Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Try this fantastic recipe for chocolate sugar cookies, perfect for making cut-outs! The dough needs chilling, which ensures minimal spreading while baking. This results in scrumptious, tender, and buttery chocolate sugar cookies, just waiting to be decorated with your choice of icing!

For anyone who loves baking cookies, having a great sugar cookie recipe is a must. I’m excited to share with you my favorite one made with chocolate! It’s super easy and always works out great. I’ve been using this recipe for a long time and it never lets me down. You’ll get awesome chocolate sugar cookies every time!

Sugar cookies are perfect for any occasion – whether you’re making Christmas cookies, looking for a fun weekend baking project, or simply craving a sweet treat. They are so fun to bake in different shapes and decorate!

For more variations on sugar cookies, check out my basic sugar cookie recipe, Pumpkin sugar cookies, Gingerbread cookies, and red velvet sugar cookies!

Why You Will Love This Recipe

1. Easy to Handle Dough: This dough is a breeze to work with. It rolls out smoothly, making it easy to cut into shapes and move to your baking sheet. No need for special mats or parchment paper, so you save time and hassle.
2. Keeps Its Shape: Say goodbye to cookies that spread too much in the oven. This recipe ensures your sugar cookies keep their shape as they bake. You’ll get beautifully defined cut-outs every time, perfect for any occasion.
3. Soft and Holds Together: These cookies are wonderfully soft and tender, yet they hold together perfectly. You get that delightful softness without the cookies falling apart.
4. Ideal for Decorating: The cookies come out with nice, smooth tops, making them the perfect canvas for your favorite icing and sprinkles. Let your creativity shine with decorations on these lovely cookies.

Key Ingredients

• All-Purpose Flour: Essential for giving your cookies structure. For accurate measurements, spoon the flour into your measuring cup and level it off, or even better, use a digital scale.
• Cocoa Powder: This adds a chocolatey flavor to your cookies. Sifting it beforehand helps prevent any lumps in your dough.
• Baking Powder: This ingredient helps your cookies rise a little. Remember to check its expiration date because outdated baking powder can lead to flat cookies.
• Butter: It brings a rich flavor to your cookies. Make sure it’s at room temperature for easier mixing. Opt for unsalted butter to adjust the salt in your recipe as you like.
• Vegetable Shortening: This not only makes your cookies tender but also ensures the dough is manageable. It should also be at room temperature for seamless mixing.
• Sugar: It sweetens your cookies and contributes to their texture. For best results, cream it thoroughly with the butter to get a fluffy dough.
• Egg: Acts as a binder in your cookie dough. Using an egg at room temperature will blend more smoothly into your dough.

How To Make Chocolate Sugar Cookies

1. Mix Dry Ingredients: In a medium bowl, give your flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt a good whisk. Once they’re well-mixed, set the bowl aside for later.
2. Cream the Fats and Sugar: In your stand mixer bowl with the paddle attachment, mix the butter, vegetable shortening, and sugar. Keep it going until the mix looks smooth and lighter in color. This should take about 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Add Vanilla and Egg: Now, put in the vanilla and egg. Mix until the egg is well-blended into the batter. But don’t mix too long, or your cookies might puff up too much.

1. Add Dry to Wet: Time to bring back that bowl of dry ingredients! Add it to your wet mix in 2 or 3 smaller parts. Mix until it’s just combined. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides so you don’t have any dry spots.
2. Chill the Dough: Form your dough into a small, flat disc shape and wrap it in plastic wrap. Pop it in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C, or 160°C fan oven and line three baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats and set aside.
2. Roll Out and Cut: Dust a clean work surface with cocoa powder, then roll out the chilled dough into a ¼-inch thickness. Use a gingerbread man cookie cutter to cut the dough, then transfer to the prepared baking sheets at least 2 inches apart.

1. Bake in the preheated oven for 7-9 minutes, or until cookies have puffed up and are set in the center.
2. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Storing Tips

• To Store: Undecorated cookies will stay fresh for up to 1 week if you’d like to make the cookies one day and then decorate them later.
• To Freeze Baked Cookies: Seal the cookies in an airtight container with a layer of parchment or wax paper between layers. Decorated and undecorated sugar cookies will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months.
• Freezing Sugar Cookie Dough: Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, then place it in a zip-top bag. It can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge overnight, then allow to soften to room temperature for 15 minutes before you roll, cut, and bake.

Top Tips

• Room-Temperature Butter and Shortening: Make sure your butter and shortening are soft but not melted. This helps mix well with sugar. If you forgot to take them out ahead of time, you can cut the butter and shortening into small pieces to speed up the softening.
• Just Right Mixing: When you’re mixing your dough, stop as soon as everything looks combined. If you mix too much, your cookies could end up hard instead of soft.
• Even Rolling: If you can, get an adjustable rolling pin. It helps you roll the dough to an even thickness, which means your cookies will bake evenly.
• Watch the Oven: Keep an eye on the cookies while they’re baking. You want them to be just a bit golden around the edges. Remember, they’ll keep cooking a bit even after you take them out of the oven.
• Have a Good Time: Don’t worry about making the cookies look like they’re out of a magazine. The main thing is to have fun while you’re making them. Get your family or friends involved and make it a fun activity for everyone.

How To Decorate Sugar Cookies (8 Ways!)

There are many ways to decorate sugar cookies!

• Buttercream: This is my favorite way to decorate cookies because buttercream tastes incredible! I have the perfect buttercream for cookies recipe and it does not contain corn syrup.
• Easy Cookie Icing: This is the easiest icing for cookies, I usually make it during the holiday season because it’s very forgiving and easy to work with, and you can use it to dip the cookies and add sprinkles, or decorate with piping tips if you make a thicker consistency. This icing does harden, but it takes around 24 hours to fully set.
• Royal Icing: As you probably already know, royal icing will produce the most beautiful cookies with a smooth finish and it dries quickly and completely. Royal icing-decorated cookies are perfect for shipping
• Cream Cheese Icing: Made with cream cheese, this frosting is tangy and creamy. It’s softer than other types of icing, so it’s not the best for complex designs or shipping, but it’s delicious on softer cookies like cookie bars, banana bread cookies, or pumpkin cookies.
• Fondant Icing: Fondant creates a smooth, firm surface on cookies and is often used for intricate and polished decorations. It can be rolled out and cut into shapes to match the cookies, or molded into 3D shapes.
• Ganache: Ganache is a rich, chocolate icing made from chocolate and cream. It can be used to dip cookies, drizzled over the top, or spread onto cookies.
• Powdered Sugar Icing: This is probably the easiest and simplest icing of all, made with just powdered sugar and milk, you can drizzle cookies, or even create simple shapes. To see an example, check out my Red Velvet Sugar Cookies.

Keep in mind, practice is key. Every batch of chocolate sugar cookies you bake is a chance to enhance your skills and get you one step closer to creating your ultimate batch of cookies. Remember to leave a rating and review for this recipe, and we’d love to see your cookie creations! Share photos with our cookie baking community on Facebook. Enjoy the process!