These mocha chocolate chip cookies have powdered milk to give them an extra creamy flavor, like a mocha latte from your favorite coffee shop!
I joke that my husband, AJ, is my “baking muse” but I fully admit that these cookies were designed and developed with him in mind. He’s a fanatic when it comes to coffee and chocolate, and the combination of the two makes him swoon. I don’t make a lot of mocha-forward recipes but the ones I do make, including my mocha pots de crème, peppermint mocha cheesecake brownies, and gluten free mocha cookies with pistachios are all winners in my household. But these jumbo mocha chocolate chip cookies are next level compared to those, and AJ ate way too many of them when they appeared!
How do you make these cookies?
These cookies are easy to make! The first step is to whisk together instant coffee or espresso powder into 2 eggs. Do not use actual coffee grounds. You need instant coffee or instant espresso powder that will dissolve in liquid. Whisk the instant coffee into the eggs and set aside to let the powder slowly dissolve.
Place the butter, brown sugar, white sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and vanilla extract in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix until a creamy paste forms and clings to the side of the bowl. Beat in half the egg mixture, scrape down the bowl and repeat with the remaining egg mixture.
Add flour, cocoa powder, and milk powder to the bowl. Slowly stir it in, turning the mixer on and off in the beginning to help prevent the dry powder from flying up and out of the bowl. Increase the speed once the ingredients start to be absorbed. Once mixed in, add the chocolate chips.
Tightly wrap the dough in plastic wrap and then let the dough chill for 2 to 3 days, then form dough disk from the cold dough. Place extra chips on top of the dough and sprinkle some flaky salt on top, the bake. Cool on the pan briefly, then move to a wire rack to cool completely.
The role of milk powder in this recipe
You’ll notice an odd addition to this recipe, which is powdered milk. Powdered milk is exactly what it sounds like, milk that has the water stripped out of it. You can reconstitute and make milk out of powdered milk but I don’t usually recommend that, as the subsequent “milk” doesn’t taste all that great.
But powdered milk is awesome in baked goods! It’s a tip I learned from Christina Tosi from her first cookbook The Milk Bar cookbook (mint chocolate chip cookies, I wanted to mimic the richness that you get from drinking a mocha from a coffee shop. The addition of the powdered milk helps with this, as well as gives the cookie a chewy quality and slightly crispness to the edges and top surface of the cookie that I just adore.
You can find powdered milk in almost all grocery stores, typically in the baking area, where you might find canned evaporated and condensed milk. If you can’t find powdered milk, you can substitute the same amount of malted milk powder to the recipe but know that the resulting cookie will be slightly sweeter and have an underlying malt flavor to the cookie (which isn’t a bad thing, just different!). And if all else fails, and you don’t have or want to buy powdered milk, just omit it. The cookies will still be fantastic. They just won’t have the same richness and creamy consistency that they would with the addition of the powdered milk.
What sort of cocoa powder to use in this recipe
Cocoa powder comes in two different types: natural or Dutch-processed cocoa and both will work in this recipe.
Natural cocoa is made from roasting and grinding cocoa beans. It has a sharper and more acidic flavor and a lighter color. If the package on your cocoa powdered doesn’t specify what sort of cocoa powder it is, it’s most likely is natural cocoa powder. My cakey brownie recipe uses natural cocoa powder. You can see in the photo that the resulting brownie is lighter in color.
Dutch-process cocoa has been alkalinized which means the natural acidity of the cocoa beans have been removed. Dutch-processed cocoa is darker in color and tastes more mellow but often richer chocolate flavor, due to a lot of Dutch-processed cocoa having a higher percentage of cocoa butter. Nowadays you can also buy high end natural cocoa powder that has a higher percentage cocoa butter, so the difference between the two is whether you want a sharper acidity or a more mellow flavor profile. My Texas sheet cake (as well as the store-bought Oreos that I use in my cookies and cream cookies and my Oreo brownies) use a Dutch-process cocoa which results in a darker baked good.
This particular recipe is designed to use either type of cocoa powder as there’s enough acidity in the brown sugar to still give it the proper leavening. The cookies in the photo use natural cocoa powder and they still come out fairly dark due to the amount of dark brown sugar and instant coffee in it. So, the only difference in using either cocoa powder is the flavor.
Why do you chill the dough?
Like my bakery-style chocolate chip cookie recipe that this recipe is based on, this recipe suggests that you let the dough chill in the fridge for 2 to 3 days (48 to 72 hours). This is a technique that was shared by my friend David Leite in his popular article he wrote for the New York Times about chocolate chip cookies, and why I let my dough rest in the fridge for my own bakery-style chocolate chip cookies.
Letting the cookie dough rest in the fridge gives it time for the liquid in the eggs to properly hydrate the dough. The resulting cookie has a firmer and chewier texture with more pronounced caramel and butterscotch notes. The cookie also doesn’t spread quite as much if you chill the dough for that period of time, as the dough will have dried out a bit.
If you are impatient though, I always recommend folks bake one batch (4 to 6 cookies) on the day that they make the cookie dough to satisfy your craving. The cookies will spread more and be thinner so be sure to place them at least 2 to 3 inches apart. But they’ll still be tasty! Just not quite as complex in flavor.
Be sure to chill the rest of the dough in the fridge for the 2 to 3 days and then bake the remaining amount. You’ll be surprised as to how much the flavor and texture can change! And once you’ve tasted the chilled dough, you might be willing to wait that extra time for any subsequent time you make this cookie.
