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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You know I love easy desserts 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 unsweetened 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 granulated 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 parchment-lined 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.
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
Hi! I’m Natasha Kravchuk, a New York Times bestselling cookbook author, recipe developer, food photographer, and writer. Here you’ll find delicious, reliable recipes made with simple ingredients, plus easy step-by-step photos and videos to help you cook confidently at home. 
Looking forward to try this recipe (crinkle cookies).
Only one problem, I can only PRINT in black and any of the the ingredients that are in colour ‘disappear’ on the page.
It’s OK if I remember to write them in but often get to the kitchen with blank lines!!!
Hi Wendy, The print-friendly recipe is at the bottom of each post. Once you scroll there, click on the print icon in that recipe card, which will open a print screen, then you would need to click file and print. I hope that helps! If not, please let me know exactly what steps you are taking and where you are navigating to print our recipes.
Hi! These cookies are amaaazing :
My family and I love them. Today was the second day in a row baking them 🙂 just discovered them
That’s so great! It sounds like you have a new favorite, Ana!
Hi Natasha! I just made the batter but it’s kind of thin, it’s nowhere near a cookie dough, I measured everything exactly how you wrote it, I put it in the fridge now but I dont see how it’s gonna harden in there, there is no butter in it.
HI Lea, there are a couple of reasons why the dough might seem flat. Please see the common questions section titled: “Why are my Chocolate Crinkle Cookies flat?”
Excellent cookie in a sensible portion size! Followed the metric conversion, left it in the fridge for 24hrs and cookies turned out perfect. Would add a little coffee in future. Recipe is a keeper. Thank you!
Yay! I’m so glad you found a new favorite, Joanne!
Can i cut down the granulated sugar to 1/2 cup and confectioners sugar to 1/4 cup? Will it affect the cookies that are baked?
Hello May, I honestly haven’t tried that yet to advise. If you do an experiment, please share with us how it goes.
Hi Natasha! My sister and I made this recipe today. Our family and us loved it! They tasted like a brownie. We loved the confectioner sugar on top, of the cookies. We actually refrigerated our cookies overnight. We just like the flavor better, being chilled in the fridge overnight. Thanks for the recipe Natasha!
That’s awesome, Zoie! Thanks for sharing that with us. I’m happy to know that you all enjoyed it!
Love all your recipes! Has anyone tried freezing these after they are baked?
Hi Lisa, these are freezer-friendly before baking. I haven’t tried freezing them after baking to advise on the outcome. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe.
Hi! What size of your cookie scoop did you use?
Hi xtina, we used this small cookie scoop here. You can find our favorite kitchen tools in our Amazon Affiliate Shop HERE.
If I only have sweetened coco powder. Would you cut down on the sugar?
Hi Melissa, I would not recommend using sweetened cocoa powder since there are other additives and mix-ins that may affect the outcome of the cookies.
Hi Natasha, Can I add some peanut butter to this recipe for some peanuty flavor? And how is that gonna change the other ingredients ratio?
Hi Nona, I haven’t tested that yet to advise. If you do an experiment, please share with us how it goes.
I’m trying this right now. I’m freezing a teaspoon size of peanut butter to test with two of the cookies. I plan to roll the cookie dough around the peanut butter.
Excellent cookies. Used cookie scoop…no need to wet hands.
Great idea! Thank you so much for sharing that with me!
Made these cookies for our friends and everyone LOVED them. They are cookies that you can’t stop eating. Thanks for a great recipe!!
That’s so great! It sounds like you have a new favorite!
Huge hit in my house and to the houses I delivered to!! Got request for the recipe!
That is so awesome! I’m very happy to hear that, thank you for sharing, Catherine!
Turned out amazing
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Made these cookies recently, very easy to make. The only issues they became flat after sitting on the counter, not sure why? But they tasted good anyways. Thanks for the recipe Natasha.
Hi Lana, please read the “Why are my Chocolate Crinkle Cookies flat?” in the recipe. I hope that helps.
Thanks for this yummy Krinkle recipe! My daughter and I have always enjoyed chocolate peppermints so we have made our own version of crinkles, we call them chocolate mint crinkles. We added Andes peppermint crunch about 3/4cup and 1.5 teaspoons of peppermint. extract. We use to crush candy canes but now that we found Andes it is so much easier. 😋
That’s so great! Thank you for sharing that with me, Judie!
HI, I accidentally pour the cocoa powder with the flour mix, will it have a different result? The dough is in the fridge now as I am writing this email.
Hi Arlene, I am not so sure as that never happened to me yet. I hope it still goes well!
O my word,these cookies are amazing just made them and they to die for. I’m a baker with my own bakery but whow these cookies are a winner. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe
Awww that’s the best! Thank you so much for sharing that with me. I’m all smiles
WOW! I made these last night for family today and they came out delicious! An easy recipe and so much flavor! Thank you for sharing! Merry Christmas!
You are most welcome, Nancy. Thank you for sharing your good feedback!
Turned out GREAT! Tip: I kept a large bowl of water next to where I was rolling the balls and kept rinsing the sticky off whenever it got to be too much. It also helped keep my hands wet.
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us!
These cookies are delicious !
BUT if you decide to use a cookie scoop not all small cookie scoops are the same size and you really need to let these chill as long as you can and longer. First try making these after chilling for 6 hours and it only produced 13 cookies using an OXO “small” cookie scoop and they never hardened. The dough was a nightmare. Way to soft. Second time around cause i know Natasha and Natalya’s recipes are always amazing I tried again. Found out that even the better quality small cookie scoops often say small (2tsps) but actually are a tablespoon or more. Was able to find a “Small” Walmart cookie scoop that looked smaller then i had. Instant success ! Chilled cookie dough for close to 20 hours and it was wonderful. Made sure to lay parchment paper on the cookie sheets. Sprayed a small amount of cooking spray on my cookie scoop. Used the smaller cookie scoop and made 20 cookies. Only 10 on a 11″x17″ baking sheet at a time and refrigerated the dough while these were baking. Hope this helps someone. Merry Christmas everyone and thank you Natalya and Natasha for all your dedicated and hard work !
Thank you so much for sharing all your helpful tips! I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!