream butter and sugar.
- Granulated Sugar: Sweetens and helps create those slightly crisp edges.
- Egg: Binds everything together and adds richness.
- Vanilla Extract: Enhances the chocolate flavor without overpowering it.
By the way, you can use this exact dough when making Halloween cookies, my reader-favorite homemade thin mint cookies, and holiday-perfect peppermint bark cookies. They also look great decorated as fireworks cookies or football cookies. This is a very versatile chocolate sugar cookie dough!
And if you’re looking for a drop-style chocolate cookie recipe, you’ll love these double chocolate chip cookies or these chocolate frosted cookies.
Success Tips for the Best Chocolate Sugar Cookies
There are a few tricks to making sure your chocolate sugar cookies hold their cookie-cutter shapes in the oven (rather than spreading into unrecognizable blobs):
- Roll out the dough BEFORE chilling. It’s much more effective to chill the cookie dough *after* rolling it out, just as you do when making regular sugar cookies or brown sugar cut-out cookies. Trying to roll out hard, chilled sugar cookie dough is frustrating and difficult. So, once you’ve mixed together your dough, divide it into 2 halves, and roll out each portion before chilling the rolled-out dough in the refrigerator.
- Another trick: Roll out the cookie dough directly on a silicone baking mat or parchment paper so you can easily transfer it to the refrigerator. If you don’t have enough room for 2 baking sheets in your refrigerator, stack the pieces of rolled-out dough on top of each other, with parchment in between.
- Roll evenly: Aim for about 1/4-inch thickness so they bake evenly and stay soft.
- My final trick: Instead of dusting your hands and work surface with flour like you usually do when handling/working with dough, use cocoa powder—an ingredient you need for the dough anyway! Flour is tasteless, so might as well use cocoa powder for extra chocolate flavor, right?
Natural Cocoa Powder or Dutch-Process?
Cocoa powder is the key ingredient in these chocolate sugar cookies. But which one should you use: natural cocoa powder or Dutch-process?
If you’re not sure about the difference between them and are interested, you can read more on my Dutch-process vs natural cocoa powder page. Though Dutch-process is typically what you would use when paired with baking powder, for this cookie recipe (and actually for these brownie cookies, too) it’s OK to use either Dutch-process or natural cocoa powder.
So choose whichever cocoa powder you like best! I typically use this brand of Dutch-process cocoa, or I also love Ghirardelli brand.
3 Cookie Icing Options
Once cooled, these cookies are your canvas! Because the cookies bake with a flat, smooth top, decorating is much easier and more professional-looking.
I have 3 cookie icing recipes, so you have several options to choose from, based on your skill level and decorating needs. Here are the basic differences:
1. Buttercream Frosting: I decorated the pictured chocolate sugar cookie hearts with cookie decorating buttercream, piped on with a Wilton 1A piping tip. Then I spread it around to flatten it out and added these sprinkles. This is a classic vanilla buttercream frosting that soft-sets on cookies after a few hours. In a nutshell:
- Only 5 ingredients
- Creamy + sweet
- Great for beginners
- Can decorate with piping tips or simply spread on cookies
- Can be tinted any color with gel food coloring
2. Royal Icing: I have a separate post for royal icing where you can find many FAQs, make-ahead instructions, and a video tutorial. This icing is ideal for intermediate or advanced cookie decorators. In a nutshell:
- Sturdy icing for piping sharp detail and fine designs
- Sets on the cookie in just 1–2 hours
- Dries firm but still soft, not a hard cement-like texture
- Make with an electric mixer
- Meringue powder eliminates the need for raw egg whites
- Can be flavored with your favorite flavor extract
- Can be tinted any color with gel food coloring
- Decorate with piping bags (reusable or disposable) and tips
3. Easy Glaze Icing: Another option is this easy cookie icing, which I typically use on these Christmas sugar cookies. This glaze-style icing is great for beginners and much easier to make than royal icing because you don’t need an electric mixer or the perfect icing consistency for success. It isn’t as sturdy as royal icing, though, so you won’t be able to pipe concise details. It also takes a good 24 hours to dry. In a nutshell:
- Easy to make with just a fork/whisk and bowl
- Just 5 basic ingredients
- Can decorate with piping tips or a squeeze bottle (good for beginners and young bakers)
- Can color with gel food coloring
- Sets on the cookie in 24 hours
For more decorating inspiration, here is my full tutorial (video included) on how to decorate sugar cookies.
