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This dark chocolate cut-out cookies recipe is made with butter, Dutch process cocoa powder, with just enough sugar to make the rich dark chocolate edge of these cookies shine.

If you’re looking for a chocolate dough to make chocolate tarts, chocolate cut-out cookies for making homemade Oreos, or the perfect cookie for homemade ice-cream sandwiches, look no further.

I tell people that my favorite cookie is the one I happen to be eating (true). That being said, there’s few cut-out cookies I’ll eat plain right off the sheet. These, my friends are the exception.

I dearly love the crisp edges, how easy this dough is to roll, and how many things you can do with it.

This is truly a cookie for all seasons.

Dark Chocolate Cut-out cookies recipe

Ingredients for dark chocolate cut-out cookies

Butter: at room temperature. Every good cookie starts with butter!
Powdered sugar: just a bit, adds tenderness to the dough.
Vanilla: paste or extract for flavor
Flour: to hold all the things together
Cocoa powder: Dutch-process cocoa, preferably dark such as Droste or Hershey’s Special Dark. Use black onyx cocoa for an Oreo cookie clone.
Salt: a pinch for flavor

Tips for the best cut-out cookies

Be sure to use parchment when rolling. You’ll keep the cookies from getting too much flour, and it’ll help you get a tiny evenly rolled sheet of dough before rolling.
Press your dough together before rolling in a piece of plastic wrap: this will help all the ingredients to come together in a uniform dough.
Check out more secrets for perfect cut-out cookies.

Fun things to do with dark chocolate cut-out cookies dough

This is a versatile cookie dough. Look at this as a basic recipe you can add all the things to. Let your imagination go wild.

Chocolate Caramel Tarts (use this Vegan Coconut Caramel).
Homemade Oreos
Crust for Chocolate Cream Pie
Base for ice cream sandwiches
From scratch chocolate icebox cake
Cookie bark
Fancy decorated cutout cookies with royal icing

Chocolate Butter Cookie Thins

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Author: Elizabeth Farr
Total Time: 50 minutes
Yield: 20-24 depending on the size of cutter

Print Recipe

Description

This is the perfect dough for sandwich cookie bases or chocolate tartlets. Use your favorite cookie cutters for simple addictively crisp chocolate wafers.

Ingredients

Scale

1 stick butter, at room temperature (113 grams)
60 grams powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
90 grams all-purpose flour
50 grams Dutch process cocoa powder (such as Droste or Hershey’s Special Dark)
pinch of salt

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Instructions

Beat the butter and powdered sugar with a hand mixer or in a stand mixer briefly to soften it.
Add in the vanilla and mix for a few seconds.
Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt in a small bowl. It’s important to sift the cocoa as the fat in it tends to make the cocoa lumpy.
Beat the dry ingredients into the butter for a few seconds until the flour disappears. The dough should look crumbly at this point.
Set a piece of plastic wrap on your counter, then press the dough together into one uniform mass. Pat the dough into a flat round, then cover with the plastic wrap.
Chill the dough for 15 minutes.
Get 2 pieces of parchment out and have 2 sheet trays at hand.
Lightly sprinkle one of the sheets of parchment with flour, then sprinkle flour on the top of your dough flat.
Place the dough unfloured side down on top the floured parchment, then cover with the second piece of parchment.
Bring the edge of the parchment to the edge of the counter and hold it in place with your hip.
Roll the dough between the two sheets of parchment into a sheet about 1/8″ thick.
Slide the parchment onto a baking sheet and chill for 15 minutes in the fridge or 10 minutes in the freezer.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 C).
After 15 minutes, peel off the top piece of parchment.
Use a cookie cutter of your choice to cut out shapes as close together as possible on the rolled out dough. When you have a full sheet tray you’re ready to bake.
Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, stopping to rotate the cookies 180 degrees halfway through baking. Be careful not to overbake these; because of the dark cocoa, it can be hard to see how baked they are. You’ll know they’re done when the tops are set to the touch and your finger no longer makes a dent if you press in the middle of a cookie.
Cool the cookies until the tray is cool to the touch, then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Gather up any scraps and repeat the rolling and chilling process.
Repeat the cutting and baking for the leftover dough.
Store cookies in an airtight tin at room temperature for up to a week or freeze for up to 3 months.