These double chocolate Valentine's Day cookies are rich, fudgy, and packed with chocolate flavor. Made with a cocoa-based dough and loaded with chocolate chips and festive Valentine candies, they bake up soft in the center with perfectly set edges. A simple, reliable recipe for anyone looking for chocolate Valentine cookies that look festive and taste bakery-level good.
Looking for more inspiration? Be sure to check out my collection of the best Valentine's Day treat recipes, including Valentine’s day popcorn and classic peanut butter heart cookies that are perfect for parties and gifting.
🔎 Quick Look: Double Chocolate Valentine’s Day Cookies
⏱️ Prep Time: About 15 minutes active
❄️ Chill Time: About 30 minutes
🔥 Bake Time: 9 to 12 minutes per batch
🕒 Total Time: About 1 hour
🍪 Yield: About 16 cookies
🎉 Best For: Valentine's Day parties, classroom treats, cookie swaps, and gifting
⭐ Difficulty: Easy and beginner-friendly
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💖 Why You'll Love These Valentine's Cookies
- Easy: This is a simple, beginner-friendly recipe with only 20 minutes of prep time! It’s a really straightforward recipe, making it easy to bake these cookies for parties, events, or when you need last-minute Valentine's Day treat.
- Festive: Decorated with Valentine's Day M&Ms and sprinkles, these cookies are bright, fun, and just perfect for Valentine's Day and Galentine's Day parties, bake sales, and gifting. To make them even more festive, you can turn them into heart-shaped chocolate chip cookies!
- Delicious: These cookies are based on my double chocolate chip cookie recipe, which is one of my all-time favorite cookie recipes. I’ve had people literally chase me down for the recipe when I bring it to parties, it's that good!
Key Ingredients
See the recipe card for a full list of ingredients and quantities.
- All-purpose flour: make sure the flour is weighed or measured using the spoon and level method so you don't get too much in the recipe.
- Unsalted Butter: This recipe calls for unsalted butter, but you can substitute salted butter by cutting the added salt to ¼ tsp.
- Brown Sugar: This recipe calls for dark brown sugar, but you can substitute light brown sugar if desired.
- Chocolate Chips: You can use regular semi sweet chocolate chips, whit chocolate, milk chocolate, or chopped up chocolate bars. Really whatever you like will work great and be delicious!
- Valentine's Cupid Blend M&M: You can use your favorite M&M’s, classic, peanut, peanut butter, or any other type of pink Valentine's Day chocolates!
- Valentine's Day Sprinkles: I love Jimmies in cookies, but nonpareils also work great, and for these cookies I like to press these sprinkle hearts on top. They look so cute!!
How to Make Chocolate Valentine’s Day Cookies
Prep Sugars and Flour
1. Mix Sugars: Using a fork, mix the granulated sugar, dark brown sugar, and molasses in a bowl. It’s fine if it’s clumpy and not perfectly mixed together. Set aside.
2. Sift Flour: In a medium bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
Make Chocolate Cookie Dough
3. Cream Butter: Using a standing mixer with a paddle attachment or a hand held mixer with a larger bowl, mix the butter for 2-3 minutes until very creamy.
4. Add Sugar: Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add the sugar mixture and mix on medium-high until fully combined and light and fluffy. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as needed to combine all the butter and sugar.
5. Add Egg and Extract: Add the egg and vanilla and mix until incorporated.
6. Mix in Cocoa Flour: Add the cocoa and flour mixture and mix on low speed until just combined. Do not over mix the dough or it can get tough. You want to mix only until just combined. It should be very thick and fudgy.
7. Add M&Ms, Chocolate, and Sprinkles: Using a spatula, gently fold in the candy, sprinkles, and chocolate chips.
8. Pre-scoop Dough: Once the dough is mixed, place 2 tablespoon balls of dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment. You don't have to worry about how far apart they are as we are chilling the cookie dough, not baking it. An ice cream scoop works great for this. Gently press additional M&Ms (and if desired, these sprinkle hearts) on top of the scooped cookies.
Chill Chocolate Cookie Dough
- Cover and Chill: Loosely cover the pan with plastic wrap and chill the cookie dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Alternatively, you can simply chill the entire bowl of cookie dough before scooping, but it makes it a little harder to scoop out the cookie dough and add the additional candy if it has been chilled, so I prefer to scoop it in advance. While the dough is chilling, preheat oven to 325 ℉.
