This past weekend, my parents headed out of town to visit my grandparents, so they asked if I could puppy-sit their 4-month-old golden retriever. “Sure, not a problem!” I thought, seeing as I used to dog-sit a couple of goldens down the street before we recently moved. Famous last words thoughts…
My parents are early birds. As in wake-up-before-5-when-it’s-pitch-black-and-freezing-outside early birds, and of course, their pup had gotten used to waking up at that insane hour too. So before the sun even hinted at rising, he started sighing and softly whining in his kennel, practically like a little kid on Christmas. “Can I get up now? Is it time? Is it time?”
Since I had turned off the lights after midnight the night before to finish up work, I groggily threw off the covers, let him outside to take care of business, and set down his big bowl of food for breakfast. By that time, the construction crew had arrived to continue the kitchen remodel. With their banging, joking, and singing along to the radio, no way was I going to get a nap in!
Needless to say, caffeine was a complete requirement. Coffee, tea, espresso—anything and everything—to make it through the day. Loaded up with a chai latte in the morning, iced tea in the afternoon, and these Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookies as a sweet pick-me-up, I made it all the way ’til bedtime… And still managed to do it again the next 2 days!
I ate a lot of cookies.
So let’s talk about them!
You know how Oreos are crunchy and crumbly? These bad boys are the exact opposite. They still have the same deep dark chocolate flavor, but they’re soft and chewy and fudgy, practically as if you crossed brownies with cookies. That alone makes them absolutely addictive!
But then you add in the coffee, and the cookies skyrocket to another universe… They’re so rich!! Yet still perfectly balanced. Despite both having strong flavors, neither the dark chocolate nor coffee dominates the palate. The chocolate hits first, while the coffee notes stay in the background until you swallow, and then they linger a little longer on your tongue.
You’ll need instant coffee to make these, not regular coffee grounds. We need the kind that dissolves in water—or in this case, butter, eggs, and vanilla. Be patient when mixing it in! As soon as you begin stirring, the coffee immediately sticks to the fork and looks like a large lump of coal, but if you run the fork back and forth against the side of the bowl, that friction will help the coffee dissolve.
Hang in there! It takes a few minutes, but it’ll dissolve. I promise. And if you still have a couple of tiny granules after 5+ minutes of stirring, just discard those.
I mixed both regular and miniature chocolate chips into the dough. As almost the same color as the cookies, they’re camouflaged after baking, so it’s a sweet surprise every time you bite into one. Chocolaty magic happens every time you hit one of the bigger ones… Like a melty explosion of goodness in those bites! But I still want every bite to contain at least a little bit of chocolate, without too many extra calories from lots of big chips, so I tossed in the minis too.
When the time comes to bake, the cookie dough will still be very soft and somewhat tacky. Use two spoons and a spatula to drop and shape it into rounded mounds on the baking sheet. Flatten it ever so slightly too. Most low-fat cookies do not spread in the oven, so flattening the dough gives it a “spreading head start.”
Bake these cookies for 9-11 minutes—no more! The cookies will look and feel underdone when you pull them out, but we’ll let them sit on the warm baking sheet for 10 minutes. This allows the centers to finish cooking through without the outsides turning crisp and crunchy. It’s how we get their texture to be so fudgy and downright irresistible!
I know I just told you in my last post that I normally give away most of my baked goods, but… I saved every single one of these Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookies for myself. I didn’t share any! I’m absolutely addicted to their fudgy brownie-like texture and extremely rich flavor. I’m already considering keeping a permanent stash on hand!
These fudgy cookies are a coffee lover & chocoholic’s dream! They’re soft, chewy & packed with rich flavors. Store any leftovers in an airtight container for up to a week—if they last that long!
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, cornstarch, and salt. In a separate bowl, stir together the butter and instant coffee until about halfway dissolved. Mix in the egg and vanilla, continuing to stir until the instant coffee is mostly dissolved. (If a few small granules remain, discard them.) Stir in the brown sugar, smearing out any clumps along the side of the bowl. Add in the flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Fold in all of the regular and half of the miniature chocolate chips.
