Chocolate Cut Out Cookies

I have been baking cookies for about 24 years. I have been making these particular cookies of Robin J for about 3 years. They are delicous. I found that the dough is very sticky. To help that I mix up a combo of confectioners sugar and cocoa. sprinkle that HEAVY on the cutting board. Then I sprinkle that same mixture very heavy on the dough that I have placed on the cutting board. That helps tremendously. My family loves these and begs me to make them. I frost them using a marshmallow creme frosting. Delicous and something not everyone else makes!

With a few modifications based on other reviews, I made these cookies for the first time with much success. They were very very easy and delicious. The only changes that I made were: 1) I used two large eggs (not three); 2) I added one extra TBSP of cocoa; 3) Because I was in a hurry, I chilled them for about an hour in the freezer. Once I removed them from the freezer, I immediately cut the dough in half and put half back into the refrigerator while I rolled and cut the first half. It worked like a dream. Highly recommend this recipe and these cookies. :)

I can't believe anyone gave this a bad review! I made them today and they are perfect. If you prepare properly, you should get a nice firm dough. It is a little sticky, so I sprayed my hands with no-stick spray when I was shaping them. Most important thing is to make sure you use 2 sticks of ROOM TEMPERATURE butter, NOT MELTED. just crush the butter into the sugar, and you will get a paste. Also make sure you mix all dry ingredients together in a seperate bowl, and then mix the dry a little at a time into the wet bowl. They are delicious. I added decorators icing and sprinkles. (I added a picture).

I wanted to comment on the post that the cookies tasted 'chemically'. I had this problem with so many recipes and found out they all had one thing in common, they all called for baking powder. Upon researching, the taste you are experiencing is from the aluminum in the baking powder. I am very sensitive to the taste but no one else in my family is, they think I am nuts, lol. The sensitivity to the taste has gotten worse as I get older (35). I only use Argo Baking Powder (aluminum free) and it has made a world of difference. Hope this helps others out there!

I was really weary of this recipe, because others had so many problems. With a few tweaks, this is great recipe for chocolate cut outs! I only used 2 eggs, added 2 T extra cocoa powder, and added 1/2 tsp salt. With any cut out recipe, you have to chill the dough properly in order to prevent stickiness. I used plain flour to roll them out, and it didn't affect the color or taste at all (instead of cocoa and sugar others suggested). I also decided to bake these at 375 for 7-8 minutes, like my other sugar cookie recipe. I loved the chocolate, tastes very close to a brownie type cookie. Will def keep as an alternate to regular sugar cookies!

Definately an awesome option for families that don't like sugar cookies, but want the fun of cut out cookies. I have made this several times and have figured out to use only 2 eggs if you have jumbo or extra large eggs. Also adding 1T more of Cocoa helps the dough consistancy. It does still need a fair amount of flour when rolling out. The final product tastes like mini brownies. Yummy!

Just tried these yesterday and the recipe is VERY good. But I agree with the comments and followed them. If you plan to make this - use only 2 eggs and not 3! Instead of 1 cup butter, use 2 sticks (220gms) and baking time is about 8 to 10 mins and NOT 10 to 12 as it burns quickly. Other than that - a SUPER recipe that is accurate and easy to follow. Merry X'mas one and all!

An awesome recipe AS IS!! After reading the reviews, I starting tweaking the recipe with disasterous results. Because I was making this for a back-to-school special for the local Kindergarten teacher, I had to make them again. This time I followed the directions as written and they came out perfect. Things I did do were: used the 3 (large)eggs, reduced the vanilla to 1 tsp, and really packed the flour into the measuring cup - usually I spoon the flour but didn't in this case. 10 Tbsp of cocoa is just a hair over 2/3 c so I put in the 2/3 c of cocoa. The dough came out perfect - even tho we didn't mix in all of the flour and cocoa powder in the end - this is because my son turned the mixer on high just after I added some of the flour mixture and blew brown powder all over the kitchen - so I may have been lacking 1/4 c of that mixture, I am not sure! I did sift 1/3 c cocoa powder and 1/3 c powdered sugar together and used that to flour my rolling surface. 10 minutes baked on parchment paper made absolutely beautiful and perfect cookies. A definite keeper of a recipe with the results tasting like Nabisco's Famous Chocolate Wafers!

Full chocolate taste. I rolled the dough to 1/4" thickness between two pieces of waxed paper, put it in the refrigerator that way for less than 20 minutes and took it out and it was ready for cookie cutters. No problem! No mess. No dilution from flour/sugar/cocoa powder.

