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Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

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This classic Chocolate Crinkle Cookies recipe is fun to make, super delicious, and perfect for the holidays!

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Of course, our week of classic holiday cookie recipes here on the blog would not be complete without these famous crinkles.

Who wants some Chocolate Crinkle Cookies??

Whether you’re baking up a batch for a cookie exchange, pulling them warm outta the oven for a holiday party, or leave them out with a note for Santa, I promise that these chocolate crinkle cookies are always a hit! And this specific recipe has served me well for years. The cookie batter itself is very straightforward, and quick and easy to whip up. Then once you’ve rolled the dough balls in powdered sugar, channel those Great British Baking Show vibes and plant yourself in front of the oven to watch the cookies rise and crinkle. So fun! (Especially with kiddos!)

Here’s how to make them!

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies | 1-Minute Video

Chocolate Crinkle Cookie Dough

Chocolate Crinkle Cookie Ingredients:

There’s a good chance you may already have these ingredients in your pantry! You will need:

  • Flour: I typically use all-purpose, but white whole wheat flour would work too.
  • Unsweetened cocoa powder: Because…chocolate.
  • Baking powder, salt, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract: Because…cookies.
  • Oil: I grew up making these with vegetable oil, but any mild-flavored oil will do.
  • Powdered sugar: For rolling the cookie dough.

Stack of Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

How To Make Chocolate Crinkle Cookies:

To make crinkle cookies, simply…

  1. Whisk together your dry ingredients. Flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
  2. Prep your dough. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the sugar and oil. Followed by adding in the eggs and vanilla, followed by the dry ingredients.
  3. Chill the dough. Sorry, you really can’t skip this step with chocolate crinkle cookies! Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or until completely chilled.
  4. Prep your dough balls. Form the dough into 1-inch balls, and roll them in powdered sugar until completely coated. Place them on a parchment-covered baking sheet.
  5. Bake. Then bake then at 350°F for about 10 minutes. Let the cookies cool for a bit afterwards. Then…
  6. Enjoy! I highly recommend eating these warm out of the oven. But they also store well for up to 5 days, or freeze well for up to 3 months.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies with Milk

Possible Variations:

Looking to mix things up? Feel free to:

  • Add chocolate chips. I really love mixing 1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips into this batter for that extra-gooey chocolate touch.
  • Place a Hershey’s kiss on top. Just poke the kisses right into the tops of the cookies immediately after they come out of the oven.
  • Hide a caramel inside the cookie. Once your dough ball is ready to go, poke half of a soft caramel inside the dough, and wrap/roll the dough around the caramel so that it is completely enclosed. The caramel will melt while baking, making for an extra delicious surprise inside.
  • Add ground cinnamon and cayenne. For a Mexican chocolate twist, try adding 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon and a pinch of cayenne pepper to the dough. (Just whisk them into the dry ingredient mixture.)

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies on Plates

More Favorite Cookie Recipes:

Looking for more delicious cookie inspiration? Feel free to check out our full collection of cookie recipes, or any of these other favorite classic cookies:

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Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.7 from 88 reviews
  • Prep Time: 20 minutes
  • Cook Time: 10 minutes
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 20 -22 cookies 1x

Description

This classic Chocolate Crinkle Cookies recipe is fun to make, super delicious, and perfect for the holidays!


Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup mild-flavored oil (such as vegetable oil, coconut oil, olive oil, etc.)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup powdered sugar, for coating the cookies

Instructions

  1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt until combined.  Set aside.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the granulated sugar and oil. Beat on medium-high speed for 2 minutes, or until the mixture is light and fluffy.  Add in the eggs and vanilla, beating on medium-low speed until combined.  Then gradually fold in the flour mixture, and beat on medium-low speed until combined.
  3. Form the dough into a large ball, and place it on a large sheet of plastic wrap.  Wrap the plastic around it so that it is sealed tightly.  Refrigerate for at least 2 hours (or up to 24 hours) until the dough is chilled completely through.
  4. Once you’re ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350°F.  Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Fill a small bowl with the powdered sugar.
  5. Remove and unwrap the dough.  Then form the dough into 1-inch round balls.  Dip each dough ball in the powdered sugar until it is completely covered on all sides, and then place them least 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet.
  6. Bake for 10 minutes.  Then remove the baking sheet from the oven, and let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 3 minutes.  Transfer the cookies to a wire rack, and let them cool until they reach room temperature.
  7. Serve immediately, or store in a sealed container for up to 5 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.