Can you freeze this dough?
Almost any hardcore baker will tell you that the secret to entertaining is always storing and keeping cookie dough in the freezer! This cookie dough freezes really well. Let the dough first chill in the fridge for the full 48 to 72 hours. Then portion out and form the cookie dough disks. But instead of baking the cookies, stack the disks with a small piece of parchment paper between each of them, and then wrap the stack of them tightly in plastic wrap. Place the wrapped dough in a freezer Ziploc bag for up to 3 months in the freezer.
You can bake the cookies directly from the freezer, without thawing! Just increase the bake time by 2 minutes (16 to 18 minutes) to accommodate for the cold dough to thaw.
How do you store these cookies?
These cookies can be stored in an air tight container or under a cake dome at room temperature for up to 3 days. You can also freeze the baked cookies in a freezer Ziploc bag for up to 1 month.
If you like these mocha chocolate chip cookies, check out these other chocolate chip cookie recipes:
Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookies
This rich and intensely coffee and chocolate flavored chocolate chip cookies is an amazing recipe if you love to order mocha lattes at your local coffee shop. I use powdered milk in the dough to mimic the richness of drinking a mocha from a coffee shop. I have a section above about powdered milk that helps explain this! I also let the cookie dough rest in the fridge for 48 to 72 hours before baking. But you can bake a batch of the cookies immediately if you need instant gratification. I have a note above explaining why I rest the dough immediately and what to expect with the cookies if they are baked right away.
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- 4 tablespoons instant coffee or instant espresso powder see note below
- 1 1/4 cup unsalted butter 285 g or 2 1/2 sticks
- 1 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar 275 g
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons white sugar 225 g
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour 420 g
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder 50 g
- 3 tablespoons powdered milk see note above
- 2 cups chocolate chips or chopped chocolate 300 g
To Finish
- Extra chocolate chips
- Flaky sea salt
Instructions
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Make the cookie dough by first mixing together the two eggs and the instant coffee or espresso in a small bowl or glass measuring. Set aside to give the instant coffee powder time to dissolve a bit.
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Place the butter, brown sugar, white sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix the ingredients together until they form a paste, are uniform in color, and cling to the side of the bowl.
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Scrape down the sides and add half the coffee infused eggs to the mixture. Mix together until the liquid is absorbed, scrape down the side again, and repeat with the remaining egg mixture. Don’t be concerned if the instant coffee isn’t completely dissolved.Add the flour, cocoa powder, and milk powder to the mixture and slowly mix, toggling the on and off button if you need to, so the dry ingredients don’t go flying out of the bowl. Once the dry ingredients start to get incorporated, you can increase the speed to medium to mix it all in.
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Remove from the stand and then hand mix in the chocolate chip. Now scoop out the dough and place it on a large piece of plastic wrap, flat it out until it’s about 1-inch thick. The tightly wrap it in the plastic wrap (you might need two pieces to totally cover it). Place in the fridge and let it chill for 48 to 72 hours.
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Once the dough has rested and chilled, take the dough out of the fridge and unwrap it. Break off enough dough to form a 1-inch thick disk that is roughly 1 1/2 inches wide. If you have a scale, this is about 75 grams of dough. Repeat to create 5 more dough disks and place them 2-inches apart from each other on a baking sheet fitted with a piece of parchment paper.
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Add a couple of chocolate chips to the top of each dough disk, then sprinkle each cookie dough disk with flaky sea salt (if using). Bake in the oven for 14 to 16 minutes, or until the edges of the cookie look dry. Let them sit on the baking sheet for an additional 5 minutes, to firm up, then move to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough.
Notes
1. This recipe is designed to use instant coffee or instant espresso powder. Do not use regular coffee grounds or espresso grounds for this recipe. Regular coffee grounds or espresso grounds won’t dissolve and will lead to a gritty cookie. You can find instant coffee at any grocery store or at specialty grocery stores like Trader Joe’s.
2. If you’re curious about the chocolate chips I used in this recipe, they are from Guittard. They are called “Super Cookie Chips” and can be found at upscale grocery stores, well stocked general grocery stores, and online. They are a 48% semi-sweet chocolate and are larger than a typical chocolate chip cookie, giving the cookie a distinct bakery-style look, without having to actually do any chocolate chopping.
3. One of the hardest parts of this recipe is making the cookie dough and then letting it rest in the fridge for 48 hours! Most folks want cookies right away. What I typically suggest is baking one pan of the cookies right away (4 to 6 cookies) so you can immediate gratification. Be sure place the cookie dough disks farther apart from each other (2 to 3 inches) because the dough will spread more when you bake it right away.
Let the remaining dough rest in the fridge for 48 hours and bake the rest afterwards. Once you’ve tasted the difference, you might be willing to let it rest for that time period because it really does change the cookie flavor and texture! The next best thing is to portion out and freeze the cookie dough, so you can have fresh baked cookies anytime you want. I have a section above on how to do just that.
Nutrition
Calories: 285kcal | Carbohydrates: 35.6g | Protein: 7.8g | Fat: 12.3g | Saturated Fat: 8.4g | Cholesterol: 35.6mg | Sodium: 1526mg | Potassium: 765mg | Fiber: 1.4g | Sugar: 20.7g | Calcium: 442mg | Iron: 2mg