I had tremendous success with these. I did use only 2 eggs as other suggested but did not have sticky dough and they were really delicious. Give them a try!

Perfect! Just what I expected- and needed! These were great with butter-cream frosting. I needed more flour than the recipe called for, but that can depend on the brand of flour you use. Soft-baked, delicious flavor, easy to frost. Love these!

I really like this recipe. I had no trouble with the dough being too sticky at all. I used 2/3 cup butter and 1/3 cup shortening and I refrigerated the dough overnight. I did not alter the recipe other than the butter and I made sure that the sugar, butter and shortening were WELL mixed (until light an fluffy - about 6 minutes). The flavor and texture was pretty good and the kids really liked them. I made them for son's school Halloween party. Thanks for sharing the recipe.

I read the reviews and added one extra cup of flour and they were still too soft (even after chilling all afternoon) to roll. So, I rolled between two sheets of wax paper, used cutter, removed excess, froze the cookies until solid and only then baked. They still didn't hold a fairly simple cut out shape. The no-fail sugar cookie recipe at cakecentraldotcom is much, much better. I think this recipe has too much egg and that's why it's so soft. I'll keep looking.

I followed the recipe, but added 1 tsp. of salt. I chilled the dough over 3 hours. It was fairly sticky, but I used a lot of flour when rolling it out and I didn't roll the cookies too thin, so it wasn't a problem. They were done in about 9 mins. They tasted pretty good.

I am not really a fan of sugar cookies so I am glad to have found a tasty cut-out alternative. I halved the recipe and got 24 owl cookies. I used one egg as 1 1/2 would be difficult, and if making the whole batch 2 would be enough. The dough was not too sticky as others had complained. I mixed flour and cocoa to roll it out with and didn't really need very much to do so. It is quite nice to work with, actually. Do roll them thick; they stay moist and aren't too fragile.

I was so disappointed! The dough tasted incredible (I know we're not supposed to eat the dough) but it was incredibly sticky! I had to add so much flour & cocoa powder to make it easy to roll & cut, the cookies ended up tasting very plain.

This recipe was okay. I guess it is a nice change from traditional sugar cookies. I did have to add much more flour to make it a consistency that could be rolled out. By following the recipe as written I had a dough with the consistency of frosting - even after refrigeration.

I halved the recipe and got 60 2 inch circles. I doubled the cocoa and added more flour until the dough was no longer sticky, I mixed the flour in by hand so I wouldn't add too much. The dough has to chill overnight, when I checked it a few hours later it was not firm enough. The next morning I needed minimal flour to roll out as it was easy to work with. Mine baked 12 minutes on Silpat lined sheets.

i had no troubles with these at all. it's a must to use room temp marg/butter. i rolled these into balls, flattened them out a little and rolled in some sprinkles. very tasty.

I used carob instead of cocoa because I think it makes them "darker." I mixed in all 3 eggs but was generous with the flour and the carob/sugar mixture I used to roll them out on parchment paper. I also iced them with mint icing! Very easy, very tatsty, look great, taste great!

These turned out great. But PLEASE roll in cocoa powder/confectioners sugar as well as chill in fridge to get the right consistency. I made hearts and they held up perfectly and tasted so good. I also used only 2 eggs instead of 3.

This is a great recipe. As suggested by others, I only added 2 eggs and 1 extra tablespoon of cocoa and the dough was the perfect consistency for rolling. The cookies were exactly what I wanted. Thank you!

These are great FRESH. Easy recipe. Crumbly dough but that could be b/c it's July & not super cool in my house. I used another reviewer's advice & used powdered sugar on the dough to keep it from stickin to my rollin pin... GREAT TIP!! Definitely roll your dough on the thick side, otherwise these cookies get extremely crunchy after they're cooled. I used 11 Tbsp of the cocoa powder... DID NOT NEED THAT MUCH. Iced some of the cookies w/ a basic glaze. DID NOT NEED ICING. The icing made them too sweet! My kids & their friends definitely liked them better with NO ICING. These have been requested EVERY SINGLE NIGHT THIS WEEK since I first made them!! Luckily, I only bake enough to soothe everyone at one time, so I've had dough in the fridge all week!! Thanks for a great treat for my family & friends!

used 2 sticks butter & 1 extra tsp cocoa turned out fine, not sticky. only problem i had my cookies kept breaking. maybe i made them too thin?

