Are you a coffee lover? Or a chocolate lover? Or both? Well, these chocolate chip espresso cookies are most definitely for you! A soft and chewy espresso cookie dough packed with rich dark chocolate and espresso morsels. A quick, one bowl, no chill recipe for the best espresso chocolate treat!
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This is an easy one bowl cookie recipe for super soft and chewy espresso chocolate chip cookies.
These gorgeous caffeine fuelled beauties are made with espresso powder, dark chocolate and espresso morsels. A light sprinkle of sea salt on top adds a quick flourish and also helps to compliment and balance the flavour.
Why Combine Espresso and Chocolate Chip?
So, this is partly a personal taste - I love coffee and I love chocolate! The two together cannot be beat!
But, more importantly, coffee helps to accentuate the flavour in chocolate. I use a bit of coffee in many of my chocolate based recipes - such as my Chocolate Walnut Cake or Chocolate Baked Donuts. A little coffee will help strengthen the chocolate flavor without adding a coffee flavour.
In these cookies, there is enough espresso powder to add a proper coffee kick, along with the espresso morsels. This means that the coffee flavour does come through, but the espresso also works to compliment the chocolate.
Ingredient Notes
To make this recipe you'll need:
- Butter - unsalted butter, softened at room temperature. You can use salted butter here, but it will add extra saltiness to the overall recipe. I always recommend that if you're planning to substitute you may wish to reduce the added salt by about half.
- Light brown sugar - firmly packed measurements. This recipe only calls for brown sugar, no granulated sugar needed.
- Egg - a large egg, ideally at room temperature for baking.
- Vanilla extract
- Flour - all purpose flour or plain flour will work in this recipe.
- Baking soda
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Espresso powder - this is instant espresso powder, which is different from ground coffee.
- Dark chocolate chunks - you can buy large chocolate chunks or cut solid chocolate roughly into pieces. For the style of my cookies here, I recommend chunks a bit larger than the average chocolate chip for large pockets of chocolate.
- Espresso morsels - these are a fun espresso flavoured chocolate chip. It is optional here to use these, you can simply substitute with extra chocolate if you can't find the espresso morsels. They add a touch extra coffee flavour to the cookie.
How to Make Chocolate Chip Espresso Cookies
This recipe follows the same fundamental process as any classic one bowl chocolate chip dough.
- Start by preheating your oven with your baking sheet inside - this will speed up the process for baking your cookies!
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar. I do this with a handheld electric beater. You can use a spatula or use a stand mixer - all depends on what equipment you have available!
- Add the egg to the mixture, beating to combine. Then add the vanilla.
- Sift your flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and espresso powder in. Then stir this with a spatula to form a nice thick dough.
- Finally add in your chocolate chunks and espresso morsels, reserving some of each to add to the tops before they go into the oven.
- Using a cookie scoop or a tablespoon, dollop out your cookie dough balls.
- Place these well spaced on your preheated cookie sheet. Then using a dampened palm, gently press the tops of each to flatten slightly.
- Top each with some of the reserved chocolate and espresso morsels.
- Then bake in the oven for about 10 minutes until just starting to go golden on the edges.
- Remove and sprinkle with a bit of sea salt if using.
- Cool on the cookie sheet for about 2 minutes before moving the cookies to a wire rack to continue cooling.
- Repeat the process until you've baked all the cookies!
Tips for this Recipe
- Preheating the oven with the cookie sheet inside will help your cookie batches bake more evenly. It will also keep them chewy, soft and avoid excess spread even without chilling.
- Brown sugar and espresso powder will make the dough for these cookies a little darker than the average chocolate chip cookie. This means that it may be a bit more difficult to judge when the edges are going golden - just keep an eye out!
- Reserving some of the espresso morsels and chocolate chunks to add to the top of the cookies is a primarily decorative choice. If you're pressed for time or just want to make this more quickly, you can add all of the chips and chunks straight to the dough, mix together and bake as directed - the flavour won't be impacted.
- I like to pre-scoop my cookie dough balls. This will speed up your process when baking batches and also helps you judge how many cookies you will get out of your dough. You can redistribute the dough balls if you need more cookies or fewer larger ones.
FAQs
You can keep chocolate espresso cookie for about 4 days in an airtight container at room temperature. They'll stay fresh, soft and chewy.
You can also freeze these cookies. Like many chocolate chip style cookies, these are best to freeze as cookie dough balls, prior to baking. They can then be baked straight from frozen (increase the baking time about 5 minutes, but keep an eye on them). This means you can have choc chip espresso cookies essentially on demand!
Espresso chips are a relatively recent development in the world of baking morsels. These are a great way to add additional espresso flavour to a recipe, such as these chocolate chip espresso cookies!
Don't worry though - if you aren't able to find espresso morsels or an equivalent coffee flavoured chocolate chip, you can simply use chocolate chips in this recipe. The espresso powder provides the majority of the espresso flavor and the morsels are mainly a fun addition to further accentuate the coffee flavor.
Looking for more chocolate chip recipes? Try:
- Chocolate Chip Sugar Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookies
- Marshmallow and Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate Chip Espresso Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened at room temperature
- ¾ cup light brown sugar firmly packed
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1¼ cup all purpose flour or plain flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon espresso powder
- 5 oz espresso morsels (see note)
- 5 oz dark chocolate chunks or chips
Instructions
- Begin by preheating the oven to 350°F (175C/155C Fan) with a sheet pan in the oven.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the softened butter and brown sugar for about 2 minutes using a handheld electric beater.
- Add the egg and vanilla, beating to combine.
- Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and espresso powder into the mixture. Stir together using a spatula until you have a thick dough.
- Add the espresso morsels and chocolate chunks, reserving a small handful of each for topping the cookies before baking. Stir through to distribute in the dough.
- Carefully remove the preheated sheet pan from the oven and cover with a piece of parchment paper.
- Scoop balls of cookie dough and place these well spaced on the parchment (see note). Flatten each slightly using a lightly dampened palm and top each with a couple of the reserved espresso morsels and chocolate chunks.
- Bake in the centre of the preheated oven for about 12 minutes until going lightly golden at the edges.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the pan for about 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to continue cooling. Repeat the baking process until finished with your dough.
Ann Lewis
I really love the sound of these......it's a perfect combination. 😋😍
Liz Mincin
Thank you!! They're some of my favourites 🙂