Learn everything you need to know about how to make smoked chocolate chip cookies!
Smoked chocolate chip cookies have a great interesting flavor and are almost just as easy to make in a smoker as an oven!
Whether you've got a gas or charcoal grill, a Traeger or Pit Boss pellet grill, or even a Masterbuilt propane smoker, we've got you covered!
What You'll Need to Make Smoked Chocolate Chip Cookies
Smoking chocolate chip cookies is actually not much more difficult than baking them in the oven.
And smoked chocolate chip cookies are a fun and fast dessert to throw on the grill after you are finished cooking your main course!
In order to make smoked chocolate chip cookies you will need a few key items.
A Grill or Smoker
First you need a grill or smoker.
Any kind will do but what's important is setting it up for INDIRECT heating like an oven in order to evenly cook the smoked chocolate chip cookies.
We'll go into detail below about how to set up various kinds of grills and smokers to make smoked chocolate chip cookies.
A Cast Iron Tray or Baking Sheet
We made our smoked chocolate chip cookies using this flat top griddle from Lodge.
Its reversible so the flat side works great for baking cookies and frying eggs while the other side is ribbed so you can use it for steaks or other chops you want grill marks on.
You can also a small baking tray like you would in an oven, however we found the hot cast iron to get the bottoms and edges of the cookies nice and crispy while keeping the rest of the cookie soft and chewy.
Make sure to put some parchment paper down first.
Just like with our smoked pizza, parchment paper will keep the smoked chocolate cookies from sticking and making a mess!
- Pre-seasoned with 1% natural vegetable oil
- Use to sear, bake, broil, fry, or grill
- Use in the oven, on the stove, on the grill, or over a campf
Smoked Chocolate Chips
Ok, so this one is optional.
However, using smoked chocolate chips in your smoked chocolate chip cookies will INCREASE the smoke flavor CONSIDERABLY.
The chocolate chips are cold smoked, much like we do with smoked cheese, for a longer period of time allowing them to absorb a lot more smoky flavor than the smoked cookies do on their own in the time it takes them to cook.
Our recipe for smoked chocolate chips is really easy to make and you can smoke them the same day as the chocolate chip cookies or store them in a jar to have on hand ahead of time!
Best Woods for Smoking Chocolate Chip Cookies
Cherry, Maple, Apple, and even Pecan are great wood choices that work wonderfully for smoking desserts such as chocolate chip cookies.
They are the same choices we recommend for our smoked peach cobbler.
Stay away from very distinctive flavored woods like Mesquite and Hickory when smoking fruit or desserts.
We liked using this Cherry Blend of pellets from Pit Boss because it contains both Cherry AND Maple woods.
These woods also work great on fish, chicken, turkey, pork butt, and ribs. So no need to use different woods if you are smoking your chocolate chip cookies right after your main protein.
- 100% all natural hardwood pellets
- Pennsylvania cherry pellet is a 40/60 blend of cherry and maple
- Free of artificial flavors, spray scents, glues, or chemic
Prepare the Smoked Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Ok, now let's go through how to make the dough for our smoked chocolate chip cookies.
Modify the Recipe for a Smoker
We follow a well respected chocolate chip cookie recipe with TWO significant changes for making them in a grill or smoker.
- Use an extra egg yolk
- Use ALL Brown sugar, no White sugar
The reason is to keep the cookies moist in the grill or smoker,
In an oven, baked chocolate chip cookies stay moist naturally due to the lack of airflow and therefore a naturally more humid environment.
However, smoked chocolate cookies can dry out much faster than oven baked chocolate chip cookies because there IS a lot of airflow in a hot grill or smoker.
You can typically keep the cooking chamber of a smoker more humid with a water pan and by lowering the cooking temperature and therefore slowing down the airflow.
But while these methods may work great on a pork butt or beef brisket, they are not really conducive to getting great chocolate chip cookies.
So, you need to make modifications to the ingredients themselves to keep the cookies moist.
An extra egg yolk will naturally add more moisture to the cookie dough batter and the molasses in the brown sugar will also add more moisture than using dry white sugar.
Ingredients
First, get your smoker set up for INDIRECT heat at 375°F.
We will dive into the details on how to do this on various types of grills and smokers below.
Next you will need the ingredients to make your smoked chocolate chip cookie dough batter.
