Soft, chewy, fudgy chocolate cookies topped with frosting andโbecause why not?โsprinkles, these chocolate frosted cookies are extra rich and not at all sorry about it. It’s a simple drop cookie recipe, no rolling pin required, and the creamy chocolate frosting is a scaled down version of fan-favorite chocolate buttercream.
One reader, Shira, commented: “WARNING: Consume these cookies with a glass of milk or strong coffee. These are super rich, chocolatey, and sweet in the best way!… I like Sally’s comparison to cosmic brownies in cookie form. They were firm on the exterior and soft with good chew on the interior… These cookies really hit the chocolate spot! โ โ โ โ โ “
Here at Sally’s Baking HQ, we like our chocolate topped with more chocolate. (Well, and also we like it with peanut butter!!!)
Today’s cookie recipe is like a rich chocolate version of a Lofthouse-style soft frosted cookie, but with a little more chewโnot quite as cakey. My team and I absolutely LOVED these, and can’t wait for all our fellow chocolate lovers to try them.
Chocolate Frosted Cookies Recipe Snapshot
- Taste: Similar to these chewy fudgy frosted brownies, you’re getting a double dose of chocolate with these cookies.
- Texture: Chewy and fudgy in the center like a brownie, soft and topped with buttercream frosting like a chocolate cupcake, with slightly crisp edges like a crinkle cookie. This is a chocolate dessert trifecta in one indulgent treat!
- Ease: Easy drop cookie dough that you roll into balls, bake, cool, and top with a simple buttercream. Forget all the bells and whistles, sometimes you just need to stick with what WORKS!
- Time: Dough chilling is mandatory for this chocolate cookie doughโ2 hours minimum.
It’s all giving cosmic brownie…
The Softest, Fudgiest Chocolate Frosted Cookies
If you were to close your eyes and take a bite of one of these cookies, you’d be surprised to find a cookie instead of a frosted brownie in your hand. We can thank my favorite chocolate cookie dough for that, a go-to base I use when making double chocolate chip cookies and chocolate crinkle cookies, too. There’s a reason my team and I turn to this cookie dough often (and why so many readers love it as well)… it WORKS! The magical dough creates rich, thick, and chewy chocolate cookies that stay soft for days.
For today’s recipe, I made 2 small changes to the base dough. First, I replaced a bit of cocoa powder with flour. Because this cookie dough doesn’t have any add-ins (like chocolate chips or nuts) it benefits from some more flour for additional structure. But don’t worry! There’s still PLENTY of chocolate flavor, especially with the chocolate frosting on top.
I also replaced the milk in the dough with a bit of oil, to give them a moister, brownie-like texture. And because we aren’t rolling the dough balls in sugar, like we do with these Andes mint chocolate cookies, the oil helps them spread just enough.
You Need These Ingredients:
All basic baking ingredients. Unsweetened natural cocoa powder is ideal for the cookie dough, and you can read about why in this post on Dutch-process vs. natural cocoa powder.
You need an electric mixer for this recipe because the base is creamed butter + sugars. If you need more guidance on this step, I have a helpful tutorial on how to cream butter and sugar. Expect a thick, sticky dough:
I’m a broken record again today repeating that you must chill this cookie dough for at least 2 hours (and up to 3 days). After the dough chills, it’s much easier to handle and roll into balls. Scoop 1 heaping Tablespoon of dough per cookie, about 28โ30g each if you’re using a kitchen scale.
As they bake, the cookies puff up and spread out, then slightly deflate, forming those gorgeous cracks just like classic crinkle cookies. I don’t blame you one bit if you want to bite into one of these chocolate cookies while they’re still warm, but if you can manage to hold on for a little longer for them to cool, your patience will be rewarded with a frosted chocolate cookie worth waiting for.
The Best Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
For the frosting, you can use either Dutch-process cocoa powder OR natural cocoa powder.
My team and I tested these with a chocolate glaze-like toppingโsimilar to what we use to top these chocolate frosted donutsโand it was delicious, but just didn’t strike the perfect balance with these chewy cookies. So, instead, we turned to my trusty recipe for chocolate buttercream (slightly scaled down), a top choice for cupcakes and cakes. It’s lighter, a tad sweeter, and ultra creamy.
And it is perfection on these cookies.
A Strange Chocolate Buttercream Success Tip (It Works!)
You can use either whole milk or heavy cream in the frosting, but regardless of which you choose, warm it up for a few seconds in the microwave or on the stove. Adding slightly warm liquid to this chocolate frosting helps the cocoa powder absorb more liquid and creates a smoother, more satiny finish.