And if you’re not into piping tips, you can just dunk the tops of the chocolate sugar cookies into icing like when making mini animal cracker cookies. A fun option if you’re baking with kids!
Not much! This recipe is designed to hold its shape, especially when the dough is properly chilled.
Yes! Chill it for up to 3 days in the refrigerator.
Absolutely. Freeze for up to 3 months, then thaw in the refrigerator before rolling. See How to Freeze Cookie Dough for more info.
Recommended Tools for Cut-Out Cookies
Before I leave you with the recipe, let me suggest some useful chocolate sugar cookie tools. These are the exact products I use and trust in my own kitchen:
- Electric Mixer (handheld or stand mixer)
- Baking Sheets
- Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper Sheets
- Rolling Pin or Adjustable Rolling Pin
- Cookie Cutters: I like Ann Clark brand cookie cutters (not working with this brand; just a genuine fan!), such as these heart-shaped cookie cutters
- Piping Tips/Squeeze Bottle: If you’re using royal icing, I recommend Wilton Piping Tip #4 for outlining and flooding. If you’re using this glaze cookie icing, use a simple squeeze bottle to decorate. And if you choose this cookie decorating buttercream (pictured!), use any piping tip. I used Wilton 1A in the pictured cookies.
- Piping Bag: If you’re using a piping tip, you need a disposable piping bag or a reusable piping bag.
- Couplers: Couplers are handy if you have multiple colors of icing and only 1 tip, and need to move the tip to other bags of icing.
For even more recommendations, here is a detailed list of cookie decorating supplies.
Chocolate Sugar Cookie Supplies
11-Piece Cookie Cutter Set
Cut-Out Chocolate Sugar Cookies
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 30 minutes (plus icing setting time)
- Yield: 18 3-inch cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These are soft, thick chocolate sugar cookies with lightly crisp edges and rich cocoa flavor. This easy cut-out cookie dough rolls out smoothly, holds its shape, and bakes with a flat surface perfect for decorating with icing or buttercream. Chilling is the most important step, so don’t skip it. The number of cookies this recipe yields depends on the size of the cookie cutter you use. If you’d like to make dozens of cookies for a large crowd, double the recipe.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups (188g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 3/4 cup (62g) unsweetened natural or dutch process cocoa powder, plus more as needed for rolling and work surface
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
For Decorating
- Royal Icing, Glaze Icing, or Cookie Buttercream (buttercream is pictured)
- Assorted sprinkles (these sprinkles are pictured)
Instructions
- Make the cookies: Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a handheld or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on high speed until completely smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. Dough will be soft. If the dough seems too soft and sticky for rolling, add 1 more Tablespoon of flour.
- Roll the dough: Divide the dough into 2 equal parts. Dust 2 large pieces of parchment paper or 2 silicone baking mats with cocoa powder or flour. Place a dough half on each. With a rolling pin lightly dusted with cocoa powder or flour, roll the dough out to about 1/4-inch thickness. Use more cocoa powder/flour if the dough seems too sticky. The rolled-out dough can be any shape, as long as it is evenly 1/4-inch thick.
- Chill the dough: Lightly dust one of the rolled-out doughs with cocoa powder or flour. Place a piece of parchment on top. (This prevents sticking.) Place the 2nd rolled-out dough on top. Cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil, then refrigerate for at least 1-2 hours and up to 2 days.