- All Purpose Flour
- Baking Soda
- Salt
- Butter
- Brown Sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Eggs
- Smoked Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips (or you can use plain semi-sweet chocolate chips if you haven't smoked any)
The best way to mix everything is with a good stand mixer like our Kitchenaid.
And if you have the Edge Beater Paddle Attachment it will make your life even easier by constantly scraping the sides down as it mixes the dough.
If you don't have these you can use a hand mixer or some good old elbow grease!
- Flexible edge beater: Flex edge beater is made of non-stick coated metal construction and flexible silicone edges for heavy duty and high durability. This mixer scraper paddle can continuously beats, scrapes and mixes ingredient side and bottom ensure mixing is done thoroughly without scratching your mixing bowl and cuts mixing time by as much as 5
Prepare the Cookie Dough
In a separate large bowl, stir the flour in with the baking soda and the salt and set it aside.
In your mixing bowl, beat the butter with the brown sugar at medium speed until thoroughly mixed and creamy.
Then add the vanilla, two eggs and additional egg yolk, one at a time, mixing on low speed until well incorporated.
Slowly mix the dry mixture in with the creamy mixture, still on the low setting.
Then slowly stir in the smoked chocolate chips.
Spread out the parchment paper and scoop about a tablespoon or two, depending how large you like your cookies, with plenty of space between each one, on the paper.
You can even use an ice cream scoop or this cookie dough scooper like we do to quickly get evenly sized cookies with every scoop!
- Wiper cleanly ejects even sticky dough, creating uniform cookies that will bake evenly
- Yields 2-¾” diameter cookies
- Dishwasher s
Best Times and Temperatures for Smoking Chocolate Chip Cookies
The best temperature to smoke your chocolate chip cookies is going to be the same as that which they are typically baked: 375°F.
This seems to be the magic temperature at which your smoked cookies will get crispy on the edges while staying moist in the middle.
While we sometimes recommend smoking low and slow to add smoky flavor and then turning up the heat to finish, like we do with our smoked peach cobbler, this just doesn't work with smoked chocolate chip cookies.
The butter will separate from the cookie dough at lower conventional smoking temperatures like 225-250°F and dry out your cookies, even with the ingredient modifications.
So you need to set up your grill or smoker for INDIRECT heat at 375°F, and get your cast iron griddle or baking tray preheated first too if you like crispy bottoms on your cookies.
The smoked chocolate chip cookies will take about 9-11 minutes to cook but watch them carefully as this will vary from grill to grill!
Next we will talk about how to do this more specifically depending on the type of grill or smoker you are using to make your smoked chocolate chip cookies.
Setting Up the Grill or Smoker
New to smoking?
Check out our Complete List of the Best Entry Level Smokers for Beginners Here.
Below are the best instructions for setting up different types of grills and smokers to smoke your chocolate chip cookies, so feel free to jump down to the kind you are using.
Smoked Chocolate Chip Cookies in a Vertical or Offset Charcoal Smoker
Fill your firebox or lower charcoal basin with about 1 chimney's worth of unlit charcoal and create a small hollowed out depression in the center where you can add your lit briquets.
If your smoker comes with a water pan, like the Weber Smokey Mountain, DO NOT fill it.
Light a charcoal chimney about ½ of the way with briquets and wait about 10 minutes for them to fully ignite.
Once lit, add the lit briquets to the center depression you created.
Replace the grates and place the cast iron griddle or baking tray in the smoker to preheat if you want crispier cookies.
Keep the top vents half closed and the bottom dampers about ½ way open until the temperature is in the 350°F range.
Add 1 chunk of smoking wood once the smoker is up to temperature, and put your parchment paper of cookie dough on the preheat griddle or baking tray.
Then slowly close down the top and bottom dampers to only about ¼ open until you are maintaining a temperature of 375°F.
Continue to adjust the dampers open and closed as necessary to maintain this temperature.
After about 5 minutes, open the lid and see how the cookies are progressing. Carefully remove them from the tray using a spatula after about 9-11 minutes and place them on a wire cooling rack to cool.
Want to see a list of our FAVORITE Vertical Smokers for 2022? Check it out here!
Smoked Chocolate Chip Cookies in a Propane Smoker
Propane and electric options are some of the easiest smokers for beginners to start with.
Debating whether to buy a propane or electric smoker? Check out our COMPLETE Comparison Guide HERE.
Unfortunately, most electric smokers such as those made by Masterbuilt only go up to 275° so are going to be hard to make smoked chocolate chip cookies in.
