The name is deceiving. Yes, it’s true–powdery cocoa can be transformed into an amazingly rich, fudgy chocolate cookie.
This cookie ranks as the most decadent chocolate cookie I’ve ever had. There are chocolate chips, but all they seem to add is a burst of chocolate and a contrasting texture. The rich chocolate comes from a ton of cocoa that goes into the dough, coupled with sour cream. This cookie is reserved for the true chocoholic.
Rather than creaming sugar and butter together first as is the case with, let’s say, chocolate chip cookies, with these cookies, you need to first beat the eggs with the sugar.
Next, melted butter and vegetable shortening are mixed in. For those who aren’t shortening fans, the shortening can be replaced with more butter. The texture is better with shortening though, so keep that in mind. I also added in a lot of sour cream. The batter became rather runny (so I started to panic).
I added in the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking powder, and baking soda) second to last. And then came the chocolate chips–my favorite part.
The previously runny batter turned into thick cookie dough. But the dough is pretty sticky, so I used two soup spoons to form mounds of dough on the pans.
The pans went into the oven, and about 12 minutes later, the cookies were done. It was hard to tell whether they were done or not since you can’t see “browning” or any color changes. I just had to wing it by guessing when they looked “set.”
I baked them in two batches, two pans each batch. I taste tested the cookies straight out of the oven because I didn’t trust myself and thought that they might be still raw. They weren’t raw, but they were disappointingly dry and even bitter. Ahhh, but by the next day, a transformation occurred, and the cookies were incredibly delicious. It pays to wait!
Leaving the cookies plain is an option. I opted to pipe melted white chocolate on them.
Here is the white chocolate in a bowl set over a small saucepan with simmering water. Stir the chocolate constantly while heating it on the stove.
Here is the chocolate fully melted. The melting process was very quick–about 30 seconds. If you leave the chocolate to sit too long over the heat, it will end up being unusable.
Since we are heading into the Christmas season, I also tried out dusting the cookies with confectioner’s sugar to make them more festive. [They’d make a great cookie for cookie exchanges.]
I also tried a chaotic drizzle of white chocolate.
You can’t go wrong with your decorating choice. The best choice of all is to eat them!!

Servings |
cookies
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- 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/4 cups cocoa powder
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 1/4 cups sour cream
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted (4 ounces or 1 stick)
- 1/2 cup vegetable shortening, melted (can be substituted with butter)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup white chocolate, chopped or chips (optional)
- confectioner's sugar for dusting (optional)
Ingredients
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- Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease cookies sheets or line with parchment paper. Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cocoa powder. Set aside.
- Using an electric mixer, beat eggs, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add sour cream, melted butter, melted shortening (or butter), and vanilla extract. Mix until well-combined.
- Gradually add flour mixture to the egg mixture, mixing on low speed until almost combined. Add chocolate chips and mix until just combined.
- Drop mounds of dough onto cookie sheets at 2 inch intervals. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks.
- To make optional white chocolate decoration: In a double boiler or a stainless steel bowl over a pot of simmering water, melt white chocolate, stirring constantly, about 30 seconds to one minute. (Note: Before all of the chocolate has melted, remove from heat and continue stirring until fully melted.)
- Transfer white chocolate to piping bag, parchment cone, or gallon-size Ziploc bag (cut off tip), pipe stripes of white chocolate onto cookies. Dust with confectioner's sugar if desired before serving.