These were really good. Tasted like a brownie. I had no problem with the dough being sticky. Thanks for the recipe.

These are AMAZING and worked perfectly even though I substituted gluten free flour which can usually end up ruining a recipe. They retained the cutter shape really well even with delicate shapes and didn't crack.

I followed this recipe to the T. I had no problem at all with the dough consistency, everything was great. But honestly, they taste like cardboard. They're bearable with the icing but without it I don't care for them.

Very easy to make puffed up nice kept there shape an most important tasted good!!!

These cookies turned out wonderful. They roll and cut like a dream. Thank you!

I didn't like these...they tasted weird and chemically. Other people thought they were ok, most said they were neither bad nor good.

Follow the reviews on this recipe! Dough was very sticky and I thought this would be a lost project, but after adding generous amounts of flour/cocoa powder for rolling, rolling between wax paper and chilling in the freezer then these cutouts came out great!

I cut the recipe in half and only used one egg and 7 Tbsp. of cocoa powder (instead of 5). The cookies came out very chocolatey, just the way I like them, and were generally tasty. The added chocolate did not make them too sweet, and I think they'd benefit from something like the Seven-Minute Frosting on this site, or some other marshmallowey topping. I used a little flour to roll them out, and had no problems at all with stickiness. I put the dough in a tupperware in the freezer for about 30 minutes to speed up chilling time, and only used half of it (1/4 recipe makes about 8 decent-sized cookies). Then I refrigerated the rest and will use it up within the next few days. I baked the cookies for exactly 10.5 minutes, but they were just a bit dry, so 8-9 might have sufficed.

Great recipe. I frosted them with melted chocolate chips. Delicious!

These were amazing! I made them for a Halloween Party and they were gone by the end of the night!

Loved these. Went with previous suggestions to go with 2 eggs, 11 tablespoons of cocoa powder and used a mix of predominantly powdered sugar and a bit of flour to roll them out. Definitely comes out best to get your rolled dough out to 1/4 inch high. That's the perfect height, though thinner cookies with their crisp were mighty fine too.

The dough was great! Easy to roll out between cling wrap! Other than cutting down the sugar to 1c, I followed the rest of the recipe and they turned out wonderful!

These taste really good but need about a cup more flour. After reading other reviews I added 1/2 cup flour to the dough and still needed lots of flour to roll them out. I will try making sandwich cookies with them next time, sandwiched with a chocolate, caramel or peanut butter frosting!

The dough was very sticky and extremely difficult to work with. I ended up rolling them into balls and baking them. The cookie itself had a good taste my whole family thought they tasted great.

I don't think there was enough flour in this recipe. It seemed too loose to roll out. I added 1/4 cup extra flour and chilled it for 3 hours. Still not rollable. So, I put it in the cookie press. Turned out very well that way.

I cut the recipe in half and only used one egg and 7 Tbsp. of cocoa powder (instead of 5). The cookies came out very chocolatey, just the way I like them, and were generally tasty. The added chocolate did not make them too sweet, and I think they'd benefit from something like the Seven-Minute Frosting on this site, or some other marshmallowey topping. I used a little flour to roll them out, and had no problems at all with stickiness. I put the dough in a tupperware in the freezer for about 30 minutes to speed up chilling time, and only used half of it (1/4 recipe makes about 8 decent-sized cookies). Then I refrigerated the rest and will use it up within the next few days. I baked the cookies for exactly 10.5 minutes, but they were just a bit dry, so 8-9 might have sufficed.

I thought this recipe had a really good texture when you ate it i also loved how you can make this cookie for any ocassion just by using different cookie cutters.

Oh my goodness, I am glad I only made 12 (and have roommates) otherwise these would all be eaten without a pause. I used 2/3 cup of cocoa (because it was easier) and I rolled balls and sprinkled some with icing sugar, some I dipped in a sugar/cinnamon mix. SOOOOOO good. Next time I might add some cayanne to the cinnamon sugar for a bit of bite.

I really wish that I had NOT followed the suggestions of other reviewrs by removing one egg from this recipe. The cookies were too dry. I would have given them a 5 (figuring on making them correctly) but the chocolate flavor is not quite what I was looking for. I might give these one more try with all 3 eggs.

