Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies are a bitter, slightly sweet twist on the classic chocolate chip cookie! Laced with espresso powder and loaded with dark chocolate chips, you’ll love the sweet chocolate and robust coffee flavors together!
Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies Are A Coffee-Lovers Dream!
These Espresso Cookies will certainly make a statement with their bittersweet flavor that gets better with every bite! These chewy, bitter cookies are the perfect treat for the coffee lover in your life!
Not to mention, everyone could use a little extra caffeine around the holidays, am I right? And what better way to get that than in the form of a cookie that’s loaded with chocolate chips?!
We really put this recipe to the test to ensure that we delivered the BEST espresso cookie recipe there is! To achieve this, we landed on using dark chocolate chips, high-quality, softened butter, and allowed plenty of time for the dough to chill to allow that delicious coffee flavor to fully develop.
Rebecca’s Recipe Review
Taste: Bitter with a kind of sweetness.
Texture: Chewy center with firmer slightly crisp golden edges.
Ease: 4/10 – Finding the ground coffee might be the hardest part. The grounds from a Nespresso pod will work great, or from a burr grinder; I used grounds from my Breville Barista Espresso Machine on setting. You could also use a really finely ground coffee and they’d turn out great!
Pros: An elevated less sweet treat that can accompany a cup of coffee or milk.
Cons: Might be too bitter for some.
Would I Make This Again? I’ve made this recipe 5 times in the last month for testing with only minor tweaks. At first, I was frustrated because I just didn’t love it, but some technical changes, such as softened instead of melted butter and a couple of ingredient swaps, really made a huge difference, and I found myself eating half the batch by the time we wrapped up testing. These cookies get better and better with time, and even 5 days after baking, I loved them!
Coffee Cookie Ingredients
A batch of these delicious cookies begins with pantry staples such as bread flour, corn starch, baking soda, light brown sugar, granulated sugar, and salt. To continue building the cookie dough base you’ll also need salted butter, a large egg, and an additional large egg yolk.
Then we work on the flavor! To start, we chose to add malted milk powder to give these cookies a delicious depth of flavor. Then instead of vanilla extract, we opted for vanilla bean paste for a slightly stronger vanilla flavor that pairs well with the espresso flavoring.
In this recipe, feel free to choose between finely ground espresso or ground coffee. However, do not use espresso powder as it will not work in this cookie recipe.
Lastly, finished off these espresso cookies are dark chocolate chips and a sprinkle of flaky sea salt!
How To Make Chocolate Chip Espresso Cookies
- Whisk the bread flour with finely ground espresso or coffee, malted milk powder, corn starch, and baking soda.
- Cream together light brown sugar, salted butter, granulated sugar, vanilla bean paste, and salt until smooth in the bowl of a stand mixer that’s fitted with a paddle attachment.
- Beat in a large egg and additional egg yolk until the mixture becomes light and creamy.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients a little to a time, mixing in between each addition.
- Fold a portion of the dark chocolate chips into the cookie dough.
- Measure the cookie dough out into equal portions and transfer them to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Then press the reserved dark chocolate chips into the tops of the cookies.
- Chill the cookie dough in the fridge.
- Preheat the oven and then transfer the cookie dough out onto a new baking sheet that’s lined with parchment paper. Afterward, sprinkle the tops of the cookies with flaky sea salt.
- Bake the cookies until the edges become golden brown. Then let the cookies cool on the pan for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.
- Do not melt the butter, softened and even slightly cold and creamed will will yield the best results.
- Espresso grounds MUST be mixed with the dry first. Otherwise, the interaction with the butter creates an almost syrup-like texture that prevents it from mixing well, resulting in gummy cookies instead of chewy.
- You can replace 1/4 cup of flour with 1/4 cup of cocoa powder if you prefer a chocolate espresso cookie, but we preferred it with just the chips.
- We tried a mix of dark and milk and dark and semi-sweet, and all dark chocolate chips had the best flavor. It’s best to steer into the bitter with this recipe than to try and sweeten it.
How To Store Cookies
Cookies can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 to 4 days. You can also freeze them in a freezer bag for up to 3 months. You can read all my Tips For Freezing Cookie Dough if you’d like to prepare them ahead of time or save some of the batch for later.
How To Serve Espresso Cookies
These cookies are wonderful to package up for friends and family. And if you’re enjoying them at home, I highly recommend enjoying them with a glass of milk, Christmas Coffee, or Crockpot Hot Chocolate.
More Yummy Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes:
- Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Cookies – Cozy cookies made with ground cinnamon and browned butter!
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies – Two classic cookies combined into one delicious treat!
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies – A mouthwatering blend of sweet AND salty!
- Cookie Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies – Made with Speculoos Cookie Butter!
- The Best Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies – Epic cookies that are deliciously soft and chewy!
Did You Make This Recipe?
If you’ve tried this recipe, please let me know how you liked it in the comments below and leave a review. I love hearing from you!
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This recipe was originally published in December 2017 and was updated in December 2024 with a retested recipe and new photos.
Espresso Chip Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 2¼ cups bread flour 293g
- 2 tablespoons finely ground espresso or coffee NOT espresso powder
- 2 tablespoons malted milk powder 20g
- 2 tablespoons corn starch 9g
- ½ teaspoon baking soda 3g
- 1 cup light brown sugar 225g, packed
- ¾ cup salted butter 170g, softened; I prefer grass-fed or European-style butter
- ½ cup granulated sugar 100g
- 1 teaspoon salt 6g
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 additional large egg yolk room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste 16g
- 2 cups dark chocolate chips 370g, divided
- flaky sea salt optional garnish
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the 2¼ cups bread flour, 2 tablespoons finely ground espresso or coffee, 2 tablespoons malted milk powder, 2 tablespoons corn starch, and ½ teaspoon baking soda.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together 1 cup light brown sugar, ¾ cup salted butter, ½ cup granulated sugar, 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste, and 1 teaspoon salt until smooth. 1 min on 2 and 1 min on 4 speed.
- Add in 1 large egg and 1 additional large egg yolk and beat until light and creamy. About 5 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl halfway through.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients a little at a time, mixing between each addition.
- Fold in about 1½ cups of the 2 cups dark chocolate chips. Reserving the rest for topping.
- Measure the dough into balls, using a #20 cookie scoop, about 2.5 ounces each. Press the reserved chocolate chips into the top of the dough.
- Chill uncovered in the fridge for at least 2 hours preferably overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350°F and place balls on a parchment-lined cookie sheet at least 3 inches apart. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt if desired, and bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the edges are golden brown. Let the cookies cool on the pan for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Chill the baking pan in the freezer for a couple of minutes between baking batches so you don't put cookie dough on a hot pan.
Notes
- Chill the dough as stated in the directions because it allows you to get the thick, chewy cookie.
- These cookies are on the bitter side but still delicious for those who prefer dark chocolate and less sweet desserts. The coffee flavor builds and melds over time. We preferred these cookies when they were 2 to 4 days old. They dry out a bit during this time and lose their chew, but they are perfect for dunking in milk or coffee. We liked them least when they were warm out of the oven. It’s really wild how the flavor changes!
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?
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Comments & Reviews
Rebecca Hubbell says
Love these cookies! They were so good even 5 days later!
Tori says
Good thing I don’t bake them for the suggested baking time because by the time I got them out of the oven they could hardly even be called cookies anymore. I bake often and this recipe just absolutely tanked for me. The dough looked and tasted great but after baking for only 10 minutes they were basically boiled to my cookie sheet.