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Decadent tempting dark chocolate thumbprint cookies are to die for. Made with Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate Chips, these cookies are best enjoyed with a tall glass of chilled milk, or a warm cup of cappuccino, or (don’t yell at me, just try it first) a glass of full-bodied red wine.
The base of the cookies is from this chocolate butter cookies base, featuring a luscious buttery melt-in-your-mouth cookie crust. The dark chocolate topping is made of Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate Chips melted with some whipping cream. They are the perfect combination! Even though I am not a super huge chocolate fan, I can’t stop reaching out to the cookie jar and each batch of cookies couldn’t last more than two days.
If you like butter cookies, you can easily adapt the flavours from this classic vanilla butter cookies recipe. I have so far made the lavender butter cookies, yuzu honey butter cookies, salted egg yolk butter cookies, Thai milk tea butter cookies and the ultimate favourite, Hershey’s kisses blossom cookies.
Tips on making dark chocolate cookies
- Use the best quality ingredients, such as French butter with a higher fat ratio value, good quality cacao powder and chocolate chips. You can taste the difference in the cookies.
- If you are conscious about calories and carbohydrates, use a sugar substitute such as stevia sweetener. It’s zero in calories, carbohydrates, and glycemic index.
- One of the factors that produces buttery melt-in-your-mouth texture in the cookies is to whisk the butter until it’s fluffy and almost white in colour. Of course the butter needs to be softened in room temperature, otherwise there’s no way to whisk the butter effectively.
- Cookies contains butter and so most times tend to spread when they are in the hot oven. The trick is to chill the dough in the fridge before baking. Makes all the difference!
- For a lighter and more tender texture, use cake flour, which is ground extra-fine and has low gluten content. But of course you can always use plain flour too.
- Bakers always say don’t overbake. But with the chocolate cookie dough so dark, it can be hard to see when it browns. The only way is to keep a close lookout. Bake the cookies in a smaller batch at first, so that in subsequent batches you will know roughly how long to bake the cookies.
Ingredients to make dark chocolate thumbprint cookies
Watch how to make Hershey’s dark chocolate thumbprint cookies on YouTube
How to store dark chocolate thumbprint Cookies
After baking, cool these dark chocolate thumbprint cookies completely, then store them in an airtight container at room temperature for one to two weeks. For a longer storage period, either chill them in the refrigerator for up to three weeks, or in the freezer for a maximum of two months. You just need to thaw the cookies to room temperature before consuming them.
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Hershey’s Dark Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies
Detailed Step-by-Step Video
Ingredients
- 200 g cake flour, I used Blue Jacket brand, can be substituted with plain flour
- 50 g corn starch
- 15 g milk powder
- 3 tbsp cacao powder
- 80 g stevia sweetener
- 200 g unsalted butter, softened
- 2 large egg yolks, room temperature
- 1 tbsp whipping cream, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¾ cup Hershey's special dark chocolate chips
- 2 tbsp whipping cream, room temperature
Instructions
- Remove 200 g unsalted butter from fridge and leave at room temperature until softened. When pressed, the butter makes a dent easily.
- Add 80 g stevia sweetener and softened butter to a mixing bowl. Use a whisk to manual mix them together.Note: This is to avoid the sweetener 'splashing' around when you start whisking in high speed.
- Mix the stevia sweetener and butter mixture with an electric whisk on high speed (or you can use a food mixer) until pale and fluffy.
- The mixture will turn from yellow to almost white.
- Add 2 large egg yolks, 1 tbsp whipping cream, 1 tsp vanilla extract and whisk well on medium speed.
- Sift in 200 g cake flour, 50 g corn starch, 15 g milk powder and 3 tbsp cacao powder.
- Fold in the dry ingredients manually using a spatula till no traces of flour can be seen. Be sure not to over mix.Note: yields about 640g cookie dough.
- Roll the cookies into balls and place the cookies onto a non-stick baking tray, leaving an-inch gap in between each cookie. If not, use parchment paper over the tray. Note: each cookie dough ball is about 12-14g.
- Use a small teaspoon and gently press on each cookie dough to make a small bowl-like indent. Cover the cookie dough with a cling wrap, and chill in the fridge for 30 min while pre heating the oven.
- Using the double boil method, place a heat proof bowl over a pot half filled with boiling water. Make sure the heat is simmering low and the heat proof bowl does not touch the boiling water. Add 3/4 cup Hershey's special dark chocolate chips and 2 tbsp whipping cream. Let the chocolate melt and keep stirring to mix the ganache well. Once melted, let the temperature cool to slightly warm temperature.
- Bake the cookies at 175C / 347F (oven has top and bottom heat with fan) for 9-10 min until nicely browned at the edges.Then cool the cookies completely on a cooling rack.Note: as the dough is so dark, it’s hard to see when it browns. So keep a lookout. Bake in smaller batches, and time the first batch so you know how long to bake the subsequent batches.
- Scoop the chocolate ganache onto each cookie. Let it set.
- Best enjoyed after a day, to let the flavours develop.
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