However, after beating so much air into the buttercream during the mixing process, your chocolate buttercream can lighten up quite a bit in color. Of course this doesn’t change the flavor at all, but if you want it a little darker, I have a trick beyond using warm liquid:
Take 1/2 cup of the prepared buttercream (you can just eyeball the measurement), and place it in a heatproof bowl. Microwave it for 5 seconds. This loosens the mixture up and helps the confectioners’ sugar and cocoa powder combo absorb more of the liquid. Place that back into the big bowl of frosting and stir it in by hand. The frosting will be smoother with less air bubbles, and darker in color.
Spread the frosting on the cookies. I usually use an offset spatula. Top with festive rainbow or holiday sprinkles, then DIG IN.
Can I Make a Vanilla Version?
Yes. Try my sprinkle cookies supreme, or my soft cakey sugar cookies.
You can even try a chocolate peppermint version with these peppermint-frosted chocolate cookies. (Very similar dough, and it includes chocolate chips.)
Sally’s Cookie Palooza
This recipe is part of my annual cookie countdown called Sally’s Cookie Palooza. It’s the biggest, most delicious event of the year! Browse dozens of cookie recipes over on the Sally’s Cookie Palooza page including:
Chocolate Frosted Cookies
- Prep Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes (includes chilling)
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours
- Yield: 19-20 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These chocolate frosted cookies are soft, chewy, and fudge-like. It’s a simple drop cookie recipe, no rolling pin required, and the creamy chocolate frosting is a scaled down version of fan-favorite chocolate buttercream. Chilling the cookie dough for 2 hours is imperative.
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g)ย unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil, avocado oil, or olive oil
- 1/2 cupย (100g)ย granulated sugar
- 1/2 cupย (100g) packed light or darkย brown sugar
- 1ย largeย egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoonย pure vanilla extract
- 1 and 1/4 cups (156g)ย all-purpose flourย (spooned & leveled)
- 1/2 cup (45g) unsweetened natural cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoonย baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoonย salt
Chocolate Frosting
- 3/4 cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 cups (240g) confectioners’ sugar
- 6 Tablespoons (30g) unsweetened natural or Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 3 Tablespoons (45ml) heavy cream or milk, slightly warm (see Note)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup (43g) sprinkles (such as these or these)
Instructions
- Make the cookies: In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, oil, granulated sugar, and brown sugar together on medium-high speed until fluffy and light in color, about 3 minutes. (Hereโs a helpful tutorial if you need guidance onย how to cream butter and sugar.) Add the egg and vanilla extract, and then beat on high speed until combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together until combined. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly pour into the wet ingredients. Beat on low speed until combined. The cookie dough will be thick and sticky. Cover dough tightly and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours and up to 3 days. Chilling is mandatory for this sticky cookie dough.
- Preheat oven to 350ยฐF (177ยฐC). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Remove cookie dough from the refrigerator. (If the cookie dough chilled longer than 3 hours, let it sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes. This makes the chilled cookie dough easier to scoop and roll.) Scoop dough, 1 heaping Tablespoon (about 28โ30g) of dough each, and roll into balls, and arrange 2โ3 inches apart on the baking sheets.
- Bake the cookies for 12โ13 minutes or until the edges appear set. Tip: If they arenโt really spreading by minute 10, remove them from the oven and lightly bang the baking sheet on the counter 2โ3x. This helps initiate that spread. Return to the oven to continue baking.
- Cool cookies for 10 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Make the frosting:ย With a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add confectioners’ sugar, cocoa powder, heavy cream/milk, vanilla extract, and salt. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to high speed and beat for 1 full minute. Taste. Beat in another pinch of salt if desired.
- Spread the frosting on the cooled cookies with a knife or an offset spatula. Top evenly with sprinkles.
- Cover and store frosted cookies at room temperature for up to 1 day, or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Frosting “soft-sets” on the cookies after a few hours, meaning it will slightly dry on top.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. You can freeze the unbaked cookie dough balls for up to 3 months. Bake from frozen, adding a minute or two to the baking time. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough. Baked plain or frosted cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Glass Mixing Bowls |ย Whisk | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper |ย Cooling Rack |ย Small Icing Spatula
- Natural Cocoa Powder: Do you know the difference between natural cocoa powder and dutch-process cocoa powder? Use natural cocoa powder in the cookie dough. Because there is no leavening in the buttercream, you can use either natural or dutch cocoa in the frosting.
