Black Cocoa Cookies, which feature a smooth chocolate-flavored deep black cookie dough, thanks to black cocoa powder, are perfect for Halloween or Day of the Dead cookies.
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If you've ever eaten an Oreo cookie, you've tasted black cocoa powder.
These are just like cut-out sugar cookies.
These Dark Chocolate Peppermint Buttercream Sandwich Cookie Recipe also use this special ingredient.
You might also like to make my friend Molly's halloween Oreo truffles for a spooky celebration.
If you're planning Halloween festivities, you might also like to make a batch of my Halloween Candy Bark or Black Cocoa Cookies or White Chocolate Ghosts.
Why You'll Love These Cookies
Thanks to black cocoa powder, you'll achieve a sophisticated and perhaps slightly spooky perfectly black hued cookie dough.
The color is a perfect backdrop for all those vivid Halloween colors like orange and purple you might want to use for decorating them.
The Flavor
The black cocoa powder imparts a good chocolatey flavor without being too bitter. But it does walk a fine line, which is why you want to use regular cocoa powder as well.
The appearance- these chocolate sugar cookies scream eat me!
If you're looking for a drink to pair with these cookies, I recommend a Witches Brew Cocktail.
Ingredients for Black Cocoa Cookies
(see ingredient amounts below in recipe card)
- black cocoa powder
- regular cocoa powder
- all purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Sea salt
- Butter
- Granulated sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- Icing for decoration
Cookie Baking Advice
You may find these baking posts helpful, from Room Temperature Butter for Baking to Salted or Unsalted Butter for Cookies? to Do I Need A Cookie Scoop?, Cookie Size Chart to What Should a Beginner Bake? to Where Can I Buy Sprinkles?, Why is my sugar cookie dough too sticky? and Cookie Holidays.
How to Make These Cookies
Roll the dough out between two pieces of parchment paper to reduce mess and keep the little men from clinging to the your work surface, whether that's a kitchen table or a counter top.
These cookies would make great treats for a Halloween gathering.
I've written the recipe as a half-batch. If you need more, you can easily double it.
Helpful Cookie Baking Posts
This might be helpful, Do I Need A Cookie Scoop?
Room Temperature Butter for Baking
Use a two-inch cookie cutter or something similar.
This is a half batch so you should get about 15 two-inch cookies.
More easy Halloween cookie ideas
Recipe Notes
You will need two types of unsweetened cocoa for this recipe: black cocoa powder and regular unsweetened cocoa powder.
You can make these cookies with just the regular unsweetened cocoa if you like but you won't achieve that rich, dark color.
But Where Can I Find Black Cocoa Powder?
Friend, I'm so glad you asked. Because it took me a minute to find it locally.
And by minute I mean it took a couple of weeks of calling around to places looking for it.
I finally found it at a natural foods store about a 30 minute drive from my office.
My natural food store doesn't carry it and neither does my food co-op, which irks me.
Call your store first before you traipse out. If they have it, it will most likely be in the bulk section.
You can also find it on Amazon.
Equipment
I used a two-inch gingerbread man cookie cutter to make these
Black cocoa powder is made from cocoa beans that have been roasted so long they've almost burned and thus their deep black color,--according to The Dessert Bible.
Black cocoa powder is a smooth, velvety chocolatey flavor. Oreos are made from black cocoa powder. If you've ever eaten an Oreo cookie or the lesser known Hydrox cookie, you've tasted black cocoa powder.
Black cocoa powder has been "dutched" or had its acidity neutralized with an alkali solution--that gives it its black color. In contract, natural process cocoa powder, such as Hershey's, hasn't been dutched so it will have a brown hue and may look reddish as well. Before cocoa beans are milled, they are alkalized. A Dutch man named van Houten created the alkalization process thus the term "dutched" frequently used in cocoa powder.
David Lebovitz wrote a great article explaining the difference in cocoa powders.
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Recipe
Black Cocoa Cookies
Black Cocoa Cookies, which feature a smooth chocolate-flavored deep black cookie dough, thanks to black cocoa powder, are perfect for Halloween or Day of the Dead cookies.
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoon black cocoa powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ⅛ teaspoon sea salt
- 6 tablespoon butter, room temperature
- 6 tablespoon granulated sugar
- ½ of a large egg, (1.5 tablespoon plus a teaspoon)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Set aside.
- Beat butter until light and fluffy.
- Add sugar and beat for another two minutes until well-combined.
- Break egg into a small bowl and beat.
- Measure 1.5 tablespoon plus one teaspoon egg.
- Add egg to cookie dough and mix until combined.
- Add dry ingredients and stir until incorporated being careful not to over mix, which can result in a tough cookie.
- Turn dough onto a piece of parchment paper on a counter or table. Cover with another piece of parchment paper.
- Roll out dough using a rolling pin into a rectangle about 12 inches long and eight inches wide. Slide into a plastic bag and chill for at least an hour.
- When ready to bake, pull dough out of fridge about 15 to 20 minutes before you plan to cut out shapes.
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Keeping the dough between the two sheets of parchment paper, roll out dough to a thickness of an ⅛ of an inch. Unless you like a thick cookie, then roll out to a ¼ inch thick.
- Use guides on your rolling pin or a simple ruler to measure thickness.
- Cut out with a cookie cutter and carefully using a metal spatula, transfer shapes to a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Bake at 350 for 9 to 11 minutes.
- Let cool for five minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
- Let cool for about an hour before decorating.
- I used a prepared cookie icing that I found in the baking section to draw skeleton bones on the gingerbread men.
Notes
Black cocoa powder can be found at a natural food store or a gourmet shop or at King Arthur Flour.
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Nutrition Information
Yield 15 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 99Total Fat 5gSaturated Fat 3gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 2gCholesterol 18mgSodium 79mgCarbohydrates 12gFiber 0gSugar 5gProtein 1g
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