Dutch cocoa cookies are rich, chewy chocolate cookies with a crunchy sugar coating. This recipe is reminiscent of Archway's Dutch Cocoa Cookies.
Heather's recipe summary
Flavor/texture: Chewy chocolate cookies coated in a crunchy sugar crust.
Chilling time: Dough requires a 1 hour chill before baking.
Yield: 36 cookies
Similar to: Red Velvet Sugar Cookies
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Ingredients and substitutions
- Unsalted butter - Can be substituted with salted butter (you'll want to omit the salt listed in the recipe). Your butter should be room temperature - not cold, not melted.
- Dutch cocoa - Dutch cocoa is less acidic and has a darker color and milder flavor than natural cocoa powder. I haven't tested this recipe using natural cocoa powder, so I can't say how it would turn out.
How to make Dutch cocoa cookies
- Cream together wet ingredients until light and fluffy.
- Add sifted dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated. Chill dough for 1 hour.
- Use a medium 1.5 tablespoon scoop to portion dough.
- Roll to coat in granulated sugar.
- Place on a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Bake until the tops begin to crack and cookies feel set when gently pressed on top.
Heather's Top Tip
For accurate results every time, use a kitchen scale to measure flour by weight. If you don't have a kitchen scale, use the spoon and level method. Stir the flour (especially if it's been packed down in a bag/container), then gently spoon into the measuring cup, leveling off the top with a knife. Scooping with a measuring cup compacts flour into the cup and adds up to 25% extra to the recipe, resulting in dry, bland cookies that don't spread properly.
Tips and tricks
Room temperature ingredients - It's very important to use room temperature ingredients because they incorporate together seamlessly to create a smooth dough that ensures each cookie bakes evenly.
To bring butter to room temperature quickly - Unwrap and slice butter into small pieces, leaving it on the counter and in the wrapper or a small bowl for up to 30 minutes. Small pieces warm up faster than a whole stick.
To bring eggs to room temperature quickly - Place whole eggs into a bowl and cover with very warm tap water. Eggs come to room temperature in about 10 minutes using this method.
Don't overmix the dough - Once the gluten (flour) has been added to the recipe, take care not to overmix the dough. Overworking the gluten can cause your cookies to turn out tough.
Frequently asked questions
In the photos shown, I used a medium, or 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop. My favorite cookie scoop brand is OXO. For something like a holiday party tray, these cookies also work great with a small cookie scoop.
The dough may be too cold (maybe left in the refrigerator too long), or too much flour was added to the dough (see the note* in the recipe card about properly measuring flour).
- Leave dough balls on the counter top to warm slightly before baking. Cold dough spreads less and warm dough spreads more.
- Use your hands or the bottom of a flour-dusted glass to press down on the dough balls before baking. This helps the dough spread more and creates a flatter top (this is also described in step six of the recipe card).
- If too much flour was added to your dough, you'll want to make sure your cookies aren't also overbaked - this combination results in a dry cookie.
- Don't skip the step of refrigerating your dough. Refrigerating not only helps the flavors meld, but also makes the dough easier to roll into balls and reduces spreading.
- If your dough is still spreading in the oven, try refrigerating the dough balls for 10 minutes, then transfer directly into the oven.
- Use parchment paper for best results. I do not recommend using a greased cookie sheet. A layer of grease/cooking spray makes cookies of any kind spread more in the oven.
Baking soda helps the cookies to spread and also creates that crispy exterior. Check out this post with more details - Baking Soda vs. Baking Powder.
Add milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing to hydrate your dough. Cookie dough should look thick and a little sticky when room temperature, not dry or crumbly.
Recommended
📖 Recipe
Dutch Cocoa Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 ½ cups (300 g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups (240 g) all purpose flour
- ¾ cup (63 g) dutch cocoa
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup (66 g) granulated sugar, for rolling
Instructions
- In a large bowl, add butter and sugar. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, cream together until light and fluffy, about a minute.
- Add eggs and vanilla extract. Beat until light and fluffy, another 1 to 2 minutes.
- In a separate bowl, sift (or whisk) together the flour, Dutch cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
- Slowly mix dry ingredients into butter mixture until just combined.