- Preheat oven & shape cookies: Once chilled, preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line 2-3 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Carefully remove the top dough piece from the refrigerator. Using cookie cutters, cut the dough into shapes. Re-roll the remaining dough, using more cocoa powder or flour to lightly dust your work surface and rolling pin, and continue cutting the dough until all is used. Work quickly so the dough doesn’t become too warm or soft. If it does, stop what you’re doing and place any unused dough back in the refrigerator for 10 minutes to stiffen up again. Repeat cutting into shapes with 2nd half of dough. (Note: It doesn’t seem like a lot of dough, but you get a lot of cookies from the dough scraps you re-roll.)
- Bake & cool: Arrange shaped cookies on baking sheets 3 inches apart. Bake for 11-12 minutes or until edges are set. If your oven has hot spots, rotate the baking sheet halfway through bake time. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
- Make icing or buttercream: Prepare the royal icing, cookie glaze icing, or cookie decorating buttercream, and decorate the cooled cookies however you’d like. I decorated the pictured chocolate sugar cookie hearts with cookie decorating buttercream, piped on with a Wilton 1A piping tip. Then I spread it around to flatten it out, and topped with these sprinkles. This is a classic vanilla buttercream frosting that soft-sets on cookies after a few hours.
- Enjoy cookies right away or wait until the frosting/icing sets to serve them. Once the icing has set, these cookies are great for gifting or for sending. Plain or decorated cookies stay soft for about 5 days when covered tightly at room temperature. For longer storage, cover and refrigerate for up to 10 days.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Plain or decorated sugar cookies freeze well up to 3 months. Wait for the icing/buttercream to set completely before layering between sheets of parchment paper in a freezer-friendly container. To thaw, thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature. You can also freeze the cookie dough for up to 3 months before rolling it out. Prepare the dough through step 3, divide in half, flatten both halves into a disk as we do with pie crust, wrap each in plastic wrap, then freeze. To thaw, thaw the disks in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature for about 1 hour. Roll out the dough as directed in step 4, then chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour before cutting into shapes and baking.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand Mixer) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper | Rolling Pin or this Adjustable Rolling Pin | Heart-Shaped Cookie Cutter | Cooling Rack | Naturally-Colored Sprinkles
- Room Temperature: Room temperature butter is essential. If the dough is too sticky, your butter may have been too soft. Room temperature butter is actually cool to the touch. Room temperature egg is preferred so it’s quickly and evenly mixed into the cookie dough.
- Icing or Buttercream: Use royal icing, cookie glaze icing, or cookie buttercream (what I used). See post above to read about the differences.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking success tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Reader Comments and Reviews
This is the best recipe! I used nestle coca powder and they are so yummy! Thanks for the recipe!
These cookies are amazing. So much chocolate flavor and they keep nice clean cutout edges.
This recipe is astonishingly good. They taste like little brownies! Definitely going to be my new go-to for holiday gift giving. ❤
The cookies are so good! Very chocolatey, like a brownie. I was “afraid” of timing the baking right, since being chocolate is difficult to tell if they are done — but 10 minutes was spot on!
This looks delicious! I love your basic sugar cookie recipe, and was wondering if I could use that along with this recipe to make checkerboard cookies. I trust your flavors the most. My husband loves everything I make thanks to you!
Hi Natalie, We haven’t tested it but it should work! Let us know if you try it 🙂
This chocolate sugar cookie recipe really is the best! My friends and I used it to make haunted Halloween cookie houses this year.
Agreed that refrigeration is key!
Thanks, Sally.
Sam
I found this recipe to be TOO chocolatey it was on the side of being bitter and it was a drier batter. I added a tablespoon of water and that seemed to help. Will try it again and leave out some of the cocoa.
Once I put some icing on top, it balanced it out a bit. But I’m going to play with it a bit because it’s a great base recipe!
(I’m not what I would call a chocoholic.)
Looking at making this for Halloween, but I wanted to add a “trick” by making them spicy. If I wanted to add cinnamon/chili powder/cayenne, how much would you recommend and should I adjust the flour content? Thanks!
Hi Allison, You can definitely add some spices to this recipe without changing anything else! I would start with 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon and then however much chili powder you wish depending on the heat level you want. Let us know if you try it!
