Chocolate Crinkle Cookies for Christmas

A Classic Chocolate Crinkle Cookies Recipe for Christmas

I finally managed to wrinkle the crinkles out of my friend, Karen. Every Christmas, she gives me these delicious delights in a bountiful tin of other home-cooked goodies. Love.

Now I get to share her crinkles cookies recipe with you!

Time: About 5 hours including prep, baking and 4 hours chilling time.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup cocoa
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar) for rolling
• Glace cherries in red and green
• Optional: chocolate chips or kisses

Recipe Instructions:

1. Use a handheld or stand mixer to beat together the cocoa, sugar and vegetable oil. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing on medium speed as you go. Add the vanilla extract and beat briefly on high speed until thoroughly combined.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.
3. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients gradually, beating on low or medium, depending on your mixer, until thoroughly mixed together. The dough will be thick and sticky so scrape down the bowl with a spatula as needed. Optional addition: a cup or more of chocolate chips, added after the dry ingredients, to make double chocolate crinkle cookies for Christmas!
4. Here’s the wait time and it’s necessary with this stiff dough. Cover the bowl and chill in the refrigerator for at least four hours or overnight.
5. When you’re almost ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350F.
6. Remove the dough from the fridge and let sit for ten minutes or so at room temperature so the dough is easier to handle. Scoop out enough dough to make one inch balls for each crinkle cookie. Roll each ball in icing sugar (also known as confectioner’s sugar) and place on a cookie sheet about 3″ apart.
7. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes at 350F until the edges are setting nicely while the centers still appear relatively soft.
8. Remove baking trays from the oven and press a glace cherry in red or green to each cookie. Expect the cookies to deflate a little during this process. You could also add chocolate kisses instead of cherries. Or skip the cherries or kisses and go for crinkle hugs instead.
9. Let cool for five minutes on baking trays before transferring the chocolate crinkle cookies to finish cooling on racks.

For the dog lovers in your family, consider making dog cookies in a jar for them as well! For another take on the same classic recipe, see Double Chocolate Crinkle Cookies from Sally’s Baking Addiction.

And, for coffee lovers, make one of ten instant coffee mixes in a jar to go with these scrumptious cookies. What a way to start Christmas morning!