These classic chocolate crinkle cookies look like snow-dusted mountains with their contrasting chocolate cookie and cracked powdered sugar shell. These rich, cake-like cookies are a delicious chocolaty treat around the holidays or any time.
How to Make Chocolate Crinkles
These chocolate crinkle cookies cracked exterior is created by rolling the chocolate dough balls in powdered sugar before baking. As the cookie bakes, it cracks into a festive black and white cookie.
Gather your ingredients to be sure you have everything on hand before you begin. Here are a few tips for making chocolate crinkle cookies:
- Use Room Temperature Butter: Remove the butter from the refrigerator, cut into pieces, and let it warm to room temperature for about an hour before making your cookies. This will make combining butter with sugar much easier and result in a cake-like textured cookie.
- Cocoa Powder: Use unsweetened cocoa powder with no added salts or ingredients. Dutch processed cocoa has a smooth, rich chocolate flavor that is less bitter than regular cocoa.
- Chill the Cookie Dough: Place the dough into the refrigerator to chill for at least two hours (or up to 24 hours) before making the cookies. Chilling the cookie dough hardens the butter and will give you nice round, puffy shape as the cookies bake.
- Use a Cookie Scoop: A cookie scoop makes it easy to scoop out the same amount of cookie dough, so your cookies are the same size and bake evenly. A 25MM scoop will give you 1-inch balls of cookie dough.
The full detailed recipe can be found at the bottom of this article, but here are the illustrated steps for this chocolate crinkle cookie recipe:
Step 1: Mix the Dry Ingredients Together
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt with a wire whisk and set aside.
Step 2: Combine the Wet Ingredients
Add the softened butter and sugar to a large bowl. Use a stand mixer or electric hand mixer to cream the butter and sugar together on medium speed until fluffy and well combined. Add the eggs, vanilla, and mix until well blended.
Step 3: Make the Cookie Dough
Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture a little at a time, scrape the bowl, and mix until well blended after each addition. Cover and chill for at least two hours (or overnight) to make the dough easier to handle.
Step 4: Bake the Cookies
Preheat the oven and prepare your cookie sheets by lining them with parchment paper. I like using parchment paper because it helps prevent the bottoms from over browning. Skip this step if you do not have parchment paper. Greasing the pans with extra butter isn’t necessary even without using parchment paper. There is enough butter in the cookies to prevent them from sticking. Instead, bake the cookies on un-greased cooking sheets.
Sift the powdered sugar through a fine mesh strainer into a small bowl so it is nice and fluffy.
Remove the cookie dough from the refrigerator. Form the cookie the dough into 1-inch sized balls. This is super easy when using a cookie scoop. Simply scoop out the dough, and roll briefly in your hands to form a ball. Try not to handle the dough too long or the butter will melt from the heat of your hands. Drop the cookie dough balls into the powdered sugar, and toss to coat evenly.
Place each ball 2-inches apart onto the baking sheets and bake in a preheated oven until edges are set and tops are cracked, about 8 to 10 minutes.
Cool slightly on the cookie sheets until set, and then remove the cookies and place them on a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough. Makes about 48 chocolate crinkle cookies.
Let the cookies cool completely, and then store in an airtight storage container for up to a week. The powdered sugar tends to melt a bit the longer the cookies are stored.
Make Ahead Tips
If you are getting ready for holidays, and not ready to bake the cookies right away. You can freeze the dough for up to 2 months.
Form the balls and place them in a single layer on parchment lined cookie sheets. Place the sheets in the freezer until the balls are frozen, and then place the frozen cookie balls in a freezer bag and store in the freezer for up to 2 months.
When you are ready to bake, remove the cookie balls from the freezer and let them to thaw in the fridge for about one hour. Roll in powdered sugar, and bake as instructed.
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar for coating
Instructions
- Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt to a medium sized mixing bowl. Whisk to combine and set aside.
- Add the softened butter and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until fluffy, about 5 minutes.
- Add the eggs and vanilla. Continue mixing until well blended.
- Add the flour mixture a little at a time, and mix until combined.
- Cover and chill for at least two hours (or up to 24 hours).
- Preheat the oven to 375˚F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Sift the powdered sugar into a small bowl so it is nice and fluffy.
- Remove the cookie dough from the refrigerator.
- Using a cookie scoop or spoon, scoop out about a heaping teaspoon of dough and shape into 1-inch sized balls.
- Roll each ball in the powdered sugar to coat all sides, and place 2-inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
- Bake in a preheated oven until edges are set and tops are crinkled, about 8 to 10 minutes. Cool slightly, remove from baking sheet, and cool completely on a wire rack. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough.
- Makes about 48 cookies.
Nutrition
More Christmas Cookies:
- Old Fashioned Soft Molasses Cookies
- Italian Christmas Sprinkle Cookies
- Toasted Almond Anise Biscotti
10 Cookie Mix in a Jar Recipes eBook
Homemade gifts are always appreciated because they come from the heart. Even if you are not crafty, you can give DIY gifts to your family and friends with these easy recipes for making cookie mix in a reusable jar.
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