Chocolate Chip Lava Cookies

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Chocolate chip lava cookies

If there is anything I love more than warm, soft, delicious chocolate chip cookies, it’s warm, soft chocolate chip cookies oozing with warm homemade fudge. The kind of hot fudge you’d eat with a spoon, and if a spoon wasn’t available, you’d just use your finger because THAT’S how good it is. Add to this a glass of cold milk and it’s pure bliss.

Chocolate chip cookies oozing with fudge is exactly the way cookies should be, right? Are you wondering how on earth you make cookies oozing with fudge? It’s really not as hard as you think…. 

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I spotted Chocolate Chip Lava Cookies for the first time on the menu at Red Lobster and knew I had to come home and make my own version.

Start by making the cookie dough, then spray a muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray. Nothing complicated here, I’m sure you’ve made chocolate chip cookies a bazillion times before. I used my favorite Norpro 1 Tablespoon Cookie Scoop to help with this next part – perfect cookies every time!). Take a heaping tablespoon full of dough and flatten it so that it fits in the muffin tin. Only make 10. If you have leftover dough, you can make more at the very end, but you should get around 10 cookies.

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Whip up a batch of Easy Homemade Hot Fudge (ready in 10 minutes) or use a bottle of store-bought hot fudge. It’ll be easier to work with if the fudge has cooled and started to firm up. Use your thumb to make a small imprint on each cookie, a little spot where the hot fudge can nestle in and get cozy. Spoon about 1/2-1 tablespoon of hot fudge into the center of each cookie. One way to make this as mess free as possible is to pour the fudge into a ziplock bag, snip the corner, and pipe the (cooled) hot fudge onto the cookie.

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Now it’s time to make the top portion of the cookie. Use that scoop I mentioned earlier to measure a heaping tablespoon of cookie dough. Flatten the cookie dough and place it on top of the chocolate. Gently use your fingers to press the dough layers together. If you have any leftover cookie dough, at this point you can make additional cookies. Start with 10 though, just to be on the safe side. I ended up getting 11 cookies out of my batch. You may even get 12.

Pop ’em in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. You’ll know they are done when the edges start to turn golden brown.

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Look at these beauties! When you pull them out of the oven, be sure you allow them to cool completely before you try removing them from the pan. Just trust me on this one. You’ll have a hot mess of cookie dough and fudge if you try to remove them before they cool.

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Here’s the funny part though. You NEED to let them cool before you remove them from the pan, yet the point of lava cookies is to have the chocolate oozing out the center when you go to eat them. This is what I do – I allow the cookies to cool, remove them from the pan, then when I’m ready to serve them, I pop ’em in the microwave for 20-30 seconds so that the chocolate in the center of the cookies gets all melty and delicious again. 

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I couldn’t help myself. I served these Chocolate Chip Lava Cookies with ice cream, drizzled with more of that homemade fudge. I sampled them heated up, with chocolate oozing out of the center, but I also had them when they were completely cool and they were still delicious. The only difference is that if the cookie has cooled, the chocolate won’t be all melty in the center. 

If you’ve tried my Molten Chocoalte Lava Cakes before, I wouldn’t say the middle portion on these Chocoalte Chip Lava Cookies is quite as lava-y, but it’s still warm, gooey, and delicious!

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Prep Time: 5 min
Cook Time: 10 min
Total Time: 15 min

INGREDIENTS

DIRECTIONS

  1. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Spray a muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.
  3. With your mixer, cream together butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar and mix until light and fluffy.
  4. Add in egg and vanilla and mix well.
  5. In a large bowl sift together flour, salt, and baking soda. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet and mix well.
  6. Fold in milk chocolate chips.
  7. Flatten a heaping tablespoon of cookie dough to fit in each muffin cup. I used a 1 tablespoon cookie dough scoop to help with the process (buy here). You will start by making 10 cookies.
  8. Use your finger to make a small indentation for the hot fudge.
  9. Place the (room temp.) hot fudge in a ziplock bag, snip the corner, and pipe about a tablespoon of hot fudge in the center of each cookie.
  10. To make the top portion of the cookie, repeat the process as you did to create the bottom by measuring a heaping tablespoon of cookie dough and flattening it to fit in the muffin cup. Place the flattened cookie dough on top of the fudge, and carefully press the cookie dough layers together.
  11. If you’ve made all 10 cookies and you have leftover dough, you can make additional cookies. Start with 10 to be on the safe-side so that you know you have enough cookie dough.
  12. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the edges start to brown. Run a knife around each cookie after it comes out of the oven to ensure the sides aren’t sticking to the pan. 
  13. Allow the cookie cups to cool completely before removing them from the pan.
  14. Right before serving, heat the cookies for 15-20 seconds in the microwave so that the centers will be all gooey and melted. Top with ice cream, and additional hot fudge if you wish.

Recipe adapted from
Kevin and Amanda

Hi, I’m Ashley & I’m so happy you’re here!

Ashley is the founder of CenterCutCook and a former teacher that now spends her days in the kitchen so that she can share her favorite recipes with you!