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. 
Hello! I’m not sure what I did wrong but these did not taste good. The texture was perfect but they did not taste like chocolate. I typically use Nestle Toll House 100% cocoa but am wondering if it was a bad choice? They were incredibly bland so we threw them away. Any suggestions appreciated.
Hi! I’m sorry you had difficulty with the recipe. I’ve never had these be bland before. I don’t believe it was the cocoa powder since Nestles is 100% pure cocoa. Did you make any substitutions or forget any ingredients?
Thank you for your response. I believe I made them correct. They had no chocolate flavor which is so odd. May have been baker’s error 🙁
On a side note I just made your chocolate chip cookie recipe and they are DELICIOUS!
That’s great to hear!
I made these from different recipes before and no matter what I did they were always very hard— these however were lovely chewy on the edges and super soft on the inside. Very brownie-y according to the tasters, they were popular to the point the recipe was asked. Thank you!!
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Katharina!
Fantastic recipe! Made it last week and had to remake it today as they disappeared pretty quickly 😉 Thanks for your recipes… your cookbook is under our Christmas tree – can’t wait to unwrap it tomorrow!
Hi Usha! Thank you. Merry Christmas! I’m so glad you loved this recipe!
Made two batches of these cookies this week. I’m not sure why you would need to handle the dough at all. I refrigerated overnight and dropped the dough into the powdered sugar from the mini scoop. I scraped the scoop on the side of the bowl so the bottom was flat. This method yielded more cookies. About 40, I am not sure if I used the right size scoop. I just used the smallest one I had. Baked 10 minutes. Perfect.
Thank you for sharing, Kim! That’s great.
Absolutely delicious!! I made these for my co-workers and family as a holiday treat and it was a hit! Everyone loved them. Definitely will be making this recipe again. I did make two adjustments:
1. I left the batter in the fridge overnight instead of for four hours like the recipe said. I read through others comments and I noticed that a frequent complaint was that the batter was too sticky to work with. I didn’t experience any problems with stickiness as the dough was nice and firm when I used it. Would definitely recommend leaving it in your fridge overnight instead.
2. I had to put the cookies in for 13-15 minutes instead of 10-12 minutes, however, this was almost certainly because I made my cookies a bit bigger. So if you plan on making your cookies bigger than a mini ice cream scoop, it will take closer to 15 minutes for them to bake.
Thank you so much for sharing that with me, Cat! I’m so happy you enjoyed these cookies!
I accidently left the dough in overnight because I was exhausted and had no problems working with it the next day. I really liked these cookies!!!
Follow the recipe and my cookies came out delicious
Thank you Natasha.
I will make this cookies all year round.
So glad to hear that, Hilda!
Prep time and total time were very misleading. Should’ve included the time needed from chilling.
I make this recipe ALL the time, it’s so good! I’ve made it for family and they beg me to make them every time I see them. Perfect recipe, 10/10, no notes. Thanks so much for sharing !!
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us, Fay!
My cookies didn’t flatten at all! They stayed round after 10 minutes so I baked them for 2 minutes and it still didn’t flatten. Do you know what happened?
Hi Lilian! Be sure to measure your flour correctly. Using too much flour would cause this. I have a tutorial on How to measure ingredients here. I hope that helps.
I am wondering if I can add some chopped nuts, and if I would need to alter the liquid ingredients if I do so. My family loves nuts, and I don’t, so it helps me not gobble all of the cookies myself! LOL
Hi Kelli. I have not tested that, but I think it could work. Let us know if you experiment.
Try rolling them in (finely chopped) before rolling in powder sugar! We’ve done this and it works great.
These were fun to make! They taste great. And they are so cute! I discovered that wet hands were too messy. I just dropped a tablespoon of dough into the sugar. They were easy to shape into a ball after that. And then dropped into the powdered sugar. They don’t need to be perfectly shaped. When they puff up in the oven they become symmetrical.
Hi Cheryl! Thank you for the tip!
These are the best chocolate crinkles I’ve had. The ones from when I was a child I never ate. The only problem i found was you say to use a mini ice cream scoop and when touching the words it take you to 3 scoops but not one is a mini ice cream scoop. So which one is the best to buy. One last thing why can’t they all be referred by the same like measuring spoons and cups are.
HI Sandy, when I click on both of the links above for the mini ice cream scoop, I am seeing the correct one, the OXO brand trigger release scoop that I own. I think I see what you mean – on the Amazon listing there are 3 sizes. You want the “small cookie scoop” size which is the one it should open first.
For those asking about using butter in place of oil – it works! I used 1/4c very soft butter and kept all else the same. I refrigerated the dough overnight and they came out lovely and buttery. Enjoy!
Thank you for sharing that with us, Hannah!
made these for the first time. baked them and they are rock hard! they have no flavor really. so i added a few drops of pepermint to my dough and worked it in..tastes alot better just a hint of pepermint but still are rock hard.
Hi Terri! They should not be hard. A couple of reasons this could happen is either over baking, using too much flour, or not correctly measuring your other ingredients causing the wet/dry ratio to be off. I’ve had so many positive comments come in across my social media channels in the last few weeks about these cookies. I hope you’ll give them another try. Please watch my tutorial on How to measure ingredients to help.
I think they cooked too long. I had one batch that made hard cookies because the timer was not set. I told my husband those are biscotti cookies. 🥰
Most likely you overbaked them. It’s easy to do. Whenever I make them my mom always says to make sure I don’t cook them too long because they are not very forgiving if overbaked.
These cookies are delicious.
The only thing I did different was I used coconut oil. It gives a very slight coconut taste to to the cookie which is good and it makes it much easier to roll in balls as the oil congeals in the fridge.
That’s a good diea too, Judy. Thank you so much for sharing and for your review!
I did this too! I didn’t have to let them sit as long and they weren’t sticky!
Next time I will try it with the coconut oil, I would love that!
My daughter said these are some of the best cookies Ive ever made! Big hit!
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Barbara!
These cookies are soo good! Easy to make and everyday ingredients! This is my first time trying a recipe from internet, but after this will certainly try many many more!
Hi Deb! I’m so glad you found this recipe and so glad that you also enjoyed it. Thank you for your review.
Tried two batches of these with a bad result both times. Batter was chilled. That cookies ran together. Threw out the whole thing. Followed all the steps to the letter. Oh well!!
Hi Joanne! That is odd. I’ve had so many comments and pictures come in across my social media channels (Facebook/Instagram) just today of many viewers sharing their results. They are turning out great. I’ve even recently tested the recipe myself so I know the ingredient quantities are right as written.
Something must be off (the ratio of wet to dry). I have a tutorial here on How to measure ingredients . I hope that helps.
That happened to me when I didn’t chill the dough for 3 hours, double batch can take even more time.
I love the chocolate crinkle cookies and they were so easy to make. They were so delicious. Can the recipe be doubled? Thank you for having videos on your website.
Have a very Merry Christmas.
Hi Ulla, yes, this recipe can be doubled. I’m so glad you loved this recipe.
Awesome recipe! I haven’t eaten these in probably 40 years, and have never made them. A few tips:
–For each batch, portion just enough chilled batter into a bowl set over ice to keep it cold.
–Dip and rest the scoop in a bowl of hot water.
–Completely rinse the stuck batter off the scoop every two dozen cookies.
–Let them cool for about two minutes after baking. Any longer and they stick.
–REVEL IN THE DELICIOUSNESS!
I used a 1tsp scoop and the cookies turned out about the size of a silver dollar; bite-size cookies have fewer calories! This size bakes in eight minutes.
Thank you for the feedback. So glad you love the recipe!