This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
Best Fudgy Chocolate Crinkle Cookies have an irresistible brownie textured centre, with a crunch of cookie on the outside! One of our favourite Christmas cookies right here!
Rich and decadent, just like a brownie in the shape of a cookie. You’d be mistaken for thinking these Christmas cookies were super fattening or loaded with calories, but that’s the BEST part! ONLY 88 calories EACH!
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
In the land of wanting to eat whatever we want over Christmas but we can’t because hello fat pants, these cookies become a saviour. Also, this recipe is a half batch recipe, so there’s no need to feel intimidated by a full tray of 1000 cookies staring back at you, begging to be eaten, only for you to try to refuse.
There’s simply not enough. Especially if you have family to steal them all from you before they hit any sort of plate.
HOW TO BAKE Chocolate Crinkle Cookies?
- Make sure you start with room temperature ingredients so the oil and egg mix together easier.
- If you can, use Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa powder instead of Dutch process cocoa powder
- Make sure you chill the cookie dough for at least 3 hours. The dough is super sticky and easier to manage once it has been chilled (the longer, the better). Chilling also ensures thicker cookies with a fudgy texture, and less spreading while baking.
- Once they are rolled into balls and placed onto your baking sheet, there is no need to press them down. They will naturally bake into shape.
- Make sure your oven is HOT before baking! Or they will still be raw after 10 minutes.
- The baking time suggested in the recipe is a guide. Remember, this depends on how hot your oven runs. They will be super soft when they come out of the oven and harden as they cool. If you bake them for too long, the centres will not be fudgy.
- Bake them big or bake them small, it makes no difference in texture. The end result is the same. For bigger cookies, just leave them in baking in the oven for 2 minutes longer.
After Hot Chocolate Fudge Pudding Cakes, SUPER Fudgy Brownies and Quick Soft Cinnamon Rolls to keep us on our toes, this cookie recipe comes to us as a last minute ‘help me’ type of recipe. This recipe is super simple to make and super decadent with no guilt afterwards. (Well, hardly any guilt.)
You know what I mean. I’ve been hanging to share these with you for so long now, but with Prime Rib Roasts, Scalloped Potatoes, Antipasto Cheese Ball Christmas Trees and Caprese Wreaths creating chaos all over the place, I’ve saved the best for last!
More desserts below!
You might also like
Get a free eBook!
Subscribe to Cafe Delites FOR FREE and receive recipes straight into your inbox!
Best Fudgy Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup white granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup all purpose or plain flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar or icing sugar, for coating
Instructions
- In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, white sugar and vegetable oil. Beat in eggs one at a time, until fully incorporated. Mix in the vanilla.
- In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet mixture just until a dough forms (do not over beat). Cover bowl with wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F | 175°C. Line 2 cookie sheets or baking trays with parchment paper (baking paper). Roll 1 tablespoonful of dough into balls for smaller cookies, or 2 tablespoonfuls for larger cookies.
- Add the confectioners (icing) sugar to a smaller bowl. Generously and evenly coat each ball of dough in confectioners' sugar and place onto prepared cookie sheets.
- Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes (for small cookies) or 12 minutes (for larger cookies). The cookies will come out soft from the oven but will harden up as they cool.
- Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool.
Notes
88 calories each for smaller cookies. 146 calories each for larger cookies.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
We were in the mood for a sweet chocolate treat. These looked easy enough to put together….. and they were. The only downside to the problem was I did not read the entirety of the recipe. Chill for 4 hours was a no go for us wanting a sweet treat now. SOOOOOO……… I pulled out my muffin tins and scooped with my cookie scooper……….sprinkled with powdered sugar and baked 11 minutes and they turned out Perfecto !!! Without waiting the 4 hours. Yay !
Just made these and they are beautiful! Dropping the pan when I pull them out gave them some great crackles. Next time, I’d like to make them thicker or taller. What can I add to achieve thicker cookies but maintain the fudgey consistency.
love them they’re better then shop bought cookies
can you freeze these cookies
these were fantastic sober AND high!!!!
Chocolate crinkles are my fiancé’s favorite cookies—and one I had neither had nor made before dating him! I’ve tried many different recipes trying to capture the taste and texture he remembers having as a kid and this one is the clear winner!
A couple of changes to the process I’ve made after baking many, many batches of these:
I don’t even bother with separate mixing bowls—I toss everything into my mixing bowl (I do evenly sprinkle the salt and baking powder) and hit it with my KA stand mixer. I also don’t bother chilling—I just use a cookie scoop and let em rip! While the dough is sticky, I don’t have any handling issues and the flavors are still perfect.
I also read somewhere along the recipe hunt (possibly cooks ill.) to first roll the dough balls in granulated sugar before the confectioners sugar—this helped both to form the tidy rolled balls, but also to keep the powdered sugar from turning yellow during baking since the granulated absorbs the moisture first.
Thank you for a fantastic recipe that makes both my fiancé and me so happy!
Hey😁
I made these recently and they were Delish. Although I halved the sugar and switched to brown , added a shot of expresso and tweaked them a bit by dusting it with cinnamon sugar they turned out fab just as you’ve mentioned firm enough with a soft fudgy centre that too in 08’mins 🤩. Thank you for sharing and happy holidays in advance.
I made this recipe with half of the sugar recommended and baked it for 9 minutes instead of 10. It’s suuuuper yummy!
I would like to ask how long are the cookies going to last after baking and what are the storage recommendations? I would like to bake more to give as Christmas gifts this upcoming Christmas.
Two things: when going to print, I increased the servings and while the cup measurements increased accordingly, the conversion to grams did not and I measure my ingredients by weight so this would have been a big problem. I caught the error before any trouble, but you should know to double check the quantity if you should use this feature.
Secondly, for half the batch I added white chocolate chips, and they were yummy, although the “almost 12” year old prefers them without.
Big thanks to this comment section, next time I’ll use melted butter as some did, and knowing not to overheat the mix was a big assist as well.
Really simple recipe to follow! Made it for the first time and they came out great, even if I lessened the sugar.