Notes

Slightly adapted from AllRecipes.

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210 comments on “Chocolate Crinkle Cookies”

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  1. Well, these cookies are brand spanking new to me. Hosting an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party next week (actually the wifer is) but I’m sending her this link because I know she’ll want to include them on her dessert appetizer platter. And we’re giving away the same $200 appetizer mahogany or cherry platter on our blog right now.

    Great recipe. Should be fun to make. Maybe the winner of the sweater contest gets a batch of these to take home?!? 

  2. These cookies look like total treats indeed!

  3. These look fabulous – any leftovers?

  4. These cookies always look as nice as they taste. Love them.

  5. These cookies look so perfect and fluffy!  Chocolate crinkles are one of my holiday favorites :)

    Dani | www.styledvariety.com

  6. ooh I love crinkle cookies! And great idea of using half powdered sugar and half cocoa powder! I never thought of that..I mean can you have too much chocolate? I think not…

    • Thanks Heather, we hope you enjoy these! And nope, we’re pretty certain you can never have too much chocolate. ;D

  7. I love this! They look super festive and yummy, thanks for sharing the recipe :)
    Lucy xoxo

  8. Would using flax eggs work the same in this to make them vegan?

    • Hi Kaela, we haven’t tried this recipe with flax eggs, so we can’t say how it would work, but we think it’s worth trying. Using the flax eggs would definitely make them vegan (as long as you use dairy-free chocolate chips as well). We hope you enjoy – definitely let us know how these turn out if you try the flax eggs! :)

  9. Thank you! I have been pondering all week about cookies to make for my exchange party on Sunday. I love these and love that the recipe will be safe for my son with multiple food allergies just as its written! Merry Christmas!

    • You’re welcome Julie, we hope you and your kiddo enjoy these! Merry Christmas to you as well! :D

  10. I almost never comment but this time I couldnt help it. Ive been looking for the perfect crinkle cookie recipe and you just delivered it to me on a “cookie” palate. Such kismet! thanks!

  11. These are so much prettier than my crinkled ever turn out! And I’m totally drooling over the pb chip suggestion….

  12. Thie mixture did not form into a ball of dough, but I put the mixture not to the plastic wrap and chilled it.  And although it was sticky to divid the dough, the cookies turned out wonderful and looked just like the pictures and tasted just as good.

    • That’s strange Sandra, we haven’t had trouble getting it to form into a ball of dough before. We’re not sure what the issue could have been. We’re happy they turned out well regardless, and that you enjoyed them! :)

  13. These look fab! Love your photography too.

  14. These are gorgeous! Light & fluffy in the middle, crispy on the outside, easy to make too. Might add some chopped must next time – there will be next time very soon! 

  15. I had just come back to your website to double check the chewy ginger molasses recipe I am making from you tonight when I saw this lovely new post! These are gorgeous.  I don’t really recall eating these cookies before but they look delicious and tempting.  Maybe if I have extra ingredients leftover I will make a batch of these to add into my gift cookie tins :)

    Thank you for the inspiration! 

  16. Definitely one of my fav Christmas cookies! These look great!

  17. These are so.dang.pretty. I can’t get over that crinkly powdered sugar beauty! 

  18. These are GORGEOUS! I wish I could have one right now. So chocolatey. So crinkly. Sometimes the simple original recipe is just the best!

  19. These look amazing! And so simple too. Do you think they’d work with melted butter instead of oil?

  20. Perfect for Christmas :) Thank you so much. I hope mine turn out as good as these on the pictures. The kids will love them and i’m sure i’ll have to make quite a lot of them. 
    Question: Do you think i can add some mint flavor to them? Or i should replace the vanilla with mint? Or mint is not a good idea at all? Thanks

    • You’re very welcome Shirley, we hope you and your kiddos love these! We think you could totally add some mint extract to these. You could do half vanilla and half mint, or just replace the vanilla with the mint if you like. We think they would be really yummy with some minty flavor! :)

  21. These look easy to make :) And fast! :)) Thank you

  22. This kind of cookie reminds me of my childhood, my mom used to make a lemon version of this each and every Christmas. SO good!

