Soft Frosted Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Puffy pillows of chocolate amazingness.

Recently, my husband came home from work with some random store-bought baked good and declared, “these are awesome!” Skeptically, I tasted the offending baked item, and immediately disagreed. Also, (only slightly) offended. He asked me to reproduce the recipe. Of course, he had suggestions — not very helpful suggestions, at that. “Make it more chocolate.” “Make it more different.” “Can you make it taste better?” “I don’t like pink.”

You heard the man.

The candidate for this baker’s makeover was a soft, white sugar cookie with fluffy pink icing, decorated with sprinkles. You know the one! It lives, wrapped in plastic, forgotten on a shelf in your local supermarket’s bakery department. My challenge was to convert this usually stale, dry and chemically-laden sugar bomb into a chocolate delight. Done right, these cookies are tender, full of flavour and not overly sweet. The hit of sweetness comes from the rich chocolate frosting (just a little).

Oh yes, and sprinkles. If you like that sort of thing. (I do.)

Click through for the recipe and instructions.

Soft Frosted Chocolate Sugar Cookies
Makes 1 dozen large cookies
Ingredients:
Cookie dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp. butter, softened
2 tbsp sour cream
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Frosting:
3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup cocoa
4 cups icing sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoons milk
Sprinkles

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. 
2. Prepare 2 cookie sheets by lining with parchment paper and set aside. 
3. In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside. 
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together sugar, brown sugar, butter and sour cream until pale and fluffy. 
5. To the sugar mixture, add egg, egg yolk and vanilla. Mix well until combined. 
6. Slowly add dry ingredients and mix until thoroughly combined. 
7. Roll about 2 tablespoons of dough into a ball and place onto prepared cookie sheet. Flatten ball with your hand until it’s about 1/2 inch thick. 
8. Bake cookies for 8-9 minutes. Cool completely before frosting. 
9. To make frosting, beat butter until pale and fluffy. Add vanilla, icing sugar and cocoa and stir to combine. Add milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until smooth and creamy enough to spread onto a cookie. Top with sprinkles if you like.