This post may contain affiliate sales links. Please read my disclosure policy.
These cookies are my grandfather’s favorite iced chocolate cookies! They are an old family recipe for pillowy soft, cakey cookies iced with a tasty chocolate icing.
So there’s sort of a non-story story behind these cookies. I’m sure there are actually plenty of memories around them given that they were my grandfather’s favorite, but they aren’t my memories. I never actually met my grandfather. He passed away when my mom was a teenager.
So how do I know they were his favorite?
Well when I was texting my mom several weeks ago to ask her for the cutout sugar cookie recipe we used to make when I was a kid, she got on a kick and started sending me all kinds of cookie recipes and this was one of them. They were actually titled “Jack’s Favorite Chocolate Cookies”. I knew immediately I’d be making them.
I didn’t really know what they’d be like from reading the recipe card. It was typed with a typewriter onto an index card, so there wasn’t exactly a photo. 🙂
Turns out they’re delicious! Not that I really doubted. They are super soft and cakey. They are then topped with an icing made with milk, powdered sugar and melted chocolate. Very simple to make and quite tasty. The icing also gets nice and firm so they actually stack in a container pretty well with parchment paper between them.
I asked my mom about the cookies and my grandfather when she visited this past weekend and she laughed as she remembered how much her father loved the cakey-ness of them and how the icing makes them even more cake-like.
I had so much fun making these and thinking of my grandfather. Though I never met him, I feel like I know a very small part of him after trying his cookies. They might just have to become a Christmas tradition.
You might also like:
Double Chocolate Cookie Sandwiches
Turtle Chocolate Cookie Cups
Nutella Cheesecake Chocolate Cookie Cups
Reese’s Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookie Sandwiches
German Chocolate Cookie Stacks
XXL Death by Chocolate Cookie
Grandfather’s Favorite Iced Chocolate Cookies
- Yield: 28-30 Cookies
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
An old family recipe for pillowy soft, cakey cookies iced with a tasty chocolate icing.
Ingredients
CHOCOLATE COOKIES
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup salted butter, room temperature
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 3 tbsp cocoa
ICING
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 4–5 tbsp milk
- 4 oz chocolate chips, melted
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mix sugar and butter just until combined and smooth.
3. Add egg and milk and mix until smooth.
4. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then add to wet ingredients. Mix until well combined.
5. Drop heaping tablespoons of cookie dough onto lined cookie sheet.
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes, then remove to cool. Allow cookies to sit on cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes, then remove to cooling rack.
7. Once cookies are baked and cooled, combine powdered sugar and milk for icing. Add the melted chocolate then spread onto cookies.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Cookie
- Calories: 127
- Sugar: 15.7 g
- Sodium: 30.1 mg
- Fat: 4.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 21.3 g
- Protein: 1.5 g
- Cholesterol: 14.5 mg
Enjoy!
This was quite an exciting find! Our family has had this same recipe (except with a white frosting) in our family in Kansas City since at least 1873. My great grandmother [Annabelle Marie Lynn (Bishopberger) Ramsey] shared it with me in 1980 when I was 11 and needed a recipe for “home economics.” She didn’t even have it writtne down…made it from memory. SO, after she put each ingredient in a bowl, I measured and together we WROTE the recipe! She said it was the recipe of HER grandmother–my 3rd great grandmother–[Maria Paulina Emilie (Husemeyer) Bischofsberger], from Germany. For generations, it has always been a family favorite. We’ve called them “San Mama’s German Chocolate Cookies” but people smirk over the “German Chocolate.” They are NOT. They are just a chocolate biscuit-type cookie, the recipe of which CAME from Germany.
By mix until smooth, do you mean creaming? Or just stirring? What can I sub for salted butter, if I only have unsalted?
Not creaming, just until smooth and combined. If you use unsalted butter, you’ll just want to add a pinch of salt.
An other stunning recipe! My family is totally into lifeloveandsugar, despite the sugar rush ????. The outcome of my homebaking with your recipes makes us all very happy. These cake-cookies are one of my daughters favourites.
Wonderful to hear! I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed everything, Virginia! Thanks!
I am going to try these. My mother used to make a chocolate cookie with a white icing when we were kids. Unfortunately the recipe was lost. I have tried a lot of different recipes but have never found a cookie that tasted like hers. They were pressed cookies but these do look similar. Was wondering if the icing would be ok if I omitted the chocolate. I just found your website and love everything so far – too much to choose from.
So glad to hear you’re enjoying the site! You can leave out the cocoa. It’ll change the consistency of the frosting a bit, but it should be ok.
I made these for my family and they were a huge hit. I did not change a thing.