You’ve seen numerous lava cake recipes on my blog, but how about Chocolate Lava Cookies? They were unbelievably tasty!!

These Chocolate Filled Cookies give a double dose of chocolate with a cocoa-flavored cookie dough and rich hot fudge sauce in the center.

Chocolate Lava Cookies broken in half to expose fudge filling

Why You Should Make Lava Cookies

  • As soon as I saw my friend, Jen’s recipe, I was inspired to make a chocolate cookie stuffed with fudge sauce.
  • I decided to forgo the shortening and went with a butter-based cookie.
  • The aroma of brownies filled the house as I baked batch after batch. Some sprung leaks, others did not. But one thing was consistent, they were all incredibly tasty.

What are Lava Cookies?

Chocolate lava cookies are cocoa-flavored cookies with a center of chocolate or hot fudge that oozes out when a bite is taken, just like hot lava.

A stack of Chocolate Lava Cookies

How to Stuff Cookies

You may wonder how to get the stuffing into the middle of a cookie. You must start with a larger ball of dough than usual.

  1. Use a medium cookie scoop (that holds about 2 tablespoons) and scoop out balls of rich chocolate dough.
  2. Next, flatten them onto your parchment-lined cookie sheets using your palm. Not too thin or they’ll tear, but large enough to accommodate some filling.
  3. Scoop about a half teaspoon of fudge sauce (mine was thick, you don’t want a pourable chocolate sauce) onto the middle of each flattened disc.
  4. Then, carefully fold up the sides over the filling, sealing the fudge inside the cookie.
  5. Finally, roll each ball of dough between your palms to make each spherical.
  6. Roll in granulated sugar and bake.

Note: These are best when freshly baked as the “lava” starts to absorb into the cookie as time passes, but I didn’t hear any complaints from my taste testers!

Tips for Making Lava Cookies

  • Divide the dough into 24 even pieces before rolling them into balls. This ensures that each cookie will have enough dough to wrap around the fudge sauce. It was a little more than a medium cookie scoop’s worth.
  • Err on the side of too little filling as if you add too much it will definitely find a path to leak from the cookie.
  • Make sure your seams are sealed when you fold the cookie dough over the filling
  • When you roll the folded dough into dough balls, you may see some filling breakthrough on some of the balls. You can still bake these cookies but they won’t have the pocket of fudge.
  • I’ve made these will all butter and half butter, half shortening. Adding shortening definitely makes for a more pliable dough.
  • Do not overbake! You will get chocolate cookies, not chocolate lava cookies.
Chocolate Lava Cookies plated with a glass of milk

More Recipes You’ll Love:

Chocolate Lava Cookies

Chocolate Lava Cookies

Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 12 minutes
Total Time 32 minutes
Yield 24 cookies

Delectable chocolate cookies stuffed with fudge sauce

Ingredients

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature*
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • ¾ cup cocoa powder
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 8-ounce jar fudge sauce (will need about ¼ cup)
  • Sugar, for rolling

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350º. Line baking sheets with parchment. Set aside.
  2. Cream butter and sugar. Mix in eggs and vanilla, then cocoa powder. Add baking powder and flour and stir into the dough till combined
  3. Scoop out dough balls about the size of a walnut or approximately 2 tablespoons and place dough balls on baking sheets, leaving 2+ inches of space between. Flatten each with the palm of your hand.
  4. Scoop about a half teaspoon of fudge sauce onto the center of the flattened dough. Fold dough up over fudge and seal well. Roll into a ball between your palms. Repeat with the rest of the dough and fudge. Roll in granulated sugar
  5. Bake for 8-12 minutes or till edges are set and tops are slightly puffed.**

Notes

* Use half shortening and half butter for more pliable cookie dough.

**I recommend baking a sample cookie since if they're overbaked there will be no lava centers.

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Nutrition Information:

Yield:

24

Serving Size:

1 cookie

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 150Total Fat: 2gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 16mgSodium: 61mgCarbohydrates: 31gFiber: 1gSugar: 19gProtein: 3g

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