Why You’ll Love These Chocolate Lava Cookies
- Rich, decadent, and impressive…yet so easy to make! Simply make the dough, stuff it with the ganache, and bake.
- Chocolate lava cake flavor without any fancy ramekins or baking tins needed!
- Soft and chewy texture that lasts for days. Using brown sugar and an extra egg yolk really helps with this.
- Perfect for Valentine’s Day! They are truly a chocoholic’s dream cookie ❤️
Some days, you just need a good chocolate cookie, and for that I have plenty of options: double chocolate chip cookies, brownie cookies, and even flourless chocolate cookies will all do the trick.
Then there are days when you need a chocolate cookie that’s so rich, so indulgent it should come with a warning…and that’s when these chocolate lava cookies do their best work.
Made with a rich, dark cocoa-infused cookie dough enveloping molten chocolate ganache, these cookies are not for the fainthearted. No, only true chocoholics should dare to try (and devour) them. Consider yourself warned!
Fortunately, making these cookies is not near as much of an undertaking as resisting the urge to devour the whole batch (coming from a self-proclaimed chocoholic). We’ll use a similar method to my Nutella stuffed cookies, which means even beginner bakers can tackle this one. Let’s get to it!
What You Need
Here are some of the key ingredients we’ll be using in these chocolate lava cookies.
- Cake flour. I prefer to use cake flour as it creates a soft, cake-like texture. Normally I don’t like cakey cookies, but since these are supposed to be reminiscent of chocolate lava cakes, it just makes sense here!
- Corn starch. This helps the cookies hold their shape and prevents them from spreading all over the baking sheet.
- Cocoa powder. I like using dark cocoa powder in this recipe, but regular dutch process cocoa will work just fine too! If you’d like to learn about all the different types of cocoa powder, check out my post on natural vs. dutch process cocoa powder.
- Egg + egg yolk. Using an extra yolk (but not the white!) will encourage a stiffer dough so the cookies can hold in their molten lava center.
- Dark chocolate. I recommend couverture chocolate or a chopped baking bar. I don’t typically like to use chocolate chips to make chocolate ganache, but you could use them in a pinch.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Chocolate Lava Cookies
Make the Filling
- Heat the cream until steaming, then pour over your chocolate. Cover and let sit, then whisk until smooth.
- Place the ganache in the fridge to solidify, then scoop and place on a parchment lined baking sheet in the freezer.
Cookie Dough
- Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs and vanilla, then stir until everything is smooth.
- Whisk the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, then gradually add them to the wet ingredients. Do not add the dry ingredients all at once or you will have a very difficult time getting the dough to come together; I do this in 3-4 parts.
- Cover your cookie dough with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to chill.
Assembly
- Scoop and roll your cookie dough into balls, then make an indent in the center with your thumb.
- Add a frozen ganache dollop inside your indentation, then form/roll the dough over the ganache so it is completely covered on all sides. Repeat with the remaining dough and ganache.
- Place on parchment lined baking sheets, making sure to leave plenty of space between the cookies. Bake, and if you want, while they’re still warm from the oven, press down on the tops with a measuring cup. This will give your cookies that lava cake appearance, though you don’t really have to do this.
- Let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheet, then dust with powdered sugar.
