This triple chocolate cookie recipe from blogger Maria Licthy’s Two Peas and Their Pod Cookbook is a chocolate lover’s dream—jump to the recipe! Her triple chocolate cookies are made with dark cocoa powder and three types of chocolate chips; every bite is chocolate through and through.
Triple Chocolate Cookies
One of the best things about blogging is how supportive other bloggers are of each other. This holiday season, a group of us decided to come together to do a “virtual cookie swap”. Check out the links at the end of the post to see everybody’s cookies!
For my cookies, I actually wanted to share a recipe from ANOTHER amazing blogger, Maria from Two Peas and Their Pod. Maria’s book came out at around the same time as Weeknight Baking (MY cookbook, in case you’ve been living under a rock and somehow missed my insane blathering on about it, lol), and we simultaneously reached out to each other on Instagram to exchange books. Maria’s blog has been on my radar for YEARS. She’s literally one of the first few bloggers I officially followed—I’ve always appreciated how accessible her recipes are, and I’ve always admired how her blog is a family affair and tells their entire story. Her first cookbook is no exception—flipping through, I dog-eared many recipes for appetizers, easy dinner ideas, and of course, baked goods and desserts like these triple chocolate cookies.
Triple Chocolate Cookie Ingredients
Maria’s recipe for triple chocolate cookies immediately caught my eye because of how unapologetically chocolaty they are—not only does she use THREE types of chocolate chips, but she also uses cocoa powder in the cookie dough itself (technically making this a quadruple chocolate cookie, lol).
Because I was making these cookies to giveaway for holiday presents, I decided to step it up a notch and use the fanciest ingredients possible (pro-tip: take your favorite recipe and make it with gourmet ingredients—you’d be surprised what a difference it really, truly makes). Maria instructs you to use a combination of semisweet (which is basically dark chocolate), milk, and white chocolate chips. I *technically* followed this flavor profile, but used the following gourmet specialty chocolate:
Dark Chocolate Chips: Nestlé Toll House Artisan Collection Extra Dark Premium Baking Chips
I first discovered these chips when I collaborated with Nestlé Toll House on these Better-Than-Supernatural Fudge Brownies (one of the most popular recipes on my blog to date this year!). They are INCREDIBLE. These chips are made with single origin chocolate, and, unlike most standard chocolate chips that don’t tell you how much cacao you’re actually getting in them, Nestlé Toll House tells you the exact amount (61% cacao, for those curious). This isn’t even sponsored anymore, I just really love them that much!
Milk Chocolate Chips: Guittard Milk Chocolate Organic Wafers
The “medium” sized discs you see in the cookies are milk chocolate wafers from one of my favorite chocolate makers, Guittard. Because they’re milk chocolate, they contained less cacao (38%) than the Nestlé Toll House Artisan chips, and were much sweeter and milkier. I also loved the way the disc texture baked in the cookies—the wider surface area of the discs spread more milk chocolate throughout the cookie (as opposed to the dark chocolate chips, which tasted more like little bursts of bitterness).
White Chocolate Chips: Valrhona Dulcey Chocolate Feves
If you’ve been following me for some time now, you’ll know that I’m obsessed with chocolate “feves”, the flat, bean-shaped discs of chocolate you see in the cookies. Valrhona, one of my long-time partners and my default chocolate of choice, is the only chocolate company that makes these distinct feves—they’re the absolute best for baking since they have the texture of gourmet chocolate bars, but with the convenience of chocolate chips. Similar to the Guittard discs, the Valrhona feves spread into melted pools of chocolate throughout the cookie.
Valhrona is also the only chocolate company to make dulcey white chocolate. Dulcey white chocolate is white chocolate that has been roasted, giving it a toasted, caramelized flavor similar to dulce de leche. I’m absolutely obsessed and use it frequently in recipes on this blog (but if you’re looking for a specific recommendation, check out these macadamia cookies, these butterscotch blondies, and this banana sheet cake).
