Soft and chewy cut-out Chocolate Sugar Cookies that don’t require any chilling.
Ingredients
Chocolate sugar cookies
- 170 grams (3/4 cup or 1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, cold, roughly chopped
- 165 grams (3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon) caster sugar or granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg, cold
- 280 grams (2 cups) plain flour or all purpose flour
- 40 grams (1/2 cup) cocoa powder, sifted
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
To decorate
- White chocolate, melted
- Mini red and green M&M’s
Instructions
- Chocolate sugar cookies
Preheat the oven to 170 C (340 F) standard / 150 C (300 F) fan-forced. Line two large baking trays or cookie sheets with baking paper. - Add butter, sugar and vanilla to a large mixing bowl. Turn mixer onto low speed and start to beat butter and sugar.
- Turn mixer up to medium speed and beat just until your butter and sugar is combined and smooth. There shouldn’t be any lumps of butter.
- Add cold egg. Mix briefly on low speed just to break up the egg yolk. Then add flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
- Continue to mix on low speed until a soft, but thick cookie dough forms. It may seem dry and crumbly at first, but just keep mixing and it’ll slowly come together. Shape cookie dough into a large round disc using your hands.
- Place a large sheet of baking or parchment paper on your bench. Place your cookie dough on top. Then, place another sheet of baking or parchment paper on top of the cookie dough. Roll out the dough until it’s 1/4 inch thick (or your desired thickness).
- Use cookie cutters to cut out cookies and carefully transfer them to your prepared trays. You can re-roll the excess dough once and cut out more cookies* (see notes below on re-rolling).
- Bake cookies for 11-12 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
- To decorate
Transfer melted white chocolate to a piping bag fitted with a very small round tip. Drizzle over cooled cookies and stick on M&M candy. Leave cookies at room temperature for 1 hour to set.
Notes
Cold butter: Using cold butter is the secret to making cut-out cookies that don’t spread and don’t need chilling. Just make sure you don’t overmix your butter and sugar. If you over-mix, your butter become will become warm, causing your cookies to spread. If this happens, don’t worry, simply chill the cookie dough for 1 hour before baking.
Cocoa powder: Use a natural 100% cocoa powder (unsweetened) or Dutch processed cocoa powder.
Spices: You can make this recipe as is for a regular Chocolate Sugar Cookie, or switch it up and add some festive spices. I love adding 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon of ginger. Add spices at the same time as the flour. Or add the finely grated peel of an orange for a chocolate orange version.
Weigh your flour using a baking scale: This recipe relies on the careful ratio of butter and flour. Using cup measurements can result in adding too much flour, which will make your dough dry and crumbly and hard to roll. Using a baking scale will give you just the right amount of flour every time.
Rolling your cookie dough: Your hands are warm so the more you touch your dough, the warmer the butter will become. You can re-roll the leftover dough once but any more than that, I recommend chilling the cookies for 30 minutes before baking just to prevent any spreading.
Worried about spreading? Bake one tester cookie and see how it goes. If you follow the steps above it should hold its shape, but if it does spread, don’t worry. Once you cut out your cookies, you can pop them in the fridge for 30 minutes before baking and try again.