- Milk In The Frosting: You can use either whole milk or heavy cream in the frosting (or even nondairy milk or half-and-half), but regardless of what you choose, warm it up for a few seconds in the microwave or on the stove. Adding slightly warm liquid to this chocolate frosting helps the cocoa powder absorb more liquid and creates a smoother, more satiny finish.
- Larger Batch: The recipe is easy to double in 1 mixing bowl without overwhelming your mixer. Simply double all of the cookie dough ingredients. Dough chill time remains the same. For the frosting, doubling it would be too much, so I recommend using the scaled up chocolate buttercream recipe (tastes just the same!).
- Can I Make a Vanilla Version? Yes. Try my sprinkle cookies supreme, or my soft cakey sugar cookies.
- Can I Make These with Vanilla Frosting? Yes. For a generous amount of frosting, use my vanilla buttercream recipe. For a slightly scaled down version that will be enough for the batch of chocolate cookies, use the same vanilla bean buttercream from my shamrock cookies.
- Be sure to check out my top 5ย cookie baking tipsย AND these are my 10 must-haveย cookie baking tools.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Just made these today, and wow! Very nice! The cookies came out almost brownie soft. They are sooo tasty! The added frosting on top, really does it. Itโs just chocolate, over beautiful chocolate. One of my favs for sure.
Do these cookies stack well after being frosted?
Hi Jamie, Frosting โsoft-setsโ on the cookies after a few hours, meaning it will slightly dry on top, but it would be best not to stack.
Oh my! This recipe is SO good! Just like you said, a frosted brownie. Chewy in the inside, a slight crisp to the edge. My husband is making an ice cream sandwich with 2 of them right now. My only complaint is to myself in that I did not make a double batch! I’m taking them to an event tomorrow and they will go fast! Thanks Sally! I just may make these again next weekend!
Hi Sally,
I love your cookie recipes. Why do you use 1 Tbs oil in this chocolate cookie recipe versus the 2 tsp milk in the chocolate cookie recipe for the Ades Mint? Looks like that is the only change to the recipe and I like to know how it affects the cookie.
Hi Kristie! We replaced the milk in the dough with a bit of oil, to give them a moister, brownie-like texture. And because we arenโt rolling the dough balls in sugar, like we do with the Andes mint chocolate cookies, the oil helps them spread just enough.
how can I make this without chocolate frosting? Just make buttercream frosting? I don’t care for any chocolate frosting..too much chocolate for me lol…
Hi Mary, you can leave the frosting off the cookies or use vanilla buttercream instead.
These were a winner in my house! I donโt like American buttercream so I frosted these with Sallyโs Swiss meringue buttercream and they were marshmallow-y and yummy. I only made 1/3 of the buttercream recipe and it was the perfect amount to frost all the cookies
These cookies are easy to make. They freeze well and are really tasty. Iโll make these again for sure.
Loved the cookie base but found the frosting much too sweet and unremarkable so I added some espresso and that really helped.
Just wanted to say I love this recipe! I added 1/2 tsp of peppermint extract and 1/4 tsp of espresso powder and then I dressed them with peppermint buttercream! Delicious peppermint mocha cookies!
Hi, Sally,
This comment is about the chewy oatmeal choc. chip cookies. I made my cookies a little smaller and baked them between 9-10 minutes. Now I have 5 dozen rock hard cookies. I am sick about this because I was planning on gifting cookies-I always do at Christmas time. I followed the recipe exactly as written except for the size and bake time. Is there something I can do to save them? I used 3 different kinds of chips, no nuts. Help, please!
Hi Linda, how small did you make the cookies? The bake time may have needed to be shorter. It may help if you store the cookies in an airtight container with a piece of bread. Typically, cookies will absorb the bread’s moisture which helps to soften the texture.
Can you cool the dough in pre-formed balls to make less work after chilling is done?
Hi Shannon! The dough may be too sticky to roll pre-chilling, but if you have a cookie scoop that makes it easier!
If I wanted to use a piping tip to decorate, which one(s) would you recommend for this particular recipe?
Hi Amanda! This chocolate buttercream pipes beautifully – use any piping tips you prefer.
Initially I would have rated these 2 stars – baked a lot flatter than pictured despite weighing everything, following instructions to the T. The flatter crispier cookie with the soft buttercream icing was too much contrast for my preferences. And they just tasted sweet but not super chocolatey. Then after a few days in the tin Iโm amending my rating to 4.5 stars! The cookies softened and the icing dried a bit so now both feel more in sync and itโs an enjoyable eat. They have been well received by others who have tried them and my chocoholic 3 year old is a big fan.
