These deliriously dark and chocolatey devil’s food cookies are inspired by the classic cake. They have a fudgy buttercream filling and ganache topping for the ultimate gourmet cookie experience! Recipe includes a how-to video!
Devil’s Food Inspired Cookies
Inspired by my devil’s food cake, these ridiculously over-the-top, chocolatey devil’s food cookies are nothing short of gourmet. The cookie crumb is reminiscent of a slice of triple chocolate cake; moist, fudgy, and melt-in-your-mouth. My favorite part is their decadent centers stuffed with rich chocolate buttercream filling… yum 🤎
The buttercream filling is what really makes these cookies a melt-in-your mouth chocolate cake-esque experience. Once they’ve cooled completely, you may not even see it (it’s the same color as the cookie, after all). But if you take a bite, oh, you’ll taste it!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- (Very) decadent and gourmet. They’d make an excellent Valentine’s Day dessert or birthday cake alternative!
- Beginner baker friendly. There are three components to make, but none of them are difficult or tedious. And the end result is well worth the effort.
- The cookies truly taste like a slice of devil’s food cake! From the texture to the flavor to the appearance, these cookies live up to their name in every way.
- Uses basic pantry staples (but still delivers gourmet taste and appearance). I’ll talk more about these below.
What You Need
Let’s chat about a few of our key players here…
- Cake flour. Cake flour provides the best texture here (most similar to real cake!) and is what I recommend for best results. I use this in most of my gourmet cookie recipes, actually! If you do not have any cake flour on hand, you can still use all-purpose flour, though your results will not be quite as soft and tender. I provide substitution instructions for this below.
- Oil. Any neutral oil will work here (like canola, avocado or vegetable oil); I use avocado. While many of my cookies stick with solely using butter, adding a bit of oil created a true, tender, and moist chocolate cake experience!
- Dutch cocoa powder. I use Dutch cocoa in my devil’s food cake, so that’s what we use here in both the cookies and the frosting. It has a deeper, more intense flavor (and is the cocoa of choice for my double chocolate chunk cookies for this reason, too) and just has a more classic devil’s food taste.
- Semisweet chocolate. This is for our thick, fudgy chocolate ganache topping; you can use either chocolate chips or couverture chocolate. A chopped baking bar would also work!
- Heavy cream. Whipping cream or double cream will also work. This is also for our chocolate ganache.
SAM’S TIP: If you only keep salted butter on hand, you can still make this recipe! Simply reduce the salt in the cookies to ¼ teaspoon and omit it entirely from the filling. I talk more about how to calculate this in my post on salted or unsalted butter.
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 Devil’s Food Cookies
Make the dough
- Cream the butter and sugars until very well combined, then beat on high speed for at least a minute or two until the mixture is lightened in color and fluffy. Stir in the eggs, vanilla, and oil, then set aside.
- Whisk the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, then gradually add them to the wet ingredients until combined. Cover and chill the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Make the filling
This filling is simply a thick chocolate buttercream. It adds such a nice, rich element to the cookie and makes it truly melt in your mouth!
- Beat the butter until smooth, then gradually add the powdered sugar. I do this on low speed in 3-4 parts.
- Add the cocoa powder, vanilla, and salt and mix again until everything is combined and smooth.
- Drop 1 tablespoon scoops onto a wax paper lined baking sheet and place in the freezer for at least 15 minutes. Your dough should still be chilling at this point and should hopefully finish up by the time your scoops have frozen.
Assemble
- Stuff the dough! Make large scoops, roll into a ball, make an indent right into the center and then stuff the frosting dollop inside. Make sure you keep the frosting as well-centered as possible with an even layer of cookie dough all around it to insulate it and keep it from spilling out in the oven.
- Bake. With such a dark cookie it can be difficult to tell if they’ve baked completely, but you don’t want to over-bake or they’ll be dry and crumbly once cooled. When finished, the centers should still look slightly underdone (remember, these cookies don’t need to cook all the way through to the center as our center is an eggless buttercream, and over-baking them would be a travesty! Let the cookies cool completely on their baking sheets before moving to a cooling rack to be decorated. They are extremely fragile while still warm!
- Prepare the ganache. I microwave mine because it’s faster, but you could do this the old-fashioned way by pouring steaming cream over finely chopped chocolate.
- Decorate each cookie with ganache. It’s best to let this firm up before enjoying or the eating experience can be a little messy (which doesn’t take too long).