- Drop the cookie dough into 12 rounded scoops on the prepared baking sheet, and flatten slightly. Press the remaining miniature chocolate chips into the tops. Bake at 350°F for 9-11 minutes. Cool on the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.
Notes: Don’t skip the cornstarch! It absorbs moisture in the dough and helps keep the cookies extra soft.
It takes a while to get the instant coffee to dissolve. I generally use a fork, and when it clumps onto the tines, I rub the fork back and forth against the side of the bowl. The friction helps it dissolve slightly faster.
{low fat, low calorie}
These cookies look insanely fudgy, Amy! I think I would have hoarded them all for myself also.
Thanks Jen! I couldn’t believe how fudgy they were either. A cookie miracle! 😉
Amy … I’m just glad my husband has already left for work! If he had peeked over my shoulder while I was drooling at these photos of awesomeness fudgy goodness, I’m pretty sure he would have nicely insisted that I drop all plans for the day and make a quadruple batch! These are right up his alley – and he wakes up (all by himself … the dog sleeps till 7am!) at about 4am. He’s quite the early bird … he can’t help it! But there are days when we have later evenings, and he totally needs a little zap of energy late afternoon! Lol!
Thanks for the great recipe – pinned!!! 🙂
Oh my Shelley, your husband sounds just like my parents! It’s hard being a morning person and needing to stay up later than usual. Afternoon caffeine practically becomes a necessity! 🙂 If only I could ship cookies to your husband — but that would require that I didn’t eat them all!!
Oof! That sounds downright RUFF! (see what I did there? heehee) But seriously. I don’t blame you for clutching the coffee cup. I bet the labrador pup had a ton of energy, too, which only made the caffeine even more necessary!!
These cookies look to die for. Fudgy and coffee-flavored… what more could you want?
You are WAY too cute Andrea!! 🙂 Yes, the puppy has so much energy… He jumps all over the place, wants to lick your arms and legs, and then completely crashes. He only has “on” and “off” settings — nothing in between! 😉
Hi again, Amy! These cookies look DELICIOUS, though I live in a quite a large family. If I made this recipe, which I really want to do, there would be only a cookie per person, literally!! Even if I doubled or tripled it, it would be very few. I’ve noticed that about many of your other cookie recipes–the batches are few. Do you just make them really large?…I don’t mean to sound fussy or mean, I just would love to make these cookies in a larger batch. Thanks!
Thank you Annabeth! Yes, you caught on to me… I have the exact opposite problem. I live in a two-person household, and the other person never eats cookies, which means I have to eat them all myself! Hence the smaller portions of 12 regular-sized cookies. 😉 You can easily double my recipes and probably triple them too (although I haven’t tried making that many in one go before!) to help feed your family members!
As soon as I saw this…. I KNEW it was a must try after school experiment with my 11 year old son ! Insanely YUMMY !!!
I left the chips out of the dough and instead flattened the cookie scoops and dipped them in mini chocolate chips…I didn’t exactly measure them…maybe 4ish tablespoons. I thought the chocolate chip to chocolate cookie ratio maybe higher this way… I’m that kind of girl : )
Perfect amount of mocha to finish it all off beautifully…. will be making these….OFTEN !
Thanks so much
I’m so glad you and your son enjoyed the cookies Kimberly!! Definitely an awesome idea about rolling them in mini chocolate chips, especially with that chocolate-to-cookie ratio. I wish I could’ve tried that version! 🙂
I’m pretty certain I’d eat them all too! 🙂
I’m glad I’m not the only one Betsy! 🙂
I made these cookies today, and they were great-chewy and moist! I loved the coffee flavor, and I also put some Andes mint baking chips on top of some of the cookies!
I’m so glad you enjoyed the cookies Helen! The Andes mint baking chips sound incredible. I’ll have to try that sometime!