Double Chocolate Cookies with Espresso Buttercream

Double Chocolate Cookies with Chocolate Chips//Espresso Buttercream

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There are cookies… and then there are these cookies.

These double chocolate cookies are, without question, the best I’ve ever made — and honestly, the best I’ve ever eaten. They’re deeply rich, intensely chocolatey, soft throughout, with a centre that stays gooey in the best possible way. The kind of cookie you break in half and immediately know you’re going back for another.

What makes them special is that they don’t rely on shortcuts. This dough uses real melted dark chocolate and cocoa powder, layered together for maximum depth of flavour. But getting both into one cookie — and getting the texture exactly right — took work. I tested this recipe four or five times, trying different approaches to solve one very specific issue: when cocoa powder isn’t bloomed first (especially in a dough that already contains melted chocolate), it pulls from the dough’s available liquid. That leaves too little moisture to properly dissolve the sugar, resulting in a slightly granular texture — even though the cookies are still moist and delicious. I tried adding extra egg yolk, more hot water, and other small tweaks, but none of that actually fixed the problem. Blooming the cocoa was the only thing that truly solved it.

That solution does come with a trade-off: the finished dough is slightly wetter than a typical cookie dough. That’s why the dough is chilled for 45 minutes before rolling — it firms everything up, makes the dough easy to handle, and ensures the sugar fully dissolves as the cookies bake. This isn’t a usual hurdle when making cookies; it’s simply the result of pushing for maximum flavour by using both melted chocolate and cocoa powder.

The result is a cookie that delivers serious chocolate flavour, while staying tender, rich, and balanced — indulgent without feeling heavy, and deeply satisfying from the first bite to the last.

And then there’s the buttercream. The espresso buttercream is, quite frankly, dangerous. Silky, lightly sweet, and deeply aromatic, it pairs beautifully with the cookies. Espresso and dark chocolate are a classic for a reason: the coffee enhances the chocolate without overpowering it. A generous amount of salt rounds everything out and brings all the flavours into focus.

So many of my friends have told me these are their favourite thing I’ve ever made — which feels incredibly validating, and also means I now get requests for them constantly. They’re rich, salty, soft, gooey, and completely worth the effort.

Make them once, and you’ll see exactly why.

Recipe:

Makes 12 large cookies

Notes

• For the dark chocolate, I like to use Valrhona, Callebaut, or Green & Black’s. Those are my favourites! Use whatever brand you prefer, however, ensuring that it is 70%-85% cocoa, and doesn’t contain any artificial ingredients.

• I specify the type of salt used, as different salts are more or less salty than others. If you don’t have the same kind of salt used, be mindful of this and adjust accordingly. Generally speaking, pink Himalayan salt is less salty than most others.

  
  

Double Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients

• 115 g dark chocolate

• 50 g cocoa powder

• 100 g hot water

• 275 g all-purpose flour

• 3/4 tsp baking soda

• 1 tsp fine white salt

• 225 g unsalted butter, room temperature

• 350 g sugar

• 1 egg, room temperature

• 1 egg yolk, room temperature

• 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract

• 150 g dark chocolate chips (or more dark chocolate, in chunks)

Instructions

1. Place the 115 g of dark chocolate in a bowl and melt it in the microwave. (You can use the Bain Marie method if you don’t have a microwave.) Set aside.

2. Place cocoa powder in a small bowl. Pour the hot water over it. (When your tap water gets hot enough to steam, that’s hot enough.) Stir until combined. Set aside.

3. Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl. Whisk until combined.

4. Place butter and sugar in a large bowl, and beat on medium speed with an electric mixer for 4 minutes.

5. Add in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for 1 minute.

6. Pour the bloomed cocoa into the butter/sugar bowl. Beat on medium speed for 1 minute.

7. Pour in the melted chocolate. Beat on medium speed for 1 minute.

8. Add in the flour mixture. Beat on low until just combined.

9. Add in the chocolate chips (or chocolate chunks). Beat on low until just combined.

10. Refrigerate the cookie dough for 45 minutes. This will solidify it and make it easy to roll into balls.

11. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

12. Line 2 baking trays with parchment paper.

13. Roll the dough into 85 g balls.

14. Place the cookies on the baking trays. Keep it to 4 cookies per tray, to avoid them melting into each other.

15. Bake for 9 minutes, or until the tops look just set. This will yield a gooey centre.

16. Remove from oven. If you want to be a perfectionist (hi, this includes me!), grab a bowl that has a slightly larger circumference than that of the cookies. Place it on top of each cookie, upside down, and gently make swirling/circular motions on the tray. The cookie will hit the sides of the bowl, and this will bring in the edges, creating a perfect circle of a cookie! Boom.

17. Let the cookies cool on the tray for 3-4 minutes, then transfer them to cooling racks using a spatula. (You can either wait these 3-4 minutes and re-use one of the same trays for the next round of dough, or just line an extra tray.)

18. Proceed to making the espresso buttercream.

Espresso Buttercream

Ingredients

• 225 g unsalted butter, room temperature

• 2 egg yolks, room temperature

• 350 g powdered sugar

• 1/2 tbsp pure vanilla extract

• 1/4 tsp salt (pink Himalayan)

• 4.5 tbsp espresso, still warm

• 2 tbsp instant espresso

Instructions

1. Place butter and egg yolks in a large bowl, and beat on high speed with an electric mixer for 3 minutes.

2. Sift in powdered sugar, and beat on high for 3 more minutes.

3. Add in the vanilla and salt. Combine on medium speed.

4. Mix the instant espresso into the warm espresso with a spoon.

5. Reduce the speed to low, and add in the espresso 1 tbsp at a time. Once combined, give it a final whip on high.

6. Optional: Stick the  bowl of buttercream in the probably-still-warm oven for 2 minutes, then re-whip it. OR, remove a few tbsp of it (in a little bowl), and microwave it until melted, before re-whiping it back into the main bowl of buttercream. This is totally unnecessary, but it’s one of the tricks of the trade that I love to use to get a super loose and silky buttercream, for the easiest application. I do this with all of my buttercreams, it’s not specific to this recipe.

Assembly

You'll need:

• The cookies, fully cooled

• The Espresso Buttercream

• A piping bag

• A tea sifter

• Cocoa podwer

Instructions

1. Fill your piping bag with your desired nozzel, and cut off the tip.

2. Pipe buttercream on the cookies.

3. Sift a little cocoa powder over top of them.

4. Enjoy!

Storage note: Because there's no cream cheese in the buttercream, I store these cookies at room-temperature in a sealed container for up to 3 days. If you're not comfortable with that, you can store them in the fridge, but make sure you take them out long enough before consuming so that they're room-temperature and soft.

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