I was looking for a cut-out Christmas cookie I could make with my 2 yr old who's not a fan of sugar cookies. This recipe was perfect! We made them exactly as written and they turned out great. They reminded me of firm brownies. These will be a new Christmas tradition in our house. Thanks Robin J!

i was very happy with this recipe.... i made these for a very big children's Christmas cookie party and it was a hit.... the shapes stayed perfectly in tact and the chocolate flavor was great. i thought i would have some trouble because some kids added a ridiculous amount of flour when they rolled them out but after we baked them they were all moist and soft not hard as a rock like other recipes i have tried... will def use this recipe again

Very disappointed - I doubled the recipe cause we were having a christmas cookie decorating night with 25 kids and the batter after being refrigerated over night was sticky and barely could roll it out.

These turned out great! I made according to the recipe, as noted in other reviews the dough was very sticky. I solved this by mixing flour and cocoa powder to roll it out, but I needed a ton! I will try the other fixes mentioned for next time. It was a little tricky not to overbake, but I found that when they lost their glossy shine, I took them out of the oven and they were perfect. The taste was great, and my whole famiy was very excited to have chocolate cookies, and I am now in charge of them for every holiday! Thanks for a new fav!

I received a KitchenAid Mixer for Christmas, and this was the first recipe I tried! So delicious, everyone raved about them. Topped half with buttercream frosting, and the other half plain. So good either way! Will definitely make again!

I didn't have time to cool the dough in the fridge, so I just added some more flour. It was very moist. For me this made more than 12 - 6 big and 16 small, so about 15 big. But very nice! Times were about right for the larger ones. Lovely warm with a yummy soft centre. Thank you - what a great recipe!

I was very disappointed with this recipe. Even after the required 2 hours of chilling, it was way too soft to make decent cut-out cookies--very frustrating. I would strongly encourage anyone looking for an easy rolled out chocolate cookie recipe to keep looking!

Great cookies! Kid approved! Definitely sticky but extra flour and parchment helped a lot. The thicker batches taste like brownies, and the thin batches are like crispy chocolate goodness! The best of both cookies worlds :-)

For a simple, kid-friendly cut out cookie, this was perfect. I was looking for a rainy day activity to do with my 2.5-year-old and this worked great. It's easy for kids to help with (even young ones) and tastes good with milk. It's not an amazing company cookie or anything, but for my goals I'd do it again! ETA: I forgot to mention that I did have to use the powdered sugar/cocoa mix to prevent sticking that another reviewer suggested.

I added a little more cocoa than suggested for a richer flavor. Overall a great cookie. Delicious with simple white frosting

I should probably be giving these four stars, because I tweaked the original recipe, but they came out so good I'm giving them five! So, I only used two eggs, and about 2 1/2 cups flour. I refrigerated the dough, and then rolled the dough into small balls, rolled the balls in sugar and baked them for 7 minutes. They are soft and chewy, a chocolate version of soft molasses cookies! YUM!

Very difficult to work with!

These cookies were great! I made them exactly as the recipe specified. I was leary about the 3 tsp of vanilla, but added it anyway. 10 minute baking time was perfect. The flavor was wonderful. I frosted them with "Sugar Cookie Icing" from this site which added the perfect amount of sweetness. They got excellent reviews at the bridal shower where I served them. Thanks!

Great chocolate taste

This recipe was extremely sticky and hard to work with. The cookies did hold form when baked.

They tasted alright, and were good for putting into forms, but they couldn't be rolled or cut. At all. The dough sat in my refrigerator for 2 days and was still not hard enough to reasonably work with. No matter what I did, when I tried to take the cut out cookies off of my work space (I used plenty of flour and eventually switched to wax paper)they were stuck so bad that there was no way to get them off the work space that didn't involve destroying them. I tried for 2 hours (keeping the dough chilled when not using it), and got a grand total of three passable cookies. Maybe if they were the best cookies in the world I'd go through this trouble, but they simply weren't that good and the dough was impossible to work with.

Delicious brownie-like taste! Definitely roll out with flour/confectionary sugar mix to help with stickiness. Would be a nice Christmas cookie, frosted and decorated accordingly.

I made these cookies using a cross shaped cookies cutter to go along with the symbols used at Bible Shcool this week. They tasted like brownies and everyone enjoyed them very much. Thanks for sharing this recipe.

A little more sticky than I would like to make cutouts but was still able to make them. They tasted pretty good too.

Nobody cared for these. I used a Vanilla Glaze recipe from this site to ice them.

These taste like Tootsie Rolls. Made exactly as written.

