These double chocolate cookies have a surprisingly lemony complex flavor profile. The lemon zest in the chocolate cookies is magic! Of course, I may be biased as my son, and I created this recipe together. You will love the deep chocolate flavor of these cookies accented by the semi-sweet chocolate chips. And the cookies are complete with chopped whole almonds. It’s got texture, sweetness, and flavor upon flavor! These double chocolate cookies are a must-try.
When you start making a recipe, you must ask yourself, will this be something I like? Heck yes! If you are a chocolate lover, the deep chocolate flavor in these cookies will hit you right away. That flavor is followed up with the lemon and chocolate chips for a delicious bite every time!
Before we walk through this recipe, you can use orange instead; it would likely give you a great new flavor. However, I adore the lemon flavor, as does my daughter, so you may see a few lemony treats popping up now and then.
How to Make These Double Chocolate Cookies
We start with the usual cookie batter-making method of creaming the butter and sugar together. Then we mix in and blend the eggs well. You may notice in the photographs I am using a liquid measure for my dry ingredients as well. Guess what I am! I grew up using very little in the way of ‘extras’ when it came to baking, and I have had very few mistakes in over 40 years. So please don’t be shy. Get out your liquid measures and give it a try yourself!
After creaming the eggs and butter mixture well, we move on to adding in the dry ingredients. Because we aren’t adding any more liquid, we can dump all of that on top of the wet ingredients. Be sure to scrape down the sides of your bowl as you mix. If I use a mixer, the answer is on occasion when needed. It’s a two-fold reason for that. One, I didn’t have an electric mixer when growing up off-grid. If we wanted to whip cream, we would use an old egg beater. I have my eye out at the flea markets for one of those. It’s just such a fun old-timey thing to use.
I also need a large kitchen. Right now, I have more of a cook-nook than a kitchen, lol. It does an excellent job, though, of serving its purpose. But I use a hand mixer if I need to whip things these days. Here though, you will likely notice my fork in the cookie mixture. Forks are great tools for mixing batters and doughs as the tines allow the mix to pass through and press out lumps in the batter.
We’ve now got the dry dumped on our wet double chocolate cookie dough batter. And we need to make sure the dry is incorporated well. If you use the fork method and find it too hard, get out your mixer. Suppose you don’t have a mixer. Clean hands will work as a mixer in a pinch. But be careful, as the heat from your hands can melt solid butter.
Doesn’t that look tempting? I grew up licking the bowl. Then the whole scare of salmonella from store-bought eggs took that joy away. So if you love cookie dough, stay tuned. We’ll make some at some point. But for now, we will add in the nuts and chocolate chips. Make sure you mix the dough around enough to distribute the nuts and chocolate chips. If you’ve ever been in a rush baking, then you’ve likely experienced an uneven distribution once before. What a letdown that person has when they get a cookie devoid of extra goodies.
Now it’s time to get them on the cookie sheet. I have a Wilton cookie sheet that I have been using for at least a decade. I love it! The low side allowed for cookies to slide right off. Past tense because my used and abused non-stick cookie sheet now requires parchment. But I am okay with that because this cookie sheet is so big! It holds two whole dozen cookies at once, so I can’t complain. I love cookies and baking, but waiting on small cookie sheets batch after batch can be a hassle for a busy mom.
Drop onto the parchment or prepared pan using a teaspoon or cookie scoop. These cookies spread some, so leave enough room around them to allow for that. What I noticed most when cooking these is they have a thinner edge when they spread out on the pan. That means they are going to cook faster at the edges. You need to pay close attention to the first batch so it does not burn! I baked it in a 350-degree oven for 12 minutes. If you have a range that cooks faster, keep them in for 10 minutes. Test for doneness and remove, allowing to cool before taking off the cookie sheet. If they are on parchment and you have a heat-safe work surface, you can slide the paper off with cookies to cool.
Cookies are always a pretty straightforward process, so making them at home is so simple and rewarding. The fresh-baked chocolate flavor in these cookies is going to be tasty. The cookies bake to have a crisp outer edge and softer inside. However, it would be best to seal them tightly, or they will continue to dry out overnight.
I am by no means a bakery baker, so I don’t worry about the appearance of cookies because, as a mom, it’s more about flavor and delivery of the goods before the kids run you down, right?! Thankfully my kids are old enough that I can now move beyond the near-daily asking for plain chocolate chip cookies.
Your Questions Answered!
Would these freeze well? Normally cookies do freeze well however I caution that if they’re not sealed well you will end up with a freeze fridgy taste. Avoid this by baking a fresh batch when needed!
Can these be made with just the chocolate chips and almonds-no cocoa powder? Sure. Simply omit the cocoa powder for a chocolate chip, almond cookie with a hint of lemon.
I don’t have brown sugar can I use white instead? Yes you can sub the sugar with white, coconut, or another sweetener. Remember though that this will effect the color, flavor and possibly overall texture.
Double Chocolate Chipped Cookies With Lemon
Equipment
- 2 bowls
- 1 tsp
- 1 Tbsp
- 1 Cup
- 1 Baking pan
- parchment paper
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Butter
- 1 Cup Brown Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 1 Cup Flour
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- ½ tsp Salt
- 1 Lemon Rind Zested
- 6 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
- ½ tsp Cinnamon
- ½ Cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
- 1 Cup Chopped Almonds coarsely chopped by hand
Instructions
- In mixing bowl cream butter and sugar together well.
- Add in one at a time your eggs mixing well after each addition.
- Measure the dry ingredients into another bowl and blend well.
- Slowly add your dry ingredients into the wet blending well after each addition.
- Stir in your mixed nuts and chocolate chips.
- Put parchment paper on baking pan.
- Drop by teaspoonful onto cookie sheet. Leave approx ½" of space around each cookie.
- Bake at 350℉ for 10-12 mins.
- Remove from oven and let cool on parchment paper before lifting.
- Store in airtight container for freshness.