- Cover bowl or wrap dough in wax paper. Chill for at least 1 hour (up to 24 hours) in the refrigerator. Refrigerating allows the flavors to meld and create a firmer dough to roll into balls.
- Preheat oven to 350℉ and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Scoop dough using a 1.5 tablespoon (medium) scoop or shape by hand into 1.5 inch balls. Roll balls in granulated sugar.
- Place cookie dough balls 2 inches apart onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Bake for about 11-13 minutes, or until cookies begin to crack on top. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Equipment Recommendations
Notes
- Storage: Cookies will keep for 5-7 days in a sealed container, or up to 3 months in the freezer. To help keep cookies fresh, place a slice of bread in the container with the cookies. Replace the bread slice as needed.
- Dough storage: Raw cookie dough will keep in the refrigerator for 3 days. Cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months in a sealed plastic container or freezer bag. Allow frozen balls to thaw for up to 10 minutes on the baking sheet before baking, or add 1-2 minutes to the baking time.
- Tips: Be sure to check out my 10 tips for baking cookies, based on reader comments and questions!
Excellent! After baking 3 pans: 15 mins perf! Amazing cracks to! Chewy center, outside crunch do not over bake. 1.5 melon baller used
perfect. followed recipe exactly. they came out deliciously perfect. i already have to make another batch!
I just made a batch of these as a last minute surprise for some friends having a rough time. The recipe was easy to follow, and I have to say, they are absolutely delightful.
These are now added to my family’s favorites! Absolutely delicious! Followed the recipe exactly and they’re perfect every time!
Can I use black cocoa ?
Hi Robin, I haven't tested this recipe with black cocoa so I can't say for sure how it would turn out. I suspect that it would work fine, since it has a similar low acidity like dutch cocoa. If you give it a try, let us know how it goes!
Made these with a little extra salt, gluten free flour, and added mini semi sweet chocolate chips, and they are epic! Also, I ignored the folding/slow adding instructions since I've heard that makes no difference, and they have the perfect texture!
This will be a go to for my family.
I'm in my 70s and remember Archway cookies from way back when. Instead of trying to find them, I ran across this recipe and gave it a try. HooWEEE! They're terrific! And I believe the key ingredients are both the Hershey's Special Dark cocoa (since I couldn't find Dutch Processed), and the UNsalted butter. I didn't think the butter would matter all that much, but was amazed at how much better it tastes. The only warning I would emphasize is that this is a thick, thick, heavy dough! I've broken several hand mixers over the years making chocolate chip cookies. This is a candidate for a broken mixer. One solution is to use a stand mixer. But the way I now do it is to first cream the butter/sugar egg/vanilla mixture. That works fine with a hand mixer. Put the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Yes, weighing is very definitely the way to go for consistent results. Key tip: Put in only half the flour mixture to the creamed wet stuff. The hand mixer will handle that and give a nice texture. Then use a fork to blend in the remaining half. This will not only preserve your mixer, but it will ensure you don't over-mix the dough. Other than that, this is now my Go-To chocolate cookie recipe! Thank you very much for the weights, too! Worked exactly right the very first time. And I only made half the recipe. That worked perfectly too! 🙂
Hi Craig, so glad to hear you enjoyed the cookies!
Holy Moly! These were amazing! My whole family adored them. Soooo good - especially right out of the oven. Thanks!
I made these for the 1st time today. I introduced my son to the Archway Dutch Cocoa cookies when he was little. He absolutely loves this recipe & calls them crack lol.
Anyone ever made these with gluten free flour? And if so how’d they turn out?
Delicious warm out of the oven and equally delicious, if not more so, the next day when they are chewy in the center and slightly crisp on the edges from the sugar coating. Rich chocolate flavor with the right amount of sweetness. Thanks for the recipe!
Hi there,
I have both dark and light dutch cocoa. Do you recommend one or the other, or is it to taste? I may try a mixture... Looking forward to these lovelies.
Hi Jonah, I've never tried this recipe with light dutch cocoa, but I think either would work in this recipe. Let us know how you like the cookies!
