Revisiting an old favorite today with my classic holiday chocolate crinkle cookies! A super fun and festive cookie for this (or any) time of year. Full of fudgy chocolate flavor and COVERED in snowy powdered sugar! Who’s ready to get their hands dirty?!
This recipe is great for so many reasons. 1) It doesn’t require a stand mixer. 2) It’s super simple and requires very standard ingredients that you (hopefully) already have on hand. 3) Is great to get the kids involved in making! Messy hands all around!
How to Make Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
You’ll need two separate bowls, one for mixing dry ingredients, and one for the wet ingredients. And one additonal small bowl for melting the chocolate.
Dry Ingredients:
Pretty standard procedure here, add all dry ingredients, (flour, cocoa, baking powder and soda, and salt), into a bowl and evenly mix. HOWEVER, it’s important to sift everything together so we don’t end up with any lumps in the batter. This is especially true for the cocoa powder.
Cocoa powder naturally tends to form clumps, which are super hard to get out just by whisking. Sifting the cocoa in with the rest of the dry ingredients will give us a silky smooth base for our batter. It will make combining the wet and dry mixtures together a whole lot easier.
Wet Ingredients:
In a separate large bowl, use a whisk to combine the wet ingredients. Start with measuring out the brown sugar, either light or dark brown will work. Break apart any lumps of sugar with your hands. (Remeber what I just said about lumpy batter?! No thanks, that’s not what we’re going for here.)
Add in the eggs, one at a time, and whisk to fully incorporate. Mix in the espresso powder and vanilla extract.
I’ve listed the espresso powder as optional, so if you don’t have any on hand that’s totally ok! But I highly recommend adding it in if you have some. The small amount of espresso powder really accentuates the chocolate flavor of the cookies without giving off the coffee taste. It’s a special ingredient I like to add to lots of my baking, especially chocolate recipes. So definitely give it a try!
In a small bowl melt together the chocolate and butter together until fully melted and smooth. I’ve given directions to do this in the microwave but this can also be done using a double boiler on the stove top. Allow the chocolate to cool for a few minutes before adding to the rest of the wet ingredients.
Combine & Finish:
After mixing the dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls, combine the two and mix until you have a thick and uniform batter. At this point let the batter sit in the fridge for about 15 minutes to thicken and become more manageable for rolling. If you’re working in a particularly warm kitchen you may need to let the batter chill for slightly longer.
Once batter is ready, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty! Quickly roll about 2 tbsp of dough into a ball shape between the palms of your hands. Do a double dunk into the sugars, beginning with rolling in the granulated sugar. Next, dunk into the confectioner’s sugar for a generous coating! This is what will give the cookies a wonderful snowy appearance. Place on a prepared cookie sheet and you’re ready to bake!
The cookies may look a bit underdone when you remove them from the over. But this is ok! The lovely crinkles will continue to set up as they cool. So make sure to give them plenty of time of rest before removing them from the baking sheet.
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Prep Time: 30 min
- Cook Time: 12 min
- Total Time: 42 minutes
- Yield: about 24 cookies 1x
Description
The classic eye-catching chocolate crinkle cookies. A fudgy rich chocolate cookie covered in a snowy powdered sugar coating. A real holiday winner!
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups light or dark brown sugar, packed
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tsp instant espresso powder (optional)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter, diced
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- In a bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. It’s especially important to sift in your cocoa powder as it can tend to form clumps.
- In a separate large bowl, whisk together brown sugar, eggs, espresso powder (if using), and vanilla extract.
- Combine chopped chocolate and butter in small bowl and place in a microwave. Melt the chocolate by microwaving for 30 seconds, stir mixture, then repeat for additional 15 second intervals until melted through, stirring between each interval. Allow to cool for a few minutes.
- Whisk the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture until combined. Next, fold in flour mixture until no dry streaks remain. Let dough sit in the fridge for 15 minutes (or until firm enough to roll into balls). Place granulated sugar and confectioner’s sugar in separate shallow dishes.
- Working with about 2 tablespoons of dough at a time, roll into balls. Drop dough balls directly into granulated sugar and roll to coat. Transfer dough balls to confectioner’s sugar and roll to coat evenly and generously. Evenly space dough balls on prepared baking sheets.
- Bake cookies for about 12 minutes. Until puffed and cracked and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft (cookies will look raw between cracks and seem underdone). Let cool completely on the baking sheet.
Courtney
I hope you both try them and let me know how you like them!
Roseann
These are so pretty! I know they taste as good as they look. I will have to make these for work.
Tina
I’ve been wanting to try these!