SAM’S TIP: If you’re microwaving your chocolate topping, make sure to heat your chocolate and cream slowly for the ganache, as heating too fast can cause the chocolate to seize and you’ll have to start over. I do this in the microwave, but you can do it on the stovetop if you don’t use a microwave.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you don’t plan to finish them within two days, yes, I recommend it due to the fudgy ganache icing. Store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator. You could also wrap them tightly and freeze them for a month or two.
If you like the cookies cold, that’s fine, but they’ll be a bit crumblier straight out of the fridge. I prefer to let them come back to room temperature before enjoying.
Cake flour gives these devil’s food cookies a more cake-like texture with a soft, fine, cake-like tender crumb. I use it in quite a few of my gourmet cookie recipes (like my blueberry muffin cookies and strawberry pop tart cookies) for impressive, bakery-style results.
You could, but the flavor and color will be different. Dutch process cocoa is the best choice for these devil’s food cookies, as it mimics the rich chocolatey flavor of devil’s food cake (especially since that’s what I use in my cake recipe).
Note that you cannot always substitute natural cocoa for Dutch process and vice versa. I have a whole post on natural vs. Dutch process cocoa that discusses the differences between the two and when you can and cannot substitute.
I have another chocolatey cake-inspired cookie recipe coming for you next week…any guesses?
Enjoy!
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Devil’s Food Cookies
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Servings: 14 cookies
Calories: 522kcal
Instructions
Cookie Dough
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In a large mixing bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment), use an electric mixer to beat butter and sugar together until combined. Gradually increase mixer speed to high and beat until light and creamy (at least a minute or two!).
1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, 1 cup (200 g) light brown sugar, ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
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Add oil, eggs, and vanilla extract and stir on low-speed until all ingredients are completely combined. Set aside.
2 Tablespoons cooking oil, 2 large eggs, 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
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In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3 ½ cups (394 g) cake flour, ⅔ cup (70 g) Dutch cocoa powder, 2 teaspoons baking powder, ¼ teaspoon baking soda, ¾ teaspoon table salt
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Gradually add dry ingredients into wet, mixing until all ingredients are thoroughly combined.
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Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. While dough is chilling, make your filling.
Filling
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Place butter in a medium-sized bowl and use an electric mixer to beat until smooth and creamy.
6 Tablespoons (85 g) unsalted butter
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Gradually add powdered sugar (I do this in 3 or 4 parts), beating after each addition until smooth and combined.
1 cup (125 g) powdered sugar
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Add cocoa powder, vanilla extract, and salt and stir until smooth and completely combined.
2 ½ Tablespoons Dutch cocoa powder, ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract, Pinch of table salt
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Scoop frosting by 1 Tablespoon-sized scoop onto a wax paper lined baking sheet or plate, and place in the freezer while your dough finishes chilling (a minimum of 15 minutes). Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Assembly
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Once dough and filling have chilled and dough is no longer too sticky to easily manage, remove the dough from the refrigerator. Scoop into ¼ cup (75g)-sized balls. Roll the dough between your palms and make a deep indent to the center of the dough. Remove filling from the freezer and place one filling dollop into the indent. Roll the dough around the filling to center it and completely conceal it and roll to form a smooth ball. Place on prepared baking sheet, spacing cookies at least 2” apart.
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Transfer to center rack of 350F (175C) oven and bake for 12-14 minutes. Cookies may look slightly underdone on top but edges should be firm/set.
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Allow cookies to cool completely on the baking sheet (they are fragile when warm!) before topping with ganache.
Ganache
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Once cookies have cooled, combine chocolate and heavy cream in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat in the microwave for 30 seconds, stir, and continue microwaving in 15 second increments, stirring well in-between, until chocolate is melted and smooth.
1 cup (170 g) semisweet chocolate chips or couverture chocolate, ¼ cup (60 ml) heavy cream
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Once cookies are completely cool, spread ganache evenly over tops of cookies, about 1 Tablespoon per cookie. Allow ganache to solidify before enjoying!
Notes
All-purpose flour
Cake flour is really recommended for the best texture, but if you don’t have it you can substitute 3 cups all-purpose flour (375g) and 2 Tablespoons (16g) cornstarch for the cake flour.
Storing
These cookies may be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 2 days. Due to the ganache, I recommend refrigerating (in an airtight container) if storing for longer than this (will keep for up to a week). These cookies are great warm, though, so set them out to come to room temperature before enjoying for best results!
Nutrition
Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 522kcal | Carbohydrates: 64g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 28g | Saturated Fat: 16g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 8g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 77mg | Sodium: 209mg | Potassium: 220mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 36g | Vitamin A: 659IU | Vitamin C: 0.03mg | Calcium: 86mg | Iron: 2mg
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.