Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies have a rich chocolate flavor with a crisp exterior and soft interior for the perfect cookie bite.

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I was not aware of the existence of crinkle cookies for a long time. Like until last year long time. I’m sure someone has given me one in the past, but I never really registered the term crinkle cookie. And then a friend brought up that his family had a traditional chocolate crinkle cookie recipe and it sounded delicious.

So, I decided to make some! When I hear about something delicious, my instinct is to figure out how to eat it. And 9 times out of 10, making it myself is the solution. Plus, I love making cookies. I was already inclined to make these.

The process of making chocolate crinkle cookies was simple. I think the most difficult part of the recipe was waiting for the dough to chill. I am not a patient person. And telling me to wait to have cookies is a form of personal hell. But the wait was worth it because the cookies turned out amazing.

Check out the Make section of MCG for more fun recipes like desserts and savory dishes.

Ingredients

There is a surprisingly diverse number of ingredients in these chocolate crinkle cookies. Most are fairly common baking ingredients, but I will say that I had the opportunity to enrich the cookies through the ingredients.

First, the type of cocoa powder is important. A richer powder will make a richer cookie. I used a classic cocoa powder because I was overwhelmed by the “fancier” options.

Second, using expresso powder will enrich the chocolate flavor but not add in too much expresso flavor. I can confirm this because I do not like the flavor of coffee or expresso, but I had no problem enjoying these cookies. However, this can be an optional ingredient if you really don’t want to use it.

Process

The Dough

Making the chocolate crinkle cookie dough was straight forward. First, I whisked together the vegetable oil, eggs, vanilla extract, salt, sugar, and expresso powder. I was surprised to see that vegetable oil is used as the fat for this cookie instead of butter but that just makes this a dairy-free cookie.

Then I added in the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and baking soda. The only potentially odd ingredient would be cornstarch. This helps thicken the cookie and make it a more dense, rich chocolate. With everything combined, I placed the dough in the fridge to chill. And then I had to wait… it was excruciating.

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

The next step of the process was taking the dough and making dough balls and giving them a sugar coating. I know that snickerdoodles are usually rolled in granulated sugar, but I was fascinated to see that chocolate crinkle cookies, or any crinkle cookie, is rolled in granulated and powdered sugar. Put more sugar on my cookie? No complaints from me!

Then it was time to put the chocolate crinkle cookies in the oven and bake them until they were ready. Telling when a chocolate cookie is ready can always be a challenge because they don’t really turn golden brown like other cookies. At some point, I just had to go off of instinct and say “Yup! They’re done.”

Reflections

I’m in love. These cookies are absolutely delicious, and I cannot believe I was not aware of them sooner. I really love how soft these chocolate crinkle cookies turned out. They were surprisingly rich even with a basic cocoa powder at it’s base. I was surprised by how much the expresso powder enhanced the flavor. Definitely something I will be making again.

Lessons

Why Coat the Cookies in Sugar?

I was wondering, why do some cookies get rolled in sugar before baking while other don’t? What does this sugar add? Well, the answer that I ultimately found is flavor and texture. The sugar adds an extra kiss of sweetness while also a bit of a crunch on the exterior. The crunch comes from the sugar caramelizing on the outside of the cookie.

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