Chocolate Crinkle Cookies have a rich, fudgy center with a crisp powdered-sugar coating. They taste like hot chocolate in cookie form and disappear faster than I can plate them. These cookies are perfect any time of the year, but look especially festive served on a holiday cookie platter.
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Helpful Reader Review
“I tried these cookies 5 years ago, and they’re still one of my favorites! Thank you, Natasha, for such masterpiece recipes! I love your blog! 😍😘” – Dina ★★★★★
Easy Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
You know I love easy desserts with simple ingredients. This Chocolate Crinkle Cookies recipe is no exception, since there aren’t any fancy ingredients or techniques here. Mix, refrigerate, and scoop–done!
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies are like a cross between fudgy Brownies and Chocolate Chip Cookies that are rolled in powdered sugar to form “crinkles” as they expand in the oven. Crinkle cookies are perfect for gifting, since they get better the next day, and they are so good, you’ll want to make a double batch!
Did You Know?
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.
Chocolate Crinkle Cookie Ingredients
Check your pantry and fridge for all you need to make my delicious chocolate crinkle cookies. Be sure to measure correctly so the cookies expand and rise correctly.
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder – fluff the powder with a fork, then spoon it into the measuring cup to be sure you have the right amount of cocoa.
- Wet Ingredients – sugar, vegetable oil, eggs, and Vanilla Extract
- Dry ingredients – Flour, baking powder, and salt
- Confectioner’s sugar – for rolling the dough and creating crinkles. For a more festive look, try swapping with holiday sprinkles (Halloween-themed sprinkles look great, too!) or colored sugar.
How to Make Crinkle Cookies
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies are a blast to make because rolling the chocolatey dough and coating it in powdered sugar is good, messy fun, similar to making Russian Tea Cakes.
- Whisk the sugar, cocoa powder, oil, vanilla extract, and eggs together in a bowl.
- Whisk the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt) in a separate mixing bowl. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and mix well.
- Cover the dough and refrigerate for 3 hours or up to overnight. This is essential for making a rollable and rising dough.
- Roll – Preheat the oven to 350°F. Shape cookie dough into balls (a cookie scoop makes it easy to portion) and roll in powdered sugar (wet hands make it easier to handle).
- Bake – Space the cookies on a lined baking sheet, and then bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove from the oven to cool on the sheet. Once cookies are slightly cooled, move them to a wire rack to fully cool down.
Pro Tip:
Chocolate crinkle cookies come out of the oven soft, but the outside hardens as they cool. In fact, they continue to get crispy as they sit, but the inside stays fudgey.
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies are just as important as Sugar Cookies and Gingerbread Cookies on your holiday cookie tray, so place them next to my Christmas Snowball Cookies and Homemade Baklava for a decadent, well-rounded dessert table!
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 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 confectioner's sugar
Instructions
- Whisk – In a mixing bowl, combine granulated sugar, cocoa powder, oil, vanilla extract, and eggs. Whisk until the mixture is smooth.
- Mix – In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, 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.*
- Roll – Preheat the oven to 350°F. Scoop dough with a cookie 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.
- Bake – 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 on the outside as they cool down. Cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to fully cool.
Notes
- 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 overnight in the fridge before rolling them in powdered sugar, or bake from frozen, adding 1-2 minutes to the bake time.
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
More Cookies Recipes You’ll Love
Cookie recipes, like my chocolate crinkle cookies, are so fun to make and share, so once you try this recipe, check out these other sweet treats:
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Meringue Cookies
- Madeleine Cookies
- Macaroon Cookies
- Toffee Recipe
- Cranberry Cookies
- Snickerdoodles
- Palmiers Cookies
- Rugelach
- Biscotti
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!