Mocha Chocolate Chunk Cookies

These mocha chocolate chunk cookies are soft, chewy, and filled with coffee and chocolate flavor enhanced with a sprinkle of sea salt. If you love chocolate and coffee, you have to try these cookies.

This final recipe for chocolate chip cookies is several years in the making. We don’t eat cookies often. But when we do, we want them to taste amazing and satisfying.

I can finally say that this is the perfect recipe after years of tweaking. Trust me, no batch went to waste. We enjoyed every variation as they came out of the oven, but as the cookies cooled, each bite found me wondering…“What if I add a little more…?” or “What if I add…?”

Until now….

This recipe elevates ordinary chocolate chip cookies with a bit of instant coffee granules and cocoa powder for extra chocolate mocha flavor. A dusting of flaky sea salt balances the sweetness, and enhances the chocolate flavor, creating a delicious sweet and salty sensation with every bite. Enjoy these cookies with coffee, tea, or a glass of cold milk.

Tips for Making Chocolate Chip Cookies

It’s a good idea to pull out all the ingredients before beginning to mix your cookies. That way, you can be sure you have everything on hand.

If you discover you are out of brown sugar, you can make it yourself with just two pantry ingredients. Butter too can be made from scratch if you have a carton of heavy cream on hand. If you are out of vanilla extract, you can substitute maple syrup for sweet and slightly smoky flavor.

• How to Make Brown Sugar
• How to Make Butter
• How to Make Vanilla Extract

Let the Butter Warm Up

Let your butter come to room temperature for about an hour before making your recipe. Creaming softened butter and sugar together adds air to the mixture, making your cookies light and fluffy. Butter right from the refrigerator is not pliable enough to blend.

Don’t be tempted to melt the butter in the microwave. Melted butter is unable to hold air and may even dissolve the sugar, which will make your cookies heavy and soggy.

The easiest way to soften butter is to leave it out to warm naturally. Butter is ready to use when it can be squished with your fingers. You can speed the process by pounding the butter. Follow this tutorial to soften butter quicker:

• How to Soften Butter Quickly

Use Instant Coffee Granules

Instant coffee adds a bit of depth, nuttiness, and mild bitterness to this recipe. Use instant coffee granules in this recipe. Please don’t make the mistake of using regular old ground coffee for this. It will ruin the whole batch, and you’ll be very sorry. It must be instant coffee so it will dissolve.

I keep instant coffee on hand for emergency power outages, and use it often for baking. It isn’t all that great for drinking, but it adds amazing coffee flavor to baked goods.

If you hate coffee, you can omit it, but it adds incredible flavor, and I promise your cookies aren’t going to taste like a cup of coffee.

Use a Cookie Scoop

Previously, I used a regular tablespoon and butter knife to scoop out the cookie dough and drop it on the baking sheets. No matter how careful I was, the cookies ended up different sizes and cooked up unevenly.

Once I tried using a cookie scoop, I never looked back. The scoop makes it so much easier to measure the dough and plop it onto the baking sheets. It is faster too, and the cookies come out the same size and roundness.

Don’t Skip the Sea Salt

Before baking the cookies, you are going to flatten them slightly and sprinkle the tops with sea salt. Sea salt is made from evaporated seawater. It is known for its large, course grains, and briny flavor.

Don’t go skipping this step because it’s the secret ingredient that makes these cookies taste their best. A little bit of sea salt adds a bit of saltiness, rounds out the sweetness, and boosts the chocolate flavor of these cookies.

Chill the Cookie Dough…If you have time

If you can wait, this cookie dough will benefit from a few hours of chilling in the refrigerator before baking. Chilling hardens the butter and helps prevent the cookies from spreading when baked. Go ahead and skip the chilling if you want to enjoy your cookies right away. I won’t judge. Just be sure to give the cookies plenty of space to spread out.

Steps to Making Mocha Chocolate Chunk Cookies

What makes this recipe for chocolate chip cookies so special? If you are craving chocolate, you want a rich, decadent, chocolate flavor that satisfies your sweet tooth. These mocha chocolate chunk cookies will quench that craving. These cookies are a perfect balance of chocolate and coffee flavor with a bit of saltiness.