Very tasty cookie! Ended up using 1tsp cinnamon, 1/2tsp chili powder, and 1/4tsp cayenne –it was the perfect amount of heat! My cookie cutter was large, and these cookies were softer than I expected even after 5min cooling on the pan, so they fell apart a bit when transferring to the rack. Might try cutting it thinner or just allowing more time cooling on the pan before transferring next time. Still, it worked out fine since they were skeletons anyways!
The cookies turned out great, a little difficult to roll out tends to stick a little to rolling pin, but workable cooked up great, held there shape well. Used easy icing with ameria color gel food coloring took overnight to dry ,but the cookie had a little bitter taste to it that it did not have before I used the icing. What do you think caused that.
Hi Marlow, so glad you made and enjoyed these. It’s likely the cocoa powder– it’s a very bitter ingredient depending on the brand. I like using Hershey’s natural cocoa powder in this cookie recipe.
Hi Sally. I want to make a striped cookie with alternating chocolate and vanilla sugar cookie dough. Can you recommend a vanilla sugar cookie dough that will bake right along with this chocolate sugar cookie dough? Would I just replace the cocoa powder in this recipe with flour?
Hi Kimberly, This is our rolled sugar cookie recipe. We haven’t tried baking them together but let us know how it turns out!
Hi Sally,
I want to make these for a retirement party.
Will the baking powder make these spread? If so, should I omit?
Please let me know your thoughts!
Thank you,
Kim
Hi Kim, These cookies hold their shape beautifully! The key is to chill the dough after it’s rolled out. The dough should be cold and firm when cutting out your shapes and placing them in the oven.
These are awesome! Great for something a bit different than the traditional sugar cookie. I like making these chocolate sugar cookies for Halloween.
I’ve trialed a few chocolate sugar cookie recipes and this is hands down the best! They taste similar to brownies, very chocolatey and just amazing. I have found my holy grail chocolate sugar cookie recipe!
This recipe is seriously THE BEST…I have trouble getting my cookies out perfectly and I have tried sooo many recipes…and I saw this and tried it yesterday it seriously came out so AMAZING..AND it makes the exact yield that it is given (24 cookies) so don’t worry…one tip I would say though is make sure you go easy on the butter because I just put A LITTLE bit extra butter at the beginning and the dough came out really soft, if it happens to you just put a little bit extra flour and you should be fine ..I also did not use frosting or glaze but it was still AWESOME..I just sprinkled some powdered sugar on top…So if you are not sure whether to use this recipe you can trust me that it will work…
THANKS SO SO MUCH FOR THIS AMAZING RECIPE❤️
I was interested in these cookies for st Patty’s day. I was thinking with my mint royal frosting. I’m thinking it would pair well…any thought before I use chocolate?
Yes, chocolate mint cookies would be delicious! You can even add a very small amount of peppermint extract to the cookie dough.
Hi Sally,
I’ve made these a couple times and they taste great! However, the cookies are extremely delicate and break easily. Should I try baking for a little longer than 10 minutes?
Hi Damaris, Your cookies may have been too thin or the shape of the cookie cutter very delicate. Make sure your dough is rolled out to about 1/4 inch thick and they should be more sturdy.
I don’t need any particular shape, and I would like to avoid using cookie cutters. Could I roll it into a log and slice into discs after chilled? I don’t know how that will affect the texture of the cookies.
Sure can! You can make them slice and bake style like these slice and bake cookies.
Can I put flavored chips in these like white chocolate chips or peanut butter chips?
Hi Tima! You would have a difficult time rolling out this dough with large chips/chunks in it. I don’t recommend it. How about my Inside Out Chocolate Chip Cookies with peanut butter or chocolate chips instead of the white chocolate chips.
I recently bought black cocoa powder. Would this be ok to use for the cocoa powder? I never used it before for baking (But it makes a fantastic Oreo like hot cocoa!) so I don’t have any experience on using it. Thanks!
Provided it’s unsweetened, it’s probably fine to use in this recipe. Enjoy!