Cocoa Powder: King Arthur Flour Black Cocoa Powder
I also “went gourmet” for the cocoa powder. Maria’s recipe allows you to use either Dutch-process or natural unsweetened cocoa powder in the recipe. Whereas natural unsweetened cocoa powder will result in cookies that are lighter in color, Dutch-processed cocoa powder will result in cookies that are darker and more akin to the midnight black of Oreo cookies. I opted for a special kind of Dutch-processed cocoa powder: King Arthur Flour’s Black Cocoa, which is even darker and more intensely flavored than traditional Dutch-processed cocoa powder. If you’re using either natural unsweetened cocoa powder or traditional Dutch-processed cocoa powder, don’t be surprised if your triple chocolate cookies don’t look as intensely black as mine!
As you can tell from my summary above, the funnest thing about using chocolate from different brands is that most chocolate makers use different sizes for their chips (since there’s no standard size for chocolate chips/disks/feves). The different sizes give your triple chocolate cookies really varied textures; each cookie also ends up looking really unique and distinct from the others, depending on the combination of chocolate it happens to have in it. If you’re baking this recipe to impress folks, I highly recommend you use different brands of chocolate, too!
How To Make Triple Chocolate Cookies
Once you’ve got the chocolate for these cookies sourced, the cookies come together really quickly! Unlike some chocolate cookies that require you to melt chocolate or chill the dough in the fridge for some time, these can be mixed and baked immediately.
The only thing to watch out for is that, when they come out of the oven, they do look a little more globby and puffy than traditional chocolate chip cookies—but don’t panic! The cookies will deflate and settle into more “normal” looking cookies as they cool. And, this is one of my most closely guarded food-styling tricks, but you can also use a small offset spatula to press against the edges of the cookies to mold them into more perfect circles before they set.
Best Triple Chocolate Cookie Recipe Tips
-
- For this recipe, I highly recommend that you use a cookie dough scoop to measure out cookie dough balls. The dough is pretty sticky, making it hard to handle with just your hands—not to mention that its dark color makes it a pain to clean off! I also recommend scooping the dough immediately after making, when it’s still soft. It firms up pretty quickly (especially if you’re working in a cold, winter kitchen), making it harder to scoop. If you only have enough room in your oven to bake one sheet pan at a time, scoop the cookie dough out on a plate ahead of time.
- Because the cookie dough is so dark, it can be hard to see the contrasting chips and chocolate once they’re mixed into the dough. For higher chip visibility (lol, that is now officially a term I’m coining), Maria recommends saving extra chips and placing them on the cookies directly after you pull them out of the oven. My adapted recipe does this, too, but in a slightly different way—I instruct you to top each cookie dough ball with a few chips before baking them (they’ll still be visible as the cookie spreads, I promise!). I recommend having an extra 1/4 cup of each kind of chocolate chip for topping the cookies.
Get the Recipe: Triple Chocolate Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 ⅓ cup (10.5 ounces) all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup (2.25 ounces) Dutch-processed or black cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup (7 ounces) granulated sugar
- 1 cup tightly packed, (7.5 ounces) dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- ¾ cup (4.5 ounces) dark chocolate chips (I used Nestlé Toll House Artisan Collection Extra Dark Premium Baking Chips), plus more for finishing
- ¾ cup (4.5 ounces) milk chocolate chips (I used Guittard Milk Chocolate Organic Wafers), plus more for finishing
- ¾ cup (4.5 ounces) white chocolate chips (I used Valrhona Dulcey Chocolate Feves), plus more for finishing
- flaky sea salt, for garnish
Instructions
- Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two half sheet pans with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and sugars. Beat on medium-high until light, fluffy, and doubled in volume, 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce the mixer to low and add the eggs and vanilla; beat until just combined. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl. With the mixer on low, gradually add the dry ingredients and beat until just combined. Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl once more, and beat on low for an additional 30 seconds. Increase the mixer to medium- low, add the chocolates all at once, and beat until the chocolate is evenly distributed throughout, about 1 minute.
- Use a 3-tablespoon cookie dough scoop to portion the cookie dough into balls, placing them at least 3 inches apart on the prepared sheet pans. Gently press 4 to 5 different chocolate chips on top of each dough ball.
- Bake one pan at a time for 12 minutes, or until the edges have set but the centers are still gooey. The cookies will look puffed when you pull them out of the oven, but will fall and crack into the perfect cookies as they cool. Cool the cookies completely on the pan on a wire rack. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough (or freeze it to bake later). Serve warm or at room temperature. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container or zip-top bag at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Amazing recipe! The world needs more black cocoa recipes. I am not a fan of white chocolate but love Valrhona dulcey feves. Thank you!