However, a propane smoker should be able to easily reach the 375°F required to cook them well.
Need a refresher? Check our our Complete Guide to How to Use a Propane Smoker HERE.
Open your gas valve and light the bottom burner. Adjust it to keep the temperature right at about 375°F.
Place the cast iron griddle or baking tray in the smoker on the top shelf to preheat if you want crispier cookies.
Don't bother filing the water pan.
Fill the smoking wood tray with your chosen wood chips and keep the top vent closed about ½ way.
Place your parchment paper of cookie dough on the preheated griddle and close the door.
Continue to adjust the dampers open and closed as necessary to maintain this temperature.
After about 5 minutes, open the door and see how the cookies are progressing.
Carefully remove them from the tray using a spatula after about 9-11 minutes and place them on a wire cooling rack to cool.
Smoked Chocolate Chip Cookies on a Pellet Grill
Fill the pellet hopper with your choice of smoking wood pellets.
Plug in the pellet grill and turn the temperature to 375°F.
Make sure to adjust the lever so you have the pellet grill set up for INDIRECT cooking.
Let the pellet grill run through its start up process.
Place the cast iron griddle or baking tray in the smoker to preheat if you want crispier cookies.
When the pellet grill has come up to temperature, place your parchment paper of cookie dough on the preheated griddle and close the lid.
Turn and rotate the griddle as needed depending on how even the heating of your pellet grill is.
After about 5 minutes, open the lid and see how the cookies are progressing.
Carefully remove them from the tray using a spatula after about 9-11 minutes and place them on a wire cooling rack to cool.
Never used a pellet grill before? Read our Ultimate Guide to Pellet Grills to learn why they are so easy and how to set one up for success every time.
Here is also a list of our Favorite Pellet Grills Priced UNDER $500
Smoked Chocolate Chip Cookies on a Gas Grill
On a gas grill you will likely need to use a smoker box filled with wood chips, or a pellet tube smoker filled with wood pellets.
Think you need a fancy smoker to smoke food at home?
Think again.
Great smoked food can be made right on your current gas grill.
Check out our Ultimate Guide to Smoking on a Gas Grill HERE.
If you are unfamiliar with these gas grill smoking devices mentioned above, no worries, we have you covered!
Read Everything You Need to Know about how to use Smoker Boxes here, and see a selection of our Favorite Pellet Tube Smokers here.
Or check out this handy comparison between smoker boxes and pellet tube smokers if you can't decide which is right for you.
In the case of smoked chocolate chip cookies, since we assume you'll be making several batches of cookies, we would opt for the pellet smoker tube.
Since we need longer than just the 30 minutes one batch of wood chips in a smoker box will last us to do multiple batches, you the smoker tube.
You'll notice we also used the pellet smoker tube to make our smoked chocolate chips as well so if you are making the cookies right afterwards you can just leave it lit!
Light up the end of your pellet smoker tube filled with pellets with a good butane torch (you can't use a regular lighter for pellets) and place it in the grill as well to add smoky flavor while the chocolate chip cookies bake
Let the pellets ignite for about 5 minutes then blow out the flame and lay the pellet tube smoker down on the grates next to the tray of cookies and close the lid.
Then set up your gas grill for indirect cooking with a single burner lit on one side and plan for your chocolate chip cookies to be on the other side.
Light two or three burners, not directly below the cookies but off to the side, so the temperature stays low in the 375°F range.
Remember, we are smoking the cookies INDIRECTLY, like an oven, not DIRECTLY over the burners.
Place the cast iron griddle or baking tray in the grill to preheat if you want crispier cookies.
When the grill has come up to temperature, place your parchment paper of cookie dough on the preheated griddle and close the lid.
Turn and rotate the griddle as needed depending on how even the heating of your grill is.
After about 5 minutes, open the lid and see how the cookies are progressing.
Carefully remove them from the tray using a spatula after about 9-11 minutes and place them on a wire cooling rack to cool.
- ✅ This accessory is designed to WORK IN ANY GRILL (gas, electric or charcoal) and with any smokers. It ADDS GREAT FLAVOR for your meat or fish and exposes them to a tasteful smoke of smoldering wood. Perfect for smoke cheese.
