Made with both cocoa powder and chocolate chips as well as a small amount of espresso powder, which heightens the chocolate flavor, these cookies are deeply chocolatey, properly salted, and perfectly textured, crisp on the exterior with a dense, fudgy center. What’s more, they come together in one bowl!

Double chocolate espresso cookies on a plate.

Every year around Mother’s Day, the wonderful people at Fair Trade work hard to share the stories about the many women behind their Fair Trade products. This year, their theme is: “FairHer: Celebrating the Women of Fair Trade.” One of the founding principles of Fair Trade is Women’s empowerment. In addition to freedom from harassment, Fair Trade certification ensures that women have a voice, a vote, and a leadership role in the community.

What is Fair Trade?

• Fair Trade helps farmers (more than 1.2 million worldwide) in developing countries build sustainable businesses that positively influence their communities.

• Products that bear the Fair Trade logo come from farmers and workers who are justly compensated.

• The rigorous Fair Trade standards ensure that farmers and workers enjoy safe working conditions, regulated work hours, maternity leave and freedom of association. Slave and child labor are strictly prohibited.

• Fair Trade ensures that farmers follow internationally monitored environmental standards and also provides financial incentives and resources for organic conversion, reforestation, water conservation and environmental education.

• Fair Trade empowers women to play an active role in their families and in their co-ops by starting businesses with guaranteed access to health care, certain job rights and freedom from harassment.

• Fair Trade supports education with revenues set aside to build schools and maintain enrollment.

Mariana del Jesus Mendoza

Fortaleza del Valle Cooperative

As in previous years, to help tell the stories about the people behind their food, Fair Trade has paired every blogger participating in this event with a farmer. Meet my match: Mariana del Jesus Mendoza, a cocoa farmer & member of the Fortaleza del Valle Cooperative in Ecuador.

Mariana notes: “Thanks to Fair Trade we are able to sell our cacao at fair and stable prices. Before we were organized into Fortaleza del Valle, many of us did not know how to take true advantage of our plants’ capacities and would ruin them with pesticides and fungicides.”

fair her

How to Make Double Chocolate Espresso Cookies, Step by Step

For these cookies, you’ll need cocoa powder (Dutch processed), chocolate chips, and espresso powder or finely ground coffee as well as the usual players: flour, butter, brown sugar, sugar, eggs, vanilla, baking soda, and salt.

ingredients

Update February 14th, 2025: I recently updated this recipe to use melted butter and one bowl, and it worked beautifully.

I like to portion my cookie dough using a scale to ensure each ball weighs exactly the same amount and in turn so each cookie bakes evenly.

… this sight makes my heart so very happy:

At this point, you can freeze the dough balls or store them in the fridge for as long as two weeks (probably longer). When ready to bake, place 6 balls on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Press down on them lightly to secure them in place.

Bake for 11 minutes at 375ºF. The cookies will be puffed upon removal and will not look fully cooked, but they will continue to cook as they cool completely on the sheet pan.

Sprinkle with flaky sea salt, if you wish, as soon as they cookies emerge from the oven.

Once cooled completely, serve.

Is there anything better?

Cookie monsters …

cookie monsters

wren
tig
These double chocolate cookies are very delicious. Shaped balls can stay for days in the fridge in a ziplock back or airtight container. // alexandracooks.com
These double chocolate cookies are very delicious. Shaped balls can stay for days in the fridge in a ziplock back or airtight container. // alexandracooks.com
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Double chocolate espresso cookies on a plate.

Double-Chocolate Espresso Cookies

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5 from 8 reviews

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Description

This recipe is an adaptation from my favorite soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie with some of the flour replaced by cocoa powder and the addition of two teaspoons of finely ground coffee.

Notes:

Plan ahead: For best results, make the dough ahead of time: after mixing the dough, portion it into 48 g balls and refrigerate the balls in an airtight container for at least 1 hour but ideally 12 to 24 hours.

Espresso powder: Most recently I popped open one of my Nespresso pods, and used two teaspoons of the finely ground beans. It worked beautifully. 

Cocoa Powder: I have used both Dutch-processed cocoa powder and natural cocoa powder here with success. Typically when a recipe calls for baking soda, you should use natural cocoa powder, but I don’t find it makes a difference in terms of the leavening here, so I prefer to use a cocoa powder that I really like: I’ve been using this Dutch-processed Cocao Barry Extra Brute, which I learned about from Stella Parks. Any Dutch-process cocoa powder you like will work as will natural cocoa powder.

Final note: Upon embarking on a quest to make shiny brownies, which led to learning about lead levels in cocoa, many of you Readers wrote in to share your favorite brands of cocoa powder. Here they are: 

Ingredients

  • 1⅓ cups (305 g) unsalted or salted butter, softened or melted (see recipe below, I always use salted butter)
  • 1½ cups packed (300 g) light brown sugar
  • 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
  • 3 cups (384 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
  • ¼ cup (28 g) Dutch processed cocoa powder, see notes above
  • 1.5 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt (or half as much if using Morton)
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons finely ground coffee beans or espresso powder, see notes above
  • 12 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
  • flaky sea salt for sprinkling, optional

Instructions

Method 1: Softened Butter

  1. Cream butter and sugars together in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, until light and fluffy. Scrape the bowl, beat again on high for one minute. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until well blended, about another minute on medium-high speed. Whisk flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda, and ground coffee beans together in a separate bowl. Add to butter mixture and combine with a spatula or wooden spoon (or very briefly with paddle attachment) until just blended. Add the chocolate chips and stir till combined. The dough will be stiff.

Method 2: Melted Butter | One Bowl

  1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Place the sugars in a large bowl. Pour the melted butter over the sugars and whisk to combine. Whisk in the eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla. Whisk in the salt, baking soda, espresso powder, and cocoa powder. Add the flour, and use a spatula to incorporate it into the dough. Fold in the chocolate chips. 

Portion and Bake: 

  1. Portion the dough into 48-gram sized balls. This is a tedious task, but it makes for beautiful and uniform cookies that bake evenly. If you have a digital scale, this is easy; if you have no scale, use a small ice cream scoop or some other uniform measuring device. Chill the portioned balls for at least one hour but preferably 24 hours. Keep portioned balls in the fridge for up to 1 week or freeze for months.
  2. Preheat oven to 375°F. Place six of the balls nicely spaced on an ungreased or parchment-lined sheet pan. Press down gently on the balls to secure them in place. Bake for 11 minutes. Keep a close watch. You want to remove the cookies from the oven when they still look slightly raw—you will think you are removing them too early. The cookies will continue cooking as they sit on the tray out of the oven. Sprinkle with sea salt if using. Let cookies cool completely on the tray before removing. I find these cookies taste best once they are completely completely cool — several hours after baking. They really firm up and taste, well, just so darn good. When they are warm, they are still a little too soft for my liking (though others disagree).
  • Prep Time: 24 hours minutes
  • Cook Time: 11 minutes
  • Category: Cookie
  • Method: Oven
  • Cuisine: American