YUM, YUM and YUM! These are so good. You really out did yourself. My Thursday Bridge group all did Sallyโs recipe and two were from Cookie Palooza. And these are out of this world!
These just did not work for me. I’ve cooked dozens of Sally’s recipes, and several numerous times, but this isn’t one I’ll do again. They came out flat & I’ve never had that problem with cookies. Refrigerated the dough overnight & again after they were shaped, used a scale to measure both the ingredients and the dough balls, parchment paper and good quality pans that have never failed me in the past, new baking soda, and double checked to make sure I used natural & not Dutch cocoa powder. They were intensely chocolately, but in a kind of weird almost dry/chalky way even though they remained soft. The chocolate buttercream was great. I look forward to trying many more of Sally’s recipes as I usually have great suucess with them!
Hi Janet, I’m so sorry to hear this recipe didn’t work for you. We have a post on tips to prevent cookies from spreading, though it sounds like you did everything right!
Could a Dutch process cocoa powder be used instead?
Hi JRT, I don’t recommend it, as it will throw off the acidic ingredient ratio needed for the baking soda (dutched cocoa is not acidic). You can try it, but they may not rise and crinkle as they should.
They’re not as dissolve-in-your-mouth as Lofthouse cookies, but I don’t mind at. all. They’re super easy to make. The effort to outcome ratio is amazing. Definitely going to go into regular rotation!
Just finished baking this recipe. Very easy & really good. Mine flattened a lot after cooking. I wonder if I did something wrong? (They are still good!)
Hi Meg, glad you liked these cookies! Happy to help troubleshoot about the flattening… we have a post on tips to prevent cookies from spreading that might give you an idea of what happened.
14yo Daughter: โDad, these cookies are too good for us to take to any holiday parties. No one else comes close to making any cookies that taste as good as these!โ
Our family has now decided that we now have to have two different kinds of cookies: Shareable and IFO (immediate family only). These cookies are the first to fall into the second group. They are so delicious that they can only be served to the immediate family. Thank you Sally and team for such a great recipe!
These look amazing and canโt wait to try them. Iโm thinking of bringing the entire batch to a cookie party this weekend. This is probably a silly question but because of the buttercream, is it safe to assume they cannot be stacked on a plate like non-frosted cookies, or does the frosting set enough to stack on a plate a couple levels high?
Hi Morgan! Frosting โsoft-setsโ on the cookies after a few hours, meaning it will slightly dry on top, but it would be best not to stack.
Not sure what I did wrong. I chilled for 3 hours and I use an oven thermometer. First batch was completely overdone at 10 minutes, second batch was perfect and done at 7/8 minutes.
Hi Jordan, are you rolling the dough balls smaller? That seems like a short amount of time for this amount of dough to cook through! Sorry you had trouble.
hey can i make these with some peppermint extract in the frosting?
Absolutely! We would add 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract, or more to taste.
Can I freeze the frosted cookies. Just to stop me from eating them all!
Hi Mary, yes! Baked plain or frosted cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature.
Would your chocolate peanut butter frosting go with these cookies? I love the suggestions about the buttercream frosting, but want to make for my boss’ b-day and he loves peanut butter cups. Thought this cookie with the PB frosting would be perfect. What do you think?
YES! You could probably halve that chocolate peanut butter frosting recipe and it will be plenty.
Delicious!
These look amazing. I think Iโll bake these after Christmas with my kiddos
WARNING: consume these cookies with a glass of milk or strong coffee. These are super rich, chocolatey and sweet in the best way! I followed the recipe exactly. Mine did not turn out as soft as lofthouse cookies, I like Sallyโs comparison to cosmic brownies in cookie form. They were firm on the exterior and soft and good chew on the interior. Even though I frosted generously I had extra so Iโm freezing it for future use (not a bad thing!) Thanks Sally these cookies really hit the chocolate spot!
I know this is not a comment but I just signed up. Could you please be kind enough to forward me a great Snickerdodles recipe?
Hi Scarlett, here’s our snickerdoodles recipe – happy baking!
Can I add Reeseโs pieces or chocolate chips to the dough? Or would that change the structure?
Absolutely. It won’t be a problem, but you’ll get a little more spread if you use the dough from my double chocolate chip cookies recipe (the doughs are very similar, but today’s dough has a bit more structure b/c there are no add-ins).
Thank for all your wonderful recipes! Can you use coconut oil in this recipe? What type of olive oil do you use?
You can, but it’s best to use an oil that is liquid at room temperature. I usually use vegetable or avocado oil.