Double Chocolate Espresso Cookies
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Made with both cocoa powder and chocolate chips as well as a small amount of espresso powder, which heightens the chocolate flavor, these cookies are deeply chocolatey, properly salted, and perfectly textured, crisp on the exterior with a dense, fudgy center. What’s more, they come together in one bowl!
Every year around Mother’s Day, the wonderful people at Fair Trade work hard to share the stories about the many women behind their Fair Trade products. This year, their theme is: “FairHer: Celebrating the Women of Fair Trade.” One of the founding principles of Fair Trade is Women’s empowerment. In addition to freedom from harassment, Fair Trade certification ensures that women have a voice, a vote, and a leadership role in the community.
What is Fair Trade?
• Fair Trade helps farmers (more than 1.2 million worldwide) in developing countries build sustainable businesses that positively influence their communities.
• Products that bear the Fair Trade logo come from farmers and workers who are justly compensated.
• The rigorous Fair Trade standards ensure that farmers and workers enjoy safe working conditions, regulated work hours, maternity leave and freedom of association. Slave and child labor are strictly prohibited.
• Fair Trade ensures that farmers follow internationally monitored environmental standards and also provides financial incentives and resources for organic conversion, reforestation, water conservation and environmental education.
• Fair Trade empowers women to play an active role in their families and in their co-ops by starting businesses with guaranteed access to health care, certain job rights and freedom from harassment.
• Fair Trade supports education with revenues set aside to build schools and maintain enrollment.
Fortaleza del Valle Cooperative
As in previous years, to help tell the stories about the people behind their food, Fair Trade has paired every blogger participating in this event with a farmer. Meet my match: Mariana del Jesus Mendoza, a cocoa farmer & member of the Fortaleza del Valle Cooperative in Ecuador.
Mariana notes: “Thanks to Fair Trade we are able to sell our cacao at fair and stable prices. Before we were organized into Fortaleza del Valle, many of us did not know how to take true advantage of our plants’ capacities and would ruin them with pesticides and fungicides.”
How to Make Double Chocolate Espresso Cookies, Step by Step
For these cookies, you’ll need cocoa powder (Dutch processed), chocolate chips, and espresso powder or finely ground coffee as well as the usual players: flour, butter, brown sugar, sugar, eggs, vanilla, baking soda, and salt.
Update February 14th, 2025: I recently updated this recipe to use melted butter and one bowl, and it worked beautifully.
I like to portion my cookie dough using a scale to ensure each ball weighs exactly the same amount and in turn so each cookie bakes evenly.
… this sight makes my heart so very happy:
At this point, you can freeze the dough balls or store them in the fridge for as long as two weeks (probably longer). When ready to bake, place 6 balls on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Press down on them lightly to secure them in place.
Bake for 11 minutes at 375ºF. The cookies will be puffed upon removal and will not look fully cooked, but they will continue to cook as they cool completely on the sheet pan.
Sprinkle with flaky sea salt, if you wish, as soon as they cookies emerge from the oven.
Once cooled completely, serve.
Is there anything better?
Cookie monsters …
Double-Chocolate Espresso Cookies
- Total Time: 24 hours 30 minutes
- Yield: 35 cookies
Description
This recipe is an adaptation from my favorite soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie with some of the flour replaced by cocoa powder and the addition of two teaspoons of finely ground coffee.
Notes:
Plan ahead: For best results, make the dough ahead of time: after mixing the dough, portion it into 48 g balls and refrigerate the balls in an airtight container for at least 1 hour but ideally 12 to 24 hours.
Espresso powder: Most recently I popped open one of my Nespresso pods, and used two teaspoons of the finely ground beans. It worked beautifully.
Cocoa Powder: I have used both Dutch-processed cocoa powder and natural cocoa powder here with success. Typically when a recipe calls for baking soda, you should use natural cocoa powder, but I don’t find it makes a difference in terms of the leavening here, so I prefer to use a cocoa powder that I really like: I’ve been using this Dutch-processed Cocao Barry Extra Brute, which I learned about from Stella Parks. Any Dutch-process cocoa powder you like will work as will natural cocoa powder.
