These Truffle-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies soft and chewy, with a generous helping of semi-sweet chocolate chips throughout filled with a gooey, flowing, lava-like center of molten chocolate.
One of the perks-slash-problems of having a job that involves making candy at home is that, at the end of the day, I end up with a lot of candy at home. (Duh.) It’s awesome because I love eating sweets, but it’s also dangerous, because: see above. Some weeks I do a good job of moderating my intake, and some weeks I could be the president of Sugar Addicts Anonymous.
We try to give away as much candy as we can, but it’s inevitable that some remains around the kitchen, lurking, taunting, tempting me in the wee hours when I’m nibbly and bored. Eventually I usually grown a backbone and throw away the excess candies, but when they’re really special I try to re-purpose them for this blog, so they don’t go to waste.
These Balsamic Truffles are one such special candy. Yes, they have balsamic vinegar, and no, they don’t taste a bit like vinegar. They’re fruity and a little tangy and really, really good. After I made them for the candy site, I couldn’t bear to throw them away—they were too tasty! So I came up with another way to showcase these gorgeous truffles.
All of that was an extremely wordy way of saying:
I made truffles. I stuffed them in chocolate chip cookies. I baked them. And they were good.
I wasn’t sure what would happen to the cookies when they baked—would the dough be able to hold itself around the truffles? Would they leak everywhere and be a big mess? To try and avoid any leakage, I used a recipe that produced thick, chewy cookies, and upped the flour a bit so that they wouldn’t spread too much and would easily hold their shape.
I admit, I was a little surprised these worked so well. Not a single leak! The cookies baked perfectly around the truffles, and the ganache in the middle stayed together, so that when they were cut into they had a gooey, flowing, lava-like center of molten chocolate.
The cookies themselves are soft and chewy, with a generous helping of semi-sweet chocolate chips throughout. I used a different, darker chocolate to make the ganache, and we loved the mix of chocolates in every bite. You could even use white chips or peanut butter chips instead of chocolate, to let the ganache center really shine.
These are pretty much a chocolate chip cookie on steroids, so they don’t need any embellishments to be enjoyed—although I heartily recommend a quick trip to the microwave to liquefy the chocolate center. However, if you do want to get a bit fancier, I think these would be incredible as the base of an ice cream sundae, or used to make ice cream sandwiches.
As mentioned above, I made these with balsamic truffles, but I figured folks might appreciate a plain version instead, so I’ve omitted the balsamic vinegar from the recipe below. If you’d like to give it a try (again—no vinegar taste! Pinky swear!) you can add 1-2 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar to the ganache after you whisk in the butter. Whichever version you choose, be aware that the truffles need to be made a few hours before the cookies are baked, so be sure to leave yourself enough time, or do it in stages over the course of a day or two.
❤️ More Truffle Recipes
- Champagne White Chocolate Truffles
- Disco Truffles
- Rosemary Raspberry Truffles
- Pumpkin Spice Hot Chocolate Truffles
- Marbled Easter Egg Truffles
- Box of Chocolates Cake
❤️ More Cookie Recipes
- Pistachio Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- Gingerbread Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Raspberry Almond Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Hazelnut Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- Clemen-Thyme Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Caramelized White Chocolate Truffles
Truffle-Topped Heart Cake
Truffle-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
For the Truffles:
- 5 oz semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, (about 13 tbsp or .83 cups) finely chopped
- 4 oz heavy cream, (1/2 cup)
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
For the Cookies:
- 11.8 oz all-purpose flour, (2 1/4 cup)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 6 oz unsalted butter, melted, not hot
- 7 oz brown sugar, (1 packed cup)
- 3.5 oz granulated sugar, (1/2 cup)
- 1 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 large egg yolk, room temperature
- 1 TBSP vanilla extract
- 8 oz chocolate chips, (1 1/3 cup)
Instructions
To Make the Truffles:
- Place the chopped chocolate in a medium bowl. Pour the heavy cream into a small saucepan and place it over medium heat. Heat the cream until it comes to a simmer and bubbles form along the sides of the pan. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let it sit and soften the chocolate for one minute. Gently whisk the cream and chocolate together until your ganache is shiny and smooth. Add the room temperature butter and whisk it in to incorporate it.
- Press a layer of cling wrap on top of the ganache, and refrigerate it until it is firm enough to scoop, about 60-90 minutes. It should be hard enough to roll into a ball, but not so firm that you can’t easily scoop it. While you’re waiting for the truffles to set, make the cookie dough (instructions down below).
- Use a small 1-inch candy scoop or a teaspoon to form twenty small balls of ganache. Roll them between your palms to make them round, and if necessary, dust your palms with cocoa powder to prevent them from sticking. Refrigerate the truffles until they are very firm and you’re ready to bake your cookies. Truffles can be made in advance and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
To Make the Cookies:
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit (162 C). Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and set aside for now.
