Gocciole are very popular little Italian cookies traditionally served at breakfast time with coffee or milk. They are perfect for dunking and offer you the option to start your day with a chocolate chip cookie. Who would say no to that? The dough is similar to a shortbread cookie and they are filled with mini chocolate chips. Traditional Gocciole dough is made with flour, butter and sugar, but I am jazzing these ones up a bit by adding cocoa powder and espresso powder to the dough. These adorable little cookies are pretty simple to make and quite tasty, so lets get them started…
Start by creaming together 1 stick of butter at room temperature or softer with 1/4 cup of granulated sugar and 1/4 cup of tightly packed brown sugar. Next, add 1 egg and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and mix until smooth and creamy.
Place a large mesh sifter over the bowl and add 1 1/2 cups of flour, 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, 1 teaspoon of espresso powder, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder into it. Gently sift the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix to combine. Add 1/2 cups of mini chocolate chips and fold them into the dough.
Once all of the ingredients have been fully incorporated, transfer the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead the cookie dough a few times. If the dough is sticky, lightly dust it with flour until it is tacky, but not sticky. Tightly wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 60 minutes.
Once the dough has chilled, unwrap it and place it on a lightly floured surface. Gently roll the dough out to somewhere between 1/2-3/4 inch in thickness. Using a 1 1/2 or 2 inch round cookie cutter, cut rounds out of the dough.
Once you have cut as many rounds out of the dough as you can, place them onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Traditional gocciole are shaped like little tear drops, so you can gently shape each round into a tear drop while they sit on the baking sheet, but this is optional of course. Add a few more mini chocolate chips onto the top of each cookie and place them back into the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
Bake on a middle rack at 350 degrees for about 14 minutes. The second chill in the refrigerator helps to firm up the butter in the dough and this helps them to keep their shape during baking. They will puff up a bit, but will not spread out much if you chill them enough.
Transfer the baking sheet onto a cooling rack for about 5 minutes and then slide the parchment paper (with the cookies still on it) off of the baking sheet onto the cooling rack and let them cool for a few more minutes. These cookies are soft and delicate, so they need enough time to cool and become stable enough to pick up in one piece.
The little cracks across their surface makes them look like they would be dry and crumbly, but they are definitely not! They are so soft and only take about a 3 second dunk to soak up a wonderful amount of whatever you are dunking them in. Of course, as a breakfast cookie (I love saying that), they go great with coffee, but they also go great with milk, tea and hot chocolate too! They stay nicely soft when stored at room temperature in an airtight container.
These beautiful little drops of chocolate are the perfect way to start any morning and if you make yourself a batch, I just know that you will think so too.
Chocolate Gocciole
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 1/4 cup brown sugar, tightly packed
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Cream together 1/2 cup of softened butter with 1/4 cup of granulated sugar and 1/4 cup of tightly packed brown sugar
- Add 1 egg and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and mix until smooth and creamy
- Place a large mesh sifter over the bowl containing your wet ingredients and add 1 1/2 cups of flour, 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, 1 teaspoon of espresso powder, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder into it
- Gently sift the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix to combine
- Add 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips and fold them in until all of the ingredients have been fully incorporated
- Transfer the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface
- Knead the cookie dough a few times, lightly dusting with flour if sticky, and then tightly wrap the dough in plastic wrap
- Chill the wrapped dough in the refrigerator for 60 minutes
- Unwrap the chilled dough and place it onto a lightly floured surface
- Gently roll out the chilled dough to 1/2-3/4 inch thickness using a floured rolling pin and cut rounds from the rolled out dough using a 1 1/2 or 2 inch round cookie cutter
- Use your fingers to gently shape the rounds into tear drops (optional)
- Sprinkle additional mini chocolate chips over the top of each cookie
- Set the prepared cookies onto a parchment lined baking sheet
- Return the cookies to the refrigerator to 20 minutes while your oven is preheating
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
- Bake on a middle rack at 350 degrees for 14 minutes
- Transfer the baking sheet onto a cooling rack for 5 minutes before transferring the cookies directly onto it
- Serve with milk or coffee
