Chocolate Crinkle Cookies have a rich and fudgy center with a crisp powdered sugar outer layer. Crinkle Cookies are just as important as Sugar Cookies on your holiday cookie tray.
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Hi there! My name is Natalya and I run the blog Momsdish. If you already follow me, you know I love easy meals with simple ingredients. These Chocolate Crinkle Cookies are no exception.
Why these are the Best Crinkle Cookies:
- Simple Ingredients: Made with just a handful of kitchen staples you probably already have on hand.
- Fast: these cookies can be whipped up quickly and you can chill them ahead.
- Fudgy & Crisp: The centers are soft and gooey with crisp edges.
- Keep Well: most cookies are best eaten fresh but these seem to get better with time.
These cookies are perfect for gifting and they are so good, you’ll want to make a double batch!
What is a Chocolate Crinkle Cookie?
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies are like a cross between gooey Fudgy Brownies and crisp Chocolate Chip Cookies. They are rolled in powdered sugar before baking so they form “crinkles” as they expand in the oven.
The best part? Just like a good homemade Baklava, these cookies get better as they get a little stale. The outer layer just gets crunchier, while the center stays so gooey. Let’s just say you’ll find yourself hanging around your cookie jar for several days.
How to Make Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies are a blast to make. If you have kids around, they can help make these cookies. They will love rolling the chocolatey dough into bite-sized balls and coating them with a generous amount of powdered sugar, similar to Russian Tea Cakes.
- Whisk together sugar, cocoa powder, oil, vanilla extract, and eggs.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Slowly add flour mixture to the cocoa mixture. Mix well.
- Cover the dough and refrigerate for 3 hours and up to overnight.
To Finish and Bake the Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Shape cookie dough into balls (a cookie scoop makes it easy to portion) and roll into powdered sugar.
- Place cookies on a baking sheet, leaving space between each cookie. Bake for 10-12 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies. Cookies will come out soft but will harden as they cool down.
- Once cookies are slightly cooled, move them to a wire rack to fully cool down.
Common Questions
There are two reasons why your Chocolate Crinkle Cookies came out flat. Either the dough wasn’t chilled or you didn’t use enough flour. Make sure to properly measure flour by scooping it into your measuring cup and leveling off the top.
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies first premiered in Betty Crocker’s famous cookie cookbook, “Cooky Carnival”. Crocker recounts being served the cookies by home chef Helen Fredell and begging her for the recipe. Fast forward to today and these cookies are gracing just about every holiday tray each year.
You’ll know when Chocolate Crinkle Cookies are done when they start to develop those signature cracks on top. Typically, this takes anywhere from 10-12 minutes depending on their size.
The dough for crinkle cookies should be very moist. Be sure to measure flour correctly, and it helps to roll the moist dough with wet hands.
Storing Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Room Temperature: Keep your Chocolate Crinkle Cookies stored in an airtight container on the counter. They should stay fresh for up to a week.
- Freezing: Freeze your dough balls for up to 2 months in an airtight container. When you are ready to bake, remove them from the freezer and allow them to thaw for 30 minutes in the fridge before rolling them in powdered sugar. Bake according to instructions.
Make-Ahead Tip: You can make the dough a day or two in advance. Keep it refrigerated and only bake right before serving.
Cookies Recipes You’ll Love
- Peanut Butter Cookies – These nutty cookies always hit the spot
- Snowball Cookies – Melt-in-your-mouth delicious
- Meringue Cookies – easy and so festive dusted in powdered sugar
- Madeleine Cookies – Just as good as Starbucks Madeleine cookies
- Macaroon Cookies – The mother of all coconut cookies
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder , (unsweetened)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil, (or canola, or light olive oil)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, combine sugar, cocoa powder, oil, vanilla extract and eggs. Whisk until the mixture is smooth.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour together, baking powder and salt.
- Add the flour mixture to the cocoa mixture and stir to combine.
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours and up to overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Scoop dough with a mini ice cream scoop for even portioning into 20 cookies then roll cookie dough into even-sized balls (it's easier to roll with wet hands) and generously roll each into powdered sugar.
- Place cookies on a baking sheet, being sure to leave space between each of the cookies. Bake for 10-12 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies. Cookies will come out soft but will harden as they cool down.
- Allow cookies to slightly cool. Then, move them to a wire rack to fully cool down.
These cookies are delicious and so easy to make .. the kids love them!
They come out of the oven, seriously, picture perfect!
Love this recipe. So easy and they look impressive. Making some for a gift tomorrow.
Great idea! I hope she/he likes these cookies too!
I will make these for my school talent show but your other recipes are GREAT! So I have high hopes. Thanks for the amazing recipe btw
I hope you love this recipe Abdul!
Great recipe but curious how the total time is 25 minutes when the dough is chilled for 3 hours????
Be honest about the time involved.
Hi Michele, the 25 minutes references the total hands on work. I hope that helps.
Just curious, but why the pepper grinder in the photo? Great cookies, by the way.
Hi F, that is a salt shaker in the photo, I hope that helps.
I used 1/2 brown sugar and 1/2 white sugar, so maybe that’s why my cookies weren’t that good. They didn’t spread at all by the 11 minute mark so I had to press them down slightly with my gloves, so they naturally came out a bit dense. I spooned and levelled my flour and also sifted it, and it was new flour, so I don’t know what happened.
Maybe I made my cookies a bit big? Each one was like 1.5 tbsp worth of dough and doubling the recipe yielded 30 cookies, each one the diameter of two small coins (after I pressed them down).
They also weren’t ‘fudgy’ and didn’t have that much of a chocolate taste. Of course, they’re not horrible, but I was really disappointed:( I’ve tried your chocolate cupcakes and they’re my favorite, but this was different.
Hi Amala, I would suggest making them exactly as written and to the size that is recommended in the post. Making them larger would change the bake time. I always recommend making the recipe exactly as written, because that is how I tested it, before attempting changes.
Hello! I’ve found that in chocolate recipes, using brown sugar makes the final product much fudgier and rich in chocolate flavor. If I were to use brown sugar for this, how much should I use?
Also, what’s the reason for using oil instead of butter?
I have to make these for my bakesale at school next week, so please let me know soon. Thanks so much!! <3
Hi Amal! I haven’t tested these substitutions. Oil helps with the moisture and it’s important for the cookies spreading and cracking. Reading through the comments, one of my readers reported good results using butter in place of oil, and another reported swapping out 1/2 of the sugar for brown sugar. Let us know how they turn out if you experiment.
I make this recipe just about once a week. My family absolutely loves them!!
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Brooke!
I loved these cookies, they were easy to make and turned out great! They are my new favorites!
That’s great, Abby! I’m so glad you love the recipe.
These are the best cookies I’ve ever had their like brownies in cookie form!
That’s a great way to describe these! So glad you loved the recipe.
I have used a Crinkles recipe since 1981 that I got from my Mom.. It’s been a good one, BUT, read yours a couple weeks ago and have made 2 batches in a week! They are so good..My son rates them a 12, better than my old recipe.. Thank you.
That’s wonderful, Jean. Thank you for sharing.