The full detailed recipe can be found at the bottom, but here are the steps to making mocha chocolate chunk cookies:

Step 1: Dissolve the Coffee Granules

Add the instant coffee granules and hot water to a small bowl. Stir to dissolve and set aside to cool.

Step 2: Mix the Dry Ingredients

Add the flour, baking cocoa, baking soda, and salt to a medium bowl, and whisk well to combine. Set this aside while you mix your wet ingredients.

Step 3: Make the Cookie Dough

Use an electric mixer to cream the butter and sugars together until you have a nice, creamy, light texture going. Add in your egg, molasses, vanilla, dissolved instant coffee mixture, and continue to mix until everything is combined.

Reduce the mixer to low, slowly add your flour mixture in stages to the mixing bowl. After each addition, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and then keep mixing until you can’t see any more flour.

Now for the fun part! Throw in those chocolate chips! Stir in the chocolate chunks by hand with a rubber scraper or wooden spoon.

If you want to add more or less than the amount stated in the recipe, you go for it. Honestly, I always eyeball the amount for the chocolate chips. I just keep adding and stirring until it looks like the amount I want. My cookies are chock full of chocolate, because it’s amazing. If you’d like less, or EVEN MORE, that’s up to you!

Step 4: Bake the Cookies

Use a cookie scoop to measure a tablespoon ball of cookie dough and drop it at least 2 inches apart on your prepared baking sheets. This way, the dough won’t spread during baking and form one giant cookie.

Smoosh the balls down a tiny bit so you have a flat surface. I’m not talkin’ about making cookie pancakes here, just flatten them a tad. Sprinkle the top of each cookie lightly with sea salt.

Now, pop the baking sheets in the preheated oven. It is best to bake one batch on the middle rack at a time. I can fit two 15.25 x 10.25 inch cookie sheets on the oven rack. If your baking sheets are larger, bake one sheet at a time. You will lose heat if you try to do two large cookie sheets at a time and swap them halfway through.

Bake until the edges are lightly golden, about 8 to 10 minutes. They should be golden brown on the edges and be very soft looking in the middle.

Take them out and let them sit on the cookie sheet for a few minutes. When they are firm enough, slide them off and onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Or slide them off and into your mouth because you worked really hard, and you totally deserve a warm cookie.

Let the cookies cool completely, and then store in an airtight storage container for up to a week, or freeze for longer storage.

Mocha Chocolate Chunk Cookies

These mocha chocolate chunk cookies are soft, chewy, and filled with coffee and chocolate flavor enhanced with a sprinkle of sea salt. If you love chocolate and coffee, you have to try these cookies.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 25 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 36 cookies

Calories 85 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 3 tablespoons instant coffee granules
• 1 tablespoon hot water
• 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup cane sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• sea salt

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 375° F. Grease baking sheets, or line with parchment paper.
• In a small bowl, dissolve the instant coffee granules in the warm water. Set aside.
• Add the flour, baking cocoa, baking soda, and salt to a medium bowl. Whisk well to combine.
• Place the softened butter and sugars into large mixing bowl. Mix, using hand mixer or stand mixer on medium speed until well-blended and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
• Add the egg, molasses, vanilla, instant coffee mixture, and mix until well combined.
• Reduce the mixer to low, slowly add the flour mixture, and continue mixing. Stop and scrape down the sides as needed, and continue until thoroughly combined.
• Stop the mixer, and stir in the chocolate chips with a spatula or wooden spoon.
• Scoop tablespoon sized dough onto baking sheet, placing 2 inches apart.
• Smoosh them down a tiny bit so you have a flat surface and sprinkle each cookie lightly with sea salt.
• Bake 8 to 10 minutes in a preheated oven until edges are just browned. The center will still appear uncooked. Cool slightly, remove from baking sheet, and cool on a wire rack. Makes about 36 cookies.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookieCalories: 85kcalCarbohydrates: 11.2gProtein: 1.1gFat: 4.1gSaturated Fat: 2.5gCholesterol: 12mgSodium: 53mgPotassium: 22mgFiber: 0.2gSugar: 5gCalcium: 5mg

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