Final note: Upon embarking on a quest to make shiny brownies, which led to learning about lead levels in cocoa, many of you Readers wrote in to share your favorite brands of cocoa powder. Here they are:
Ingredients
- 1⅓ cups (305 g) unsalted or salted butter, softened or melted (see recipe below, I always use salted butter)
- 1½ cups packed (300 g) light brown sugar
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups (384 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup (28 g) Dutch processed cocoa powder, see notes above
- 1.5 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt (or half as much if using Morton)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons finely ground coffee beans or espresso powder, see notes above
- 12 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
- flaky sea salt for sprinkling, optional
Instructions
Method 1: Softened Butter
- Cream butter and sugars together in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, until light and fluffy. Scrape the bowl, beat again on high for one minute. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until well blended, about another minute on medium-high speed. Whisk flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda, and ground coffee beans together in a separate bowl. Add to butter mixture and combine with a spatula or wooden spoon (or very briefly with paddle attachment) until just blended. Add the chocolate chips and stir till combined. The dough will be stiff.
Method 2: Melted Butter | One Bowl
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Place the sugars in a large bowl. Pour the melted butter over the sugars and whisk to combine. Whisk in the eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla. Whisk in the salt, baking soda, espresso powder, and cocoa powder. Add the flour, and use a spatula to incorporate it into the dough. Fold in the chocolate chips.
Portion and Bake:
- Portion the dough into 48-gram sized balls. This is a tedious task, but it makes for beautiful and uniform cookies that bake evenly. If you have a digital scale, this is easy; if you have no scale, use a small ice cream scoop or some other uniform measuring device. Chill the portioned balls for at least one hour but preferably 24 hours. Keep portioned balls in the fridge for up to 1 week or freeze for months.
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Place six of the balls nicely spaced on an ungreased or parchment-lined sheet pan. Press down gently on the balls to secure them in place. Bake for 11 minutes. Keep a close watch. You want to remove the cookies from the oven when they still look slightly raw—you will think you are removing them too early. The cookies will continue cooking as they sit on the tray out of the oven. Sprinkle with sea salt if using. Let cookies cool completely on the tray before removing. I find these cookies taste best once they are completely completely cool — several hours after baking. They really firm up and taste, well, just so darn good. When they are warm, they are still a little too soft for my liking (though others disagree).
- Prep Time: 24 hours minutes
- Cook Time: 11 minutes
- Category: Cookie
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
164 Comments on “Double Chocolate Espresso Cookies”
Yummy these look amazing!
I’m obsessed with Alter Eco chocolate bars — the quinoa one is insane. I love that you’re doing this…and I love how they paired the bloggers with farmers. Beautiful post + the cookies sound delicious!! xo
Amazing giveaway !
These were great Ali! Thanks for another great recipe. Miles loves them….and so do his teachers! 🙂
Cookies look delicious! Thanks for the giveaway
This cookie turned out very delicious, but mine stayed thick and did not spread out at all, and get a little thinnner and crispier, the way yours did. Any idea why this could be? I know there are many variables in cookies that could cause this, but I followed the recipe quite closely.
Hi Simon,
Sorry for the delay here! I have a feeling it’s because you’ve likely used more flour or cocoa — do you use a scale? If you use a scale, the measurements will be more accurate, but if you don’t, I would suggest going a little lighter when you measure. Less flour/cocoa will help the cookies spread a bit. Hope that helps!
Since we can only bake 6 cookies at a time in baking sheet pan, can we fill up three racks simultaneously with several half sheet pans ? Thank you. I love your cookies. I can’t wait to try them.
You can try! My oven is old and unreliable, so I don’t get the best results when I have more than one sheet pan in the oven at a time — something about how the pans block the air circulation. Not sure what it is. If you have fine results using multiple racks at once, I say go for it!!
