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Chocolate Truffle Cookies

by:
December  6, 2016
4.6
8 Ratings
Photo by Posie Harwood
  • Makes about 15 cookies
Author Notes

Topped with a generous sprinkling of flaky sea salt, these rich cookies have a chewy, soft, brownie-like interior and a thin crackly exterior, like that shiny crust layer of a brownie. They come from the Ghirardelli archives, and are nearly flourless. —Posie (Harwood) Brien

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Ingredients
  • 2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips (or chopped bittersweet chocolate), divided into 1 1/2 cups and 1/2 cup
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon espresso powder (optional, for enhanced chocolate flavor)
  • 3 tablespoons flaky sea salt
Directions
  1. In a double boiler, melt together 1 1/2 cups of the chocolate with the butter. Set aside.
  2. Beat together the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Slowly add the warm chocolate mixture, beating as you add.
  3. Add the vanilla to the egg/chocolate mixture and mix well.
  4. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and espresso powder (if using) and mix thoroughly.
  5. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of chocolate (if the batter is still rather warm from the chocolate, let it cool until it's warm but not hot before adding the chocolate so that it doesn't melt the additional chocolate), and stir to combine.
  6. Chill the batter for 10-15 minutes, while you preheat the oven to 350°F.
  7. Using a spoon or scoop, scoop heaping tablespoonfuls of the batter onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Sprinkle liberally with flaky sea salt, and bake for 7-8 minutes. Remove the cookies as soon as they start to look dry on the top and develop cracks—do not overbake!! They will still look a bit too soft; that's okay.
  8. Remove from the oven and let cool.
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23 Reviews

Write a Review
Jef February 22, 2022
These work really well gluten free. I swapped out the flour for gluten free blend and added about 1 tsp of coconut flour as well. I let them chill and sit for a while which allows the GF flour to soak up a bit more of the moisture. We’ve made them twice and had great results both times. My GF family is super happy!
Drury February 3, 2020
My husband adored these. It is absolutely critical that the dough be significantly cooled before forming the cookies. I used 63% cocoa and feel that if you want something a little less sweet, you could lessen the sugar but honestly, these are so simple and delicious, I hesitate changing anything about the recipe.
FinVoilaQuoi December 12, 2017
I'm no baker. It took three tries to yield a cookie that resembled the ones in the picture. The first try taught me that if a recipe calls for 1 C of chocolate that does not mean to use 8 oz chocolate. Adding 12 oz of melted chocolate and then the other 4 oz of unmelted chocolated left me baking chocolate bricks. LOL, good times (and F bombs)
N August 27, 2017
The batter is way too liquidly in this recipe. And my cookies barely rose. I had to add a teaspoon more of baking powder for them to rise enough and about a half cup more of flour. After that they came out well.

The first batch made these thin crispy cookies that I think would have worked well blended up and made into a pie crust, but for that cookie texture I added the above and they were perfect - soft, gooey, and oh so chocolate-y~
WendyO June 24, 2017
To die for! I made them according to the recipe except I used mini chips in the batter as two different chocolates make for a more interesting "chocolate experience". So, Ghiradelli 60% for melting and Nestle's semisweet mini chips for stirring in. Made on a warm day, refrigerated the dough 15-20 minutes. Dough was pretty sticky before I got it all onto the cookie sheets but the cookies still kept their shape. Baked at 350 degrees in a pure convection oven. Couldn't have been happier with the finished product; truly addictive if you are a chocolate lover!
rita D. February 22, 2017
I wonder if one could substitute almond flour for the regular flour. Perhaps the rising would be different. What else could be used to help with the rising if one tries almond flour?
juicyrebound1 December 30, 2016
These cookies are a tradition at our house. Tips for spreading problems:
I refrigerate the dough overnight
Scoop each 1" ball of dough and roll into a ball (like a truffle)
Place dough balls onto cold cookie sheet 1.5" apart
If your kitchen is warm, keep raw dough waiting to be formed cool
Do not overbake, should be brownie-like and soft
Let cool a couple of minutes on the sheet
Then cool on racks and watch them disappear! Makes great gifts, too.
Lydia R. December 25, 2016
I made these — to the letter! — and they came out liquid! so disappointed :(
alli December 24, 2016
I wouldn't recommend making this in a cold home... you have to work fast because once the chocolate cools at all, it turns into a thick mess. With that said, the batter is indeed "truffle"-like because it is so dense & thick but if you're making it, don't stall between melting the chocolate and then measuring the flour, you have to work fast.

The butter and chocolate is less of a "mixture", it's more of a paste. I had to add some more butter to get a softer consistency. I would recommend melting the butter on the double broiler first, then adding the chocolate slowly to get a smoother mixture. All at once literally turns it into paste. Also, putting dollops of it into the egg/sugar mixture was another mess as well.

Also, I wish every cookie recipe would tell you if the batter spreads when baking or not because the batter of this was like scooping really thick frozen soft serve. It stuck everywhere and I couldn't even scrape off any extra batter with my spatula because it was that thick. I didn't know how much it'd spread so I couldn't determine how thick or thin to leave the uncooked batter on the tray. But my cookies did spread.. I'd recommend spacing them at least 1.5" apart.
petrini.elisa December 23, 2016
Let me echo the question about freezing! Would it work?
Posie (. December 23, 2016
See below!
Danielle December 20, 2016
Mine did not rise and it was like scooping pancake batter onto the cookie sheet. I used my stand mixer paddle through the whole process, could i have over beat the batter? Maybe mix by hand after the sugar and eggs incorporate? I'd like to try again because the taste was there, texture not at all.
Smaug December 21, 2016
They're not going to rise much at all, don't have the structure for it. The eggs provide some leavening; you should probably use the whisk for the egg-sugar mixture. I'm not sure where you went wrong on the batter- I made this recipe twice, and the "batter" was very thick, more like dough really- enough to handle it by hand. One thing - the chocolate was still pretty warm when I added it to the eggs- enough to cook the eggs.
pamc823 December 18, 2016
Have you ever tried freezing these?
Posie (. December 23, 2016
I haven't tried! But I think they'd freeze nicely because of the brownie-like interior. The outside might not be quite as delicate but I think they'd still be great.
gemma January 31, 2019
I froze these and just added a couple of minutes to the baking time. So long as you make sure not to overbake they'll come out perfect - I realised I needed to take them out before I actually wanted to, when they look soft and slightly underbaked.
Ginfay December 17, 2016
Just made them and they tasted great but I couldn't get my cookies to rise. They were very flat even after putting the mix into the fridge for 30+ mins. Any suggestions?
alex December 17, 2016
Just made these. They are delicious!!
Claire C. December 17, 2016
I have some Guittard "Akoma extra semisweet" chips - 55% cacao. Do you think these would work?
Thanks! The weather here in Boston is gross - raining on fresh snow :( - so I'm hoping not to leave the house!
Posie (. December 17, 2016
Definitely! Those would be awesome.
Paula B. December 17, 2016
Do you think this would work well with crushed peppermint pieces? Looking forward to trying it for Christmas!
Posie (. December 17, 2016
I don't see why not! You could also sprinkle the crushed candy over the top before baking instead of mixing it into the batter.
AntoniaJames December 9, 2016
Love the chocolate to everything else ratio in this recipe: deadly but delicious, and decidedly truffle-like. I plan to make these before Christmas! ;o)