Hello,
I love the flavor of these cookies!
But did not roll it out first, hopefully that is the trouble, because it was not shapable & very sticky, unpleasant to work with,
Thank you, but wondering if it is worth trying again if the goal is to make a pretty cookie
Yes, you really should roll out the dough and then chill it.
Very delicious, rich but not too sweet. However, I found the dough very hard to work with in that it was dry and cracked often. I stopped trying to roll it and pressed it together with my hands. I used cookie cutters and the dough did hold its shape.
Hi Enid, I’m glad you enjoyed the taste of these cookies! Did you roll the dough out before you chilled it? If you need to roll it after it’s cold or it’s crumbling, let it warm up a few minutes at room temperature and it should come right back together.
Thanks for the reply. I did not roll it before hand because I never have with other recipes. I will do that next time.
These make great sandwich cookies! I cut them out with my smallest biscuit cutter, stamped the tops with my meat mallet and piped them generously with vanilla buttercream. Sorry Mr Christie, I make wayyyy better cookies! (And I can pronounce all the ingredients!) Heavenly!
Made these for Christmas…and they were a hit….will be on my list next year too…and making again……this weekend….these are fabulous……
These were so easy to make and so delicious! I love how they’re a little crunchy but chewy in the middle. I used your recipe for royal icing too and they were a match made in heaven, just the perfect amount of sweetness.
Hi Sally,
I made several batches and the dough is a bit dry. It break and crumbles. I followed the recipe exactly. Do you have a suggestion that can add a little more moisture? Unsure if it makes a difference but I’m using Dutch processed cocoa.
Thank you very much.
Hi Angela! Did you roll out the cookie dough right after mixing together? That is KEY to this recipe. Make sure you’re spooning and leveling the flour (and while you’re at it– do the same for the cocoa powder too) because packing those dry ingredients into the measuring cups ends up giving you more than the recipe needs. The type of cocoa doesn’t make a difference here.
My husband and kids just made these cookies for a Christmas cookie competition. My husband hand cut little Christmas trees…a dozen of them. We made three test cookies and we love the cookies! I am unsure if we cooked them long wnough, but the flavor is dang near that of an oreo but softer, of course! So good! A little too good actually! My husband and I are competing against each other in the cookie competition, and now I am REALLY worried that my sugar cookie is not gonna be at the same level as this chocolate sugar cookie. Ahhh! I might have to rethink my entry 🙂
Help!!
Can I double this recipe?
Yes!! It works great!
Hi Sally, I am quite a novice when it comes to cut out cookies and decorating. The first batch I cut turned out perfect. Easy to cut and transfer to the tray, but then, the dough started to become soft and sticky, and it was harder and harder to get the shapes right and transfer from the cutter to the pachment paper as the dough would stick. Any advise on this? Also, how can I make sure to roll the dough the same thickness all the way?
Hi Grace, I’m so glad your first batch turned out so well! As you work with the dough it will warm up – my best advise is to place the dough back in the refrigerator if it begins to warm up – you can even place your cookie sheet with the shapes already cut out in the fridge before they go in the oven. Also, you can only take half the dough out at a time and work with that before you take the second half out. I hope this helps!
I love this recipe! If I wanted to change it up for Christmas and make chocolate peppermint cookies would you suggest I add peppermint extract to the dough or dip in white chocolate and bits of candy canes, or maybe a melted peppermint bark? Lol I have no idea if any of there ideas would work.
So festive! You can make my peppermint bark cookies which is this exact cookie dough, but with peppermint. 🙂
Or you can add 3/4 teaspoon or 1 teaspoon of peppermint extract to this cookie dough and dip the cookies halfway into white chocolate or melted peppermint bark.
These cookies are amazing! Turned out perfect!
Just made these to use with the dinosaur fossil cookies cutters I bought a while back…wanted a dark color cookie to contrast with the “bones.” Decorated with your “easy icing” and they came out AMAZING! Everyone was raving about how great they looked, and the flavor was wonderful too.