Thank you for another delicious recipe! These cookies have become our favorite
“ Corona cookies”….they definitely made our days brighter!
I just couldn’t wait until the dough was chilled, and baked smaller cookies (10g) for about 10 minutes and they were perfect-so chocolatey!
I am so happy to hear this, Diane! Great to know not chilling works. Hope you are well! Sending love 💕💕💕💕
I made these over the weekend, so delicious. But like one of the comments mentioned mine too didn’t spread out thin. Instead they were plumpy but still yummy. I used a scale throughout the entire recipe and on all ingredients. I baked them on a silpat perfect cookie mat and even rotated them. Anyways everyone loved them just funny how baking can vary so much. Thanks for the recipe.
Hi Susana, so nice to hear this! And, yes, so interesting as it sounds as though you followed the recipe to a T. Baking is funny like that. The only thing I’m thinking that might make a difference is the type of sheet pan. What kind are you using? Is it pretty standard? Or is it thicker/heavier … I ask only bc I have one pan that is heavier and it almost has an insulating layer, which causes things to bake a little differently on it.
My family adored these cookies. They are delicious and is perfect for all the chocoholics in my family. The only change I would make would be to add a little more espresso to recipe but that is a personal taste thing.
So nice to hear this, Stacey! I could totally see upping the espresso here. Thanks for writing!
I absolutely love these cookies. So delicious and chewy. Do you have aby tricks to keep them fresh after baking? Normally I store cookies in an airtight container with a slice of bread at the bottom but these still seem to get stale rather quickly. Other than that issue these have become a favorite with family and friends. Thank you for the great recipe!
So nice to hear this, Nicole! I don’t have any tricks apart from an airtight container. My only other thought might be the freezer? And then take a few out at a time to thaw. I imagine a could hours at room temperature would bring them back to serving temperature.
Could you explain why you thought melted butter would work here, and whether you have any ideas when melted butter could be used instead of softened butter in other cookie recipes? I find waiting for butter to soften can take awhile (yes, I understand there are speedier methods) as I tend to just let it sit out. Melted butter could be a game changer. Thanks!
Hi Nancy! It’s really just because I have successfully made so many recipes using melted butter in place of softened butter over the years that I felt inspired to try. I do also chill my dough balls after they are shaped, so I think step might play a role in the success. I might never use softened butter again 🙂
Hi Ali: I got your recipe this morning. It sounded so good and easy. I changed my baking plan since I didn’t feel like hauling the mixer onto the counter. The cookies are super delicious. I weighed everything and baked six at a time in my Wolf toaster oven. That took a while but was worth it. This recipe is a keeper. Thanks so much and I hope you have a good Valentine’s Day! Kathy
Great to hear, Kathy! So glad you made them. I think they are one of my all-time favorite cookies. Happy Valentine’s Day to you as well 💕💕💕💕
I thought everybody used a scale to portion out cookie dough???? I think it is easier than a cookie scoop, I always use that technique with your recipe for the GOAT and my favorite, crisp and chewy ginger cookie, as well.
Well I’m happy to hear I’m not alone! Some people think it is just too much. I truly cannot imagine portioning cookie dough without a scale. So nice to read all of this… thank you for your kind words 💕💕💕💕
Hi, just saw the story on Instagram and the cookies there look so much darker and not as spread out…. Curious if you did anything different?
Hi! I think it’s just because I’m using different cocoa powder. Possibly the silpat provided some extra insulation, too. I use parchment paper now.
Is the idea to taste the espresso in the cookie or is it just there to accentuate the chocolate flavor? They are delicious but even with a little extra freshly ground beans we didn’t taste it.
Yes! Just to accentuate the chocolate flavor. I do find I can taste it more on cookies that are a day old. If you want more espresso flavor, double it next time!
These are delicious Ali. Thanks for another winning recipe 🙂
Great to hear, Kylie 🙂
ok i’m looking for an “only coffee or espresso”cookie without chocolate–or not much chocolate cause I want to taste the coffee flavor.–alrigjt?thanks