Baking Chocolate Valentine’s Day Cookie
- Prep Baking Sheet: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Place balls of cookie dough on the baking sheet at least two inches apart.
- Bake: Bake 9 -12 minutes in a 325 ℉ in a preheated oven until the cookies are firm around the edges. Let the cookies cool before removing from the baking sheet. They will be soft at first, but firm up as they cool. Once cool, enjoy!
Tips for Perfect Cookies
- Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature.
- Measure out the flour using a scale or the spoon and swipe method of fluffing up the ingredients and then spooning into the measure cups and swiping the excess off the top with a knife. If you dip the measuring cup directly into the flour it can pack down and you will add too much flour to the recipe.
- An ice cream scoop works great for getting even-sized cookies.
- This recipe makes about 15-18 cookies depending on the size, and can be halved or doubled as needed.
- For perfectly round picture perfect cookies use the cutter hack of turning cookies to perfect circles. You can also use a heat safe bowl or large cup.
Valentine’s Day Chocolate Cookies FAQ
Because the chocolate cookie dough is dark, look for set edges and slightly soft centers rather than a dark color. The cookies should look puffed and no longer super glossy in the center.
Yes! This dough can be shaped into heart-shaped chocolate cookies using the same method outlined in my heart shaped chocolate chip cookies recipe.
These will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Yes, these cookies are very freezer-friendly. To freeze, scoop the dough into balls, freeze them on a baking sheet until solid, then transfer to a zip-top freezer bag for storage. When ready to bake, bake the cookie dough balls directly from frozen and add a few extra minutes to the bake time as needed. Fully baked and cooled cookies can also be frozen for up to 2 months.
Looking for more Valentine’s Day Recipes? Check these out!
Double Chocolate Valentine's Day Cookies
INGREDIENTS
- 1 ⅓ cup all-purpose flour (160g) weighed or spooned and leveled
- ½ cup cocoa powder (50 g) Dutch-processed preferred
- 1 tsp kosher salt or 1/2 tsp table salt
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 6 oz unsalted butter (1.5 sticks or 12 tbsp) room temperature
- ½ cup granulated sugar 100 g
- ½ cup packed dark brown sugar 100 g
- 2 tsp unsulphured molasses
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 cup Valentine's Day M&Ms
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- 2-3 tbsp Valentine’s Day sprinkles
Instructions
- Mix sugar, brown sugar, and molasses in a bowl. It's fine if it's clumpy and not perfectly mixed together. Set aside.
- Whisk or sift together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a standing mixer with a padle attachment, or a large bowl with a hand held mixer, cream the softened butter for 2-3 minutes until light and very creamy.
- Add the sugar mixture and mix for another 2-3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Add the egg and vanilla extract. Mix until combined.
- Add the flour mixture, and mix until just combined. Try not to over mix the dough. It should be very thick and fudgy.
- Gently mix in the candy.
- Once the dough is mixed, place 2 tablespoon balls of dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment. You don't have to worry how far apart they are as we are chilling the cookie dough, not baking it. If desired, add more M&Ms and sprinkles to the top of the balls of cookie dough.
- Loosely cover the pan with plastic wrap and chill the cookie dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Alternatively, you can simply chill the entire bowl of cookie dough for at least 30 minutes before scooping and baking.
- While the dough is chilling, preheat oven to 325 ℉.
- Once the dough is chilled and the oven has pre-heated, add the cookie dough balls onto a parchment or silicone mat-lined baking sheet, keeping the balls of dough 2-3 inches apart.
- Bake on the middle rack of the oven, one baking sheet at a time, for 9-12 minutes, or until firm around the edges. Watch closely, since they're so dark it can be easy to burn or over bake.
- Let cool before removing from the baking sheet. They will be very soft at first, but firm up as they cool. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature.
- Measure out the flour using a scale or the spoon and swipe method of fluffing up the ingredients and then spooning into the measure cups and swiping the excess off the top with a knife. If you dip the measuring cup directly into the flour it can pack down and you will add too much flour to the recipe.
- An ice cream scoop works great for getting even-sized cookies.
- This recipe makes about 15-18 cookies depending on the size, and can be halved or doubled as needed.
- For perfectly round picture perfect cookies use the cutter hack of turning cookies to perfect circles. You can also use a heat safe bowl or large cup.
Sophia Assunta says
This chocolate cookie recipe is one of my all time favorites, I hope you enjoy this Valentine’s Day version!!