- In the large bowl of a stand mixer, combine the melted butter and both sugars, and mix them on medium speed with a paddle attachment until the sugars are moist. Add the egg and mix until it is well-incorporated, then add the yolk and mix well again. Add the vanilla extract. Finally, with the mixer running on low, add the dry ingredients and mix just until they are almost fully incorporated and there are just a few streaks of flour remaining. Add the chocolate chips and stir them by hand, scraping down the bottom and sides of the bowl with a spatula until everything is well-mixed. For the best results, chill the dough for 45 minutes, until it is firmer but still able to be rolled into balls. If it’s too hard straight from the refrigerator, let it warm up on the counter for a few minutes once you’re ready to use it.
- To form the cookies, use a cookie scoop or a large tablespoon to form a 1.5-inch ball of dough. Press your thumb in the center to create an indent and spread the cookie out a little bit. Set a chilled truffle in the center of the cookie, then place a little more dough—about the size of a quarter—on top of the truffle. Pinch the bottom and top of the cookie dough together, then roll it between your palms to make it round. Place the cookie on an ungreased parchment-lined sheet, and repeat until the sheet is filled, leaving 2-3 inches between the cookies.
- Bake the cookies at 325 F for 12-13 minutes, rotating halfway throughout. They’re done when the cookies have spread, have a touch of color along the outer edge, and the raw sheen is off in the center. They should still be soft in the middle.
- Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet until they’re just warm, then carefully transfer them off with a spatula. These cookies are best enjoyed slightly warm, so if you aren’t lucky enough to eat them fresh from the oven, I recommend heating them in the microwave for 10-15 seconds to melt the centers.
Measuring Tips
Our recipes are developed using weight measurements, and we highly recommend using a kitchen scale for baking whenever possible. However, if you prefer to use cups, volume measurements are provided as well. PLEASE NOTE: the adage “8 oz = 1 cup” is NOT true when speaking about weight, so don’t be concerned if the measurements don’t fit this formula.
Want to learn more about baking measurements and conversion?
Recipe amazing and amazing pictures, well done
Holy moly these look amazing! Saw them on FG – your truffle balls inside the cooks illustrated dough recipe (my fave!) look…incredible!
And love the GIF? I think? that is. I need to figure out how to do those!
Thanks Averie! GIFs are super easy, you can make them in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements! I basically learned from an online tutorial. 🙂
WHOA, these look incredible! I want one right now! 🙂
i seriously love you!
Likewise! We need to meet up at some point and get our LA sugar grubbin’ on!
I am not a great cook and when I tried these cookies they turned out to be a very thin pancake type version of truffle stuffed chocolate chip cookie…BUT they tasted totally amazing!!! Thanks.
Nice! Sorry they were pancake-ish but glad they were tasty all the same!
You have fulfilled a secret childhood/adult dream of mine. I never felt like chocolate chip cookies were chocolately enough and always really wanted more melty chocolateness. This is just that. I also had pancake cookies, but realize that there could be a lot of reasons on my end for this. Living in Europe and have no access to chocolate chips and I think the chocolate I ended up using in both the truffel and the cookie had more cream and milk than it should have, but anyways they were excellent. Thanks for making my dreams come true!!!!
I think we would have been good friends as children! Anyone who is dissatisfied with the amount of chocolate in chocolate chip cookies is fine by me.
I’m sorry to hear your cookies were pancakes as well. I think I’m going to change the recipe to specify a chilling time for the cookie dough…I’ve done it without waiting and they’ve turned out fine, but I do think it’s one thing that could help people from having flatter cookies.
Glad you still enjoyed them!
Chocolate chip cookies, yum! They look so delicious from photos alone. I need to try and bake these cookies.
I’ve now made these cookies several times (my family can’t get enough of them). The first few times, mine turned out flat even though I had refrigerated them. In the last few batches, I increased the baking soda to 3/4 tsp and they came out perfectly!! Just like your pictures. Also I’ve been increasing the cookie dough by 50% since I end up with extra truffles. And the dough makes delicious normal chocolate chip cookies! Thanks so much for posting this!!
Melanie, So glad to hear that you’re enjoying the cookies! I was actually craving them recently and thinking that I should make a batch–what funny timing! Thanks also for the tips re: baking soda and cookie dough amounts, I love to hear what adjustments people make and I’m sure it’ll help others in the future. Best to you and your cookie-loving family!
I can’t get over this Elizabeth. Another one of those “and I thought all the good ideas had been had” moments.
Thanks Karen! I feel that way all the time, haha. So nice of you to say!
Hi,
I wanted to know if we can replace or not used baking soda?
Thanks
Hi, There really isn’t a substitute for the baking soda in this recipe, and it’s a necessary part of the recipe to get the cookie’s texture right! If using baking soda is an issue, you can search for other cookie recipes that use baking powder instead (assuming baking powder is okay) and just use the truffle recipe from here with that other cookie recipe.