- ✅ The pellet smoker can produce smoke for UP TO 5 HOURS SMOKING which is perfect for both hot and cold smoking pork, ribs, cured meat, hot dogs, sausages, chicken, cheese, lamb, fish, nuts, fruit, corn, bacon and mo
Smoked Chocolate Chip Cookies on a Charcoal Grill
Set up your charcoal grill for indirect cooking with a small mound of unlit briquets on one side and plan for your tray of smoked chocolate chip cookies to be on the other side.
Make a small depression in the mound of unlit briquets where you will dump the lit ones along with the smoking wood.
Remember, we are smoking the cookies INDIRECTLY, like an oven, not DIRECTLY over the coals.
Light a charcoal chimney about half way filled with briquets and wait about 15 minutes for them to fully ignite.
Once lit, add the briquets to the center depression you created.
Keep the dampers about ½ way to ¾ open until the temperature is in the 350°F range.
Place the cast iron griddle or baking tray in the grill, on the opposite side of the charcoal, to preheat if you want crispier cookies.
Add 1 chunk of smoking wood on top of the lit coals and put the lid back on.
When the grill has come up to temperature, place your parchment paper of cookie dough on the preheated griddle and close the lid.
Turn and rotate the griddle as needed depending on how even the heating of your grill is.
After about 5 minutes, open the lid and see how the cookies are progressing.
Carefully remove them from the tray using a spatula after about 9-11 minutes and place them on a wire cooling rack to cool.
Serving Suggestions
Carefully remove the hot smoked chocolate chip cookies with a spatula and transfer them to wire rack.
This will help keep the bottoms crispy while they cool.
We like sprinkling some sea salt flakes on them for a little extra sweet and salty action.
Ideally serve the smoked chocolate chip cookies while they are still warm.
You can eat them "as-is" or even with some vanilla ice cream and you've got a great interesting smoked dessert to serve at your next BBQ or family gathering.
Enjoy!
📖 Recipe
Smoked Chocolate Chip Cookies
Equipment
- Smoker, Grill or Pellet Grill
- Wood for smoking (chunks, chips, or pellets).
- Cast Iron Flat Griddle or a Baking Tray
- Parchment paper
- Mixing Bowl
- Whisk
- Stand Mixer or a Hand MIxer
- Cookie Dough Scooper or a spoon
- Heat Resistant Grilling Gloves
- Spatula
- Wire Cooling Rack
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ Cups All Purpose Flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- ½ teaspoon Salt table salt
- 1 Cup Unsalted Butter (2 sticks), softened
- 1 ½ Cups Brown Sugar packed
- 2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 2 Eggs
- 1 Egg Yolk use only the yolk with this third egg
- 2 Cups Smoked Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips or you can use plain semi-sweet chocolate chips if you haven’t smoked any
Instructions
- Preheat Grill or Smoker set up with INDIRECT heat to 375°F.
- Place the Cast Iron Griddle or Baking Tray in the smoker or grill to preheat.
Prepare the Cookie Dough
- In a mixing bowl, whisk the flour in with the baking soda and the salt and set it aside.2 ¼ Cups All Purpose Flour, 1 teaspoon Baking Soda, ½ teaspoon Salt
- In the mixer or another mixing bowl, beat the butter with the brown sugar at medium speed until thoroughly mixed and creamy.1 Cup Unsalted Butter, 1 ½ Cups Brown Sugar
- Then add the vanilla, two eggs and additional egg yolk, one at a time, mixing on low speed until well incorporated.2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract, 2 Eggs, 1 Egg Yolk
- Slowly mix the dry mixture in with the creamy mixture, still on the low setting, then slowly mix in the chocolate chips.2 Cups Smoked Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips
- Spread out the parchment paper on the counter the same size as your griddle or baking tray.
- Scoop about a large spoonful or two, depending how large you like your cookies, with plenty of space between each one, on the paper or use a cookie dough scooper.
Smoke the Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Place your smoking wood chunk on the hot charcoals if using a charcoal grill or pellet tube or smoker box if using a gas grill. If using a propane or electric smoker, fill the wood chip tray.
- Wearing heatproof grill gloves, slide the parchment paper of cookie dough balls onto the preheated cast iron griddle or baking tray away from any DIRECT heat and close the door or lid.
- After about 5 minutes check the cookies and rotate the tray if needed for even cooking.
- Carefully remove the smoked chocolate chip cookies from the parchment paper using a spatula after about 9-11 minutes and place them on a wire cooling rack.
- When the cookies have cooled, serve with ice cream or a glass of milk and enjoy!
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