    Josh | The Kentucky Gent
    https://thekentuckygent.com

    • Thanks Josh, we hope these cookies bring you back! : ) We bet the lemon version of these is insane!! :D

  23. I made these for a Christmas Party and they were a HIT! Not one was left. Thank you so much- I love your entire blog! Every recipe I’ve tried has been incredible!

  24. I wish i had seen this recipe before Christmas, but it’s never too late to try. Thanks for sharing :)

  25. I made these on Christmas Day. They were phenomenal! A huge hit. I will DEFINITELY make these again. Probably very soon. Lol.

  26. Well, well Hayley… I am NOT your best baker, but I must say that I made this cookies the other day for my family.. and they loved it. I am that baker that burned everything, because i think is not cook completly.. lol.. but this one came out sooooo good. I didn’t put the chocolate chips and they were delicious.. I even made some extra cookies for my co-workers.. and we have in our dept really good bakers and I got the stamp of approval from them.. Thanks so much for another great recipe.. so far all the recipes that I have made from your site are delicious. THANK YOU!!! :)

    • Hi Annette, this is actually Ali’s blog, I just help out with things. :) But we’re so happy you, your family and your coworkers loved these cookies! Thanks for sharing with us! :)

  27. Ops.. Hayley.. Thank you both. :)

  28. Wow! At first, the dough was sticky and more like batter, and it looked like it would only make a couple of cookies, but I was wrong! I coated my hands with powdered sugar which made it much easier to roll the balls, and it ended up making 20 of the most amazing cookies I’ve ever eaten, not to mention that they were gorgeous. This blog is amazing, and I have spent the past couple hours making lists of all of the recipes I need to make! Thanks for giving us such scrumptious and easy recipes!!!

  29. Brilliant recipe! Have made these quite a few times now and they always turn out great. Thanks! 

  30. I love these! i didn’t have canola oil so used coconut oil. They turned out great! Also, I wanted to make them carmel filled so i added carmel in the middle. Delicious. Thank you! I hope you don’t mind I mentioned you on my blog with a link to your site and your recipe! xo sammi

    • We’re so glad to hear that, Sammi! And we bet they were especially awesome with that caramel you added in the middle! :) And of course, you are most welcome to mention us on your blog — that’s very kind of you! :D

  31. These are a favorite cookie of mine so I decided to make them myself with this recipe. Be warned: These cookies are SO STICKY! When I attempted to wrap these in plastic wrap, it was nearly impossible and I felt like someone had played a bad prank on me:(  I would suggest keeping the dough in the bowl and covering the  bowls to refrigerate rather than using the plastic wrap and losing most of the dough.

    • We’re sorry to hear you ended up with such sticky dough, Kristasista! :( The dough should not be that sticky. We wonder if one of your measurements could have been off?

  32. Made these for my husband to take to work for him all of his coworkers to enjoy. (He’s a UPS driver) He came home that night and told me everyone was obsessed with them! Yay! I only got to have one, but it was seriously SO good! Followed the recipe exact. Will definitely be saving this recipe! Thank you!

  33. Hi, I had the same issue as some of the other commenters. I did the measurements exactly and the dough is more like pouring gooey wet batter onto plastic wrap – not able to form into a ball at all. I didn’t use any substitutes either, not sure what happened?

    • Hi Laura — oh no, we’re so sorry! Could one of your ingredient measurements be off? How long did you chill the dough for? It sounds like it may have needed to chill longer (that definitely makes it easier to work with).

  34. Also found the dough sticky and could not for ball. I triple checked my measurements. I’m sure they’ll be yummy once done though!-2 hours away! :)

    • It helps to chill the dough, so we strongly recommend that (should be much easier to work with afterwards). :) We hope you enjoy these!

  35. These look so delicious that I had to try! Dough is currently in the refrigerator. It is definitely very sticky and did not form a ball but what I’ve seen from other commenters is they still come out delicious. Hoping mine turn out ok. 

  36. Just made these and followed the recipe exactly (I chose to add chic chips)  like some others, my dough was very sticky, almost a batter. I scooped it into a plastic-wrap lined bowl and shaped it into a disc to go into the fridge. Coating my hands in powdered sugar helped roll these guys into balls. I really coated my second batch with the sugar and they turned out much prettier. Taste great too! 

    • Yes, refