If you want chocolate butter cookies that have a soft crunch and a melt-in-your-mouth quality you have come to the right place. These cookies have a deep cocoa flavour with an intense butter scent and a salty note. But their most remarkable characteristic is the crumbly texture that will have you reaching out for more.
These cookies are seriously irresistible, and the perfect balance of flavours might just be the key to their deliciousness. They are baked at a rather low temperature, so the sugar stays somewhat grainy even after baking, giving the crumbly texture an interesting bite.
Perfect to give as gifts for the Holidays or just when visiting friends, these cocoa butter cookies hit all the right spots when you fancy something homemade but with a decadent flair. Make it extra? Pair them with this spiced plum jam with cocoa!
The ingredients
For detailed quantities please refer to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
How to make these chocolate butter cookies
Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer for a couple of minutes. Pour in the oil in a slow stream always beating, next beat in the vanilla extract and then stop the mixer.
Combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, cocoa and salt and sift into butter mixture. Start the mixer again and incorporate at slow speed. The final batter will be quite hard so stop the mixer if it becomes too hard to handle and switch to the hook attachments if necessary.
Roll the dough into small balls weighing about 15-18 grams each – that’s about 1 tablespoon of dough. Place each ball on a cookie tray lined with baking paper leaving them some space for the cookies to expand as they bake.
Bake at 150°C (300°F) for 20 minutes. The cookies will lightly flatten and crinkle on the top. When baked, take out of the oven and carefully slide the parchment paper away from the hot tray. The cookies are extremely fragile at this point, as they stabilize as they cool, so handle with extreme care.
Recipe tips
To make these cookies you need to use room temperature butter. If you forgot to take it out in time, you can cut the butter into small chunks, spread out on a large plate and place it in the oven with just the light on for 10 minutes. The use of the microwave can be helpful, too, but it needs to be set at the lowest setting (defrost mode works best) and for very short periods to check that the butter doesn’t melt in some places.
We want the cookies to spread and crack so don’t chill the dough before baking. Roll it, plate it, bake it. Also, don’t get tempted to set your oven to a higher temperature than 150°C (300°F) as that is crucial to get them to nicely expand and crack.
Don’t skip the salt as it’s necessary to keep all the flavours in balance and make the cocoa taste shine through. You may reduce to 1/3 teaspoon if using salted butter – but I use salted butter and I still pour in 1/2 teaspoon, just so you know.
Chocolate dream cookies
This chocolate butter cookie recipe was inspired by Swedish cookies known as drömmar that are famous for their dreamy crumbly texture (drömmar means dreams in Swedish!). In the Swedish recipe the magic trick is done by the use of ammonium carbonate (aka baker’s ammonia, or E503) as leavening agent instead of baking powder. If you have access to ammonium carbonate and want to go for a total dreamy melty crumbly cookie, you can sub baking powder with ammonium carbonate but using half the amount (that is 1 tsp as opposed to 2 of baking powder).
For the absolute best melt-in-your-mouth texture a leavening agent is fundamental. It’s what makes this rather compact dough become airy as it bakes. If you forget the baking powder you will have equally delicious cookies, but slightly harder in comparison. The high butter ratio and low baking temperature still prevent them from becoming properly hard, but the lighter crumbly texture and air cracks on top will not be there.
You may also like
- Cinnamon roll cookies
- Chocolate oatmeal balls
- No-bake cinnamon rolls
- Raspberry chocolate pralines
- Vanilla butter cookies
If you enjoyed these chocolate butter cookies please leave a comment below! I’m always happy to receive your feedback. If you’re planning to make them at a later time, pin this recipe to Pinterest. Please subscribe to my newsletter and following me on Instagram and on Pinterest. Thank you!
Chocolate Butter Cookies that Melt in your Mouth
Ingredients
- 150 g butter room temperature
- 250 g granulated sugar
- 100 ml vegetable oil
- 275 g flour
- 16 g baking powder
- 45 g cocoa powder unsweetened
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer for a couple of minutes. Pour in the oil in a slow stream always beating, next beat in the vanilla extract and then stop the mixer.
- Combine the flour, baking powder, cocoa and salt and sift into butter mixture. Start the mixer again and incorporate at slow speed. The final batter will be quite hard so stop the mixer if it becomes too hard to handle and switch to the hook attachments if necessary.
- Roll the dough into small balls weighing in at about 15-18 grams each - that's about 1 tablespoon of dough. Place each ball on a cookie tray lined with baking paper leaving some space for the cookies to expand as they bake.
- Bake at 150°C (300°F) for 20 minutes. The cookies will lightly flatten and crinkle on the top. When baked, take out of the oven and carefully slide the parchment paper away from the hot tray.
Notes
- As soon as you take them out of the oven, the cookies are extremely fragile as they will stabilize as they cool, so handle with extreme care when removing from the hot tray.
- If using salted butter you may reduce the salt to 1/3 tsp. However, don't completely skip the salt as it helps to balance out the flavours and make the cocoa flavour shine,
Question on the chocolate butter cookie, can the dough be rolled out and cut with cookie cutters?
Haven’t tried myself so I’m unsure but I don’t think that would be recommended as it’s quite sticky.
Can you freeze the dough and bake it another time?
Recipe calls for 45g of cocoa in metric but 3T in US customary. There is quite a difference. Which is correct?
Hi Susan! Thank you for pointing this out, it was my mistake. What’s correct is the grams, so the US equivalent will be 1/3 cup of cocoa. I have edited the recipe. Thank you very much for letting me know!!
I was looking for a recipe for cookies that would melt in my mouth and these certainly do. When they first came out of the oven, I thought about topping them with chocolate ganache. I’m glad I didn’t. The flavor is perfect as is and these cookies are surprisingly rich and buttery. Little nuggets of chocolaty heaven!
Hi Sharon, thank you so much for your comment! I’m glad you enjoyed them! 🙂
Can you freeze the dough and bake it another time?
Hi Linde, Yes you can absolutely freeze the dough! Thaw in the fridge before using, then bake as per the recipe.
I’ve been searching for this type of cookie recipe for days until I found yours! It’s soo good!! typically I need to lower the amount of sugar in US recipes, but this is so perfect! I accidentally added 15g more cocoa, but it is still not too sweet but also not too bitter. I think this will be fantastic with nuts. I think next time I will try to add some. Thank you so much for this awesome recipe!
Hi Kate, thank you so much for your lovely comment! I’m glad you enjoyed them!
This is the best chocolate cookie I have ever made, easy too!
Aww thank you Martha!!