Hi! Quick question , I only have 1 stick of unsalted butter and one stick of salted. How much salt should I add do you think? Maybe a 1/4 teaspoon
Hi Kendra - yes! One stick of butter contains about 1/4 teaspoon of salt, so for each stick of salted butter, I'd suggest reducing the amount of salt in the recipe by 1/4 teaspoon.
Hi, thank you for this wonderful recipe. I loved Archway Dutch Chocolate cookies as a kid but kinda forgot about them over the past couple decades. Then over the past year I started to take up baking as a hobby. I've made all kinds of cookies over that time but this recipe I've used twice.. Each time I follow instructions to a T and bake for 10 minutes in my gas over and they are perfect by the time they fully cool. There's just something different and addictive about these. The flavor just has this subtle deliciousness and aftertaste that combines so well with the texture. Anyways these have been the biggest hit amongst family and coworkers when compared to my other works, so I'm not alone,
Again, thank you for your efforts putting this recipe up as it is a winner!!! I have butter and eggs on the counter warming to room temp for my third batch as I type this. Happy baking
These look so good! Can I add bitter sweet chocolate chips and white chocolate chunks? I was also wondering if I could use half brown sugar and half granulated sugar?
Yes, chips and chunks can be added to the dough! I haven't tried the recipe with brown and granulated sugar, but it should be fine. If you give it a try, let us know how it goes!
Delicious chocolatey cookies!! I’ve made them with both regular all purpose flour and gluten free all purpose flour and both worked great! I highly recommend. And I always underbake them a minute so they’re extra gooey 🙂 delicious!!!
These are the first chocolate cookies I've made and they came out perfectly. My entire family ages 3 and up can't stop eating them! I added a 1/2 tsp cinnamon because I add that to almost everything I bake, and sprinkled a little coarse salt on top, but I'm sure they'd still be great without.
Yum, cinnamon sounds like a great addition - so glad you enjoyed them!
An easy cookie to make and delicious to eat. Thanks for sharing. I was out of vanilla, so substituted almond extract (half the amount of the vanilla). Success! Next time I'll try with vanilla.
These were so easy to make, and delicious the first day. But OMG, the next few days... absolutely addictive. Like, we had to hide the cookie jar so we wouldn't destroy them! I added some flaky sea salt on top for the combination of sweet and salty. Ok, off to make more. Thanks for a great recipe!
Oh man! First batch, first sheet out of the oven. These look and smell soooo good, but they didn’t spread much and puffed up quite a bit. Maybe my dough balls (straight from waiting in the fridge for oven space) were too cold? I’m a huge fan of thinner, crunchy-chewy cookies like what you described. Fingers crossed I can let the chill off a little and get them to spread more.
Hi Kristin! Warmer dough will help them spread more. A common issue I see when cookies are too thick/don't spread is that too much flour was added to the dough. I recommend the spoon and level method, spooning flour into the measuring cup, then leveling with a knife. If flour is scooped with the measuring cup, it often compacts flour into the cup and adds up to 25% more flour to the recipe.
I don’t know if this will be helpful so much after the fact, but my experience was that they did, indeed, puff quite a bit during baking, but as I had hoped, they flattened perfectly as they cooled.
These delivered the crisp exterior and chewy interior described in the recipe in a BIG way...and I suspect that by tomorrow the deep chocolate flavor will be more complex and pronounced. Thank you for a wonderful recipe!
These were the most amazing cookies I’ve ever made, ever. Ever. And I’ve made a lot of cookies! What a wonderful recipe you’ve created here! I will say this: I made these for Valentine’s Day and so I wanted to bump up the chocolate so I added about 1 1 1/2 cups of semi sweet chocolate chips. Holy moly. Amazing. Wanna know what else I did, because I’m ridiculous? I ate them with a spoonful of Nutella. Oh my. Currently trying to figure out a way to stuff them with Nutella! Thanks again, this ones a keeper!
Hi Maria, thank you for the great review! I'm so glad you love the recipe.
Super good cookie ! Have made them twice already and they are going to go on my Christmas cookie platter for sure ! Thank you so much for sharing !!
Thank you Deborah for the review, I'm so glad you enjoy the recipe!