Chocolate Sugar Cookies
- Total Time
- 50 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:About 3 dozen 3-inch cookies
- 1cup/225 grams slightly softened unsalted butter (not quite room temperature)
- ¼cup/51 grams vegetable shortening
- 1½cup/340 grams granulated sugar
- 2eggs
- 1teaspoon/5 milliliters vanilla extract
- ¾teaspoon/3 grams baking powder
- 1teaspoon/6 grams fine sea salt
- ⅔cup/95 grams unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3cups/339 grams flour, plus ½ cup/56 grams if baking cookies immediately
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (36 servings)
140 calories; 8 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 2 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 16 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 11 grams sugars; 3 grams protein; 73 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Powered byPreparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 375 degrees and line baking sheets with silicone baking sheets or parchment paper.
- Step 2
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or by hand, cream together the butter, shortening and sugar at medium speed, about 3 to 5 minutes. (The mixture needn’t be fluffy.) Scrape down the sides with a silicone spatula and mix in the eggs, vanilla, baking powder and salt. Combine well. Scrape down the sides and stir in the cocoa until well blended. Add the flour, and mix until the flour is completely incorporated and the dough comes together into a ball. At this point, you can refrigerate the dough up to 2 days or freeze it up to 3 months, tightly wrapped in plastic. (The dough will seem soft, but that’s O.K. If you are going to roll out the cookies and bake them immediately, mix in the other ½ cup of flour.)
- Step 3
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to ¼-inch thickness and use cookie cutters to cut into shapes, rerolling dough scraps as necessary and arranging shapes ¼ inch apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake for 7 to 10 minutes. Smaller shapes will cook more quickly. Because these are chocolate, it can be hard to determine when they are done. Err on the side of underbaking. You can tell the cookies are ready when the surface changes from wet- or glossy-looking to dry. Remove cookies to a rack and allow them to cool completely before decorating.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
MMS
I do wish recipe writers would specify dutched versus natural cocoa powder, or indicate either will work. For those of us who never remember which goes with baking powder versus baking soda.
sps
Is there a substitution for the vegetable shortening? More butter, maybe? Thank you.
High in CO
Adjusted for altitude: 1/4 c. Less sugar and used superfine. Used 1/2 t. Baking powder Dough too soft. Add 1/2 cup flour. Chill cut cookies before baking. Time: 7 minutes and then rest on pan to finish. Need to use Royal Icing. Due to dark color, glaze looks weird.
Baking for a friend
Her daughter is lactose intolerant. Is there a substitute for butter?
Marty
These cookies are perfect for ice cream sandwiches! As another baker noted, they are like cookie-brownies, especially when they are fresh--so they are very tender. But I froze my baked 2.5" rounds and then filled them with peppermint ice cream. Great! The cookie supports the ice cream when in sandwich form, but crumbles into it with every bite.
RAL
These are surprisingly good chocolate sugar cookies. Even before frosting them!
Kristen
I believe some grocery stores now stock lactose-free butter. I'm in Toronto, Canada and the brand here is Natrel, I don't know if it is the same in the states.
Dyann Berndt
These cookies are e-x-c-e-l-l-e-n-t! Intense chocolate flavor, not too sweet, nice texture (not the snap or crunch of a traditional sugar cookie, but a soft bite). They are delicious all by themselves, although we made the companion royal icing recipe and decorated them. They are really super good. Thanks for a great recipe!
AM
Very delicious! Set up beautifully. Easy to cut. Chocolate flavor was very good and rich. Loved how distinctive they looked!
allyson
Just made a batch and these cookies are delectable. The ARE a bit brownie like and easy to work. Eight minutes in the oven was perfect for my 3 inch Christmas trees.
Bensgal
Everyone raves about these cookies when I bake them. My issue is that the consistency is so crumbly that I often have a hard time getting them out of the cookie cutters without them breaking. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
villette
Amazing. I used coconut oil instead of vegetable shortening. Held shape beautifully and tasted soft and chewy as promised.
Jenny Green
so butter is okay here? I hate shortening.
Lyle
Cut half the flour with rye flour, and added nutmeg, cinnamon and cardamom to make these things pop!
t
Made with gluten free flour (namaste blend) and vegan butter. Rolled out in a combo of almond flour and sugar. Turned out great! Delicate when right out of the oven.
Dawn
Made as written (using the extra 1/2 c of flour to bake right away) and they were perfect! They taste wonderful even without icing. This will be my go-to Christmas cookie recipe.
LaurenE
These are delicious cookies! They break fairly easily (I used a scale for precise measurements). Beautiful with white or light colored icing, though - and big enough that I welcome cookies breaking because that means I can't give them away and have to eat them myself...
LMBHarv
These cookies are delicious! The dough is pretty sticky if using right away so avoid cookie cutters with a lot of detail or small nooks because the dough will get stuck in there. Otherwise, will definitely be making these again.
delicious but tough to cut
These are so tasty baked and made honestly the best raw cookie dough ever. I found them a little crumbly with cookie cutters and had to be very careful. Lost a lot of legs off my Halloween cats! I didn’t have vegetable shortening so used solid coconut oil, but I don’t believe that would make them any more crumbly. Believe the hype about Dutch cocoa! It’s amazing. I think a SCANT 1/4 inch is best. A real 1/4 inch made them too thick for cookie cutters.
modification 2
Excellent with chocolate and other frostings
Metta
These are excellent. We make Mr. Hankey cookies every year and this is our go-to recipe. I will never make "regular" sugar cookies again.
Liz
For the vegetable shortening I used refined coconut oil. Worked just fine. I also omitted the extra flour even though I went straight from mixing to baking, because I just wanted cookies to eat, not to shape or decorate. So instead of rolling it out, I rolled small balls between my palms and then pressed them flat into discs. Baked seven minutes. Absolutely scrumptious. I rolled the rest of the dough into a log and put it in the freezer, for future quick baking.
Ronnie Ross
REALLY good chocolate cookies. Made them as X's and O's as part of a valentine's package with vanilla hearts. Ate half of them myself before mailing them off. (I'll just eat one!) They are that good!
Kathleen
Extremely dry and too dark.
Erin T
New favorite cookie-cutter recipe. Foolproof, super quick, and just delicious. I prefer a buttery icing on them instead of royal. Not as pretty when you don’t pipe it on, but the rich flavor is much more satisfying with the chocolate, IMO - plus way easier! Next time I’ll try a simple round shape and smear on the easy frosting in this Bittman recipe, plus sprinkles: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/magazine/recipe-frosted-cookies.html
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