These taste just lovely. but are too hard for me. They were not burnt at all, just very hard and tough. It might have been a bit on the sticky side, but I could still roll it out easily enough. I would suggest using less sugar and more butter, that might improve the texture.

I agree that 2 eggs work best. I used different sized cutters, the smaller leaves worked well and the cow was bigger and I had to be really careful. A wide, thin metal spatula worked to remove the cookies after letting them cool a few minutes. I will substitute some of the butter with buttery flavored shortening next time. I also baked at 375 F for 8 minutes, took the top pan out, put the bottom pan on the top rack and baked it one or two more minutes. I find the cookie doughs that taste the best don't always cut and cool well, but this is a nice compromise.

I made recipe exactly as is! However, I never remember how difficult this is to make...seriously a test of will and determination. The dough is SO THICK. I would buy a stand mixer just to make it...the electric mixer burned out trying to mix the stuff. Must use serious elbow grease. For baking: Bake for exactly 10 minutes, no more. These are better the second day because they soften up a little. I'm still looking for the perfect frosting technique for the laces on my football cookies--melted white chocolate is good but hard to control putting on!

The taste was okay but could have wanted more of the chocolate flavor. This recipe derserves more credit because it's different than your usual cut out cookie plus there was no problem rolling it out.

This is a great recipe for cut out cookies if you're tired of the typical sugar cookie cut outs. The dough rolled out wonderfully and cuts beautifuly. Everyone in my household couldn't stop eating them, I fosted them with a simple buttercream frosting. This is a great recipe to use with children because the dough won't fall apart when using cookie cuters. It's easy to handle and fun because it's brown not white!

this recipe did not work well for me at all. the dough was so moist even after adding a little extra flour it was like trying to roll out and cut fudge. a waste of time and money.

Amazingly delicious, chocolate cut out cookies. My four year old and I made these over 2 days. We made skeletons, pumpkins, hearts ect. with multiple colored frosting. The cookies puffed up a bit, I couldn't get a perfect picture but it's a fantastic cookie that I will be making again.

I've made these a few times now and they are great, but I would love them to be a little better. More flavor in the cookie or something-perhaps adding coffee will bring out more of the chocolate. I'm a bit picky and everyone else loves them as is or I would have played around with the recipe a bit more. ;)

I followed the advice of folks that had made this previously and only used 2 eggs. I chilled over night and used the sifted powdered sugar and cocoa mix to roll out on parchment. Genius! Worked like a charm. The dough was not sticky at all and was very easy to use. I varied the cooking time of my different batches and found these are so much better when really well cooked and crispy.

I am a rather experienced baker, and I found these waaay to sticky to even think about rolling out,even chilled. I needed to make letter "c", so I hand rolled them into logs, shaped and baked. Even thick letters needed only 6-7 minutes to bake so they wouldn't taste burnt. All in all, I wouldn't really recommend them, nor make them again.

I wanted to comment on the post that the cookies tasted 'chemically'. I had this problem with so many recipes and found out they all had one thing in common, they all called for baking powder. Upon researching, the taste you are experiencing is from the aluminum in the baking powder. I am very sensitive to the taste but no one else in my family is, they think I am nuts, lol. The sensitivity to the taste has gotten worse as I get older (35). I only use Argo Baking Powder (aluminum free) and it has made a world of difference. Hope this helps others out there!

my family and i LOVED these cookies. i followed the advice of one of the ladies by rolling them out in cocoa and powdered sugar...this really amped the flavor. actually, i wasn't expecting this to be as tasty as everyone said they were. i'm a chocoholic, and i vouch for these cookies! i used a dog bone cookie cutter and served them in a dog dish for our UHF party. they were a hit.

Done it few times. it's delicious

Easy and delicious! I love how I could make these with ingredients I already had on hand. My 3 year old daughter and I had lots of fun making and decorating them, but they taste much better plain. Roll the dough out nice and thick for brownie-like cookies. I substituted 1/3 of the total flour with whole wheat flour.

Recipe worked out good with no modifications. I chilled my dough overnight and didn't have any issue with sticking. I rolled some out with flour and some with cocoa and powdered sugar. I think the cocoa and powdered sugar is better. Also, the cookies needed salt. They come out a bit flat without it.

These were nice enough for 5 year-old birthday party. They're easy to roll and cut, the flavor is very agreeable. Nothing gourmet about it, though, so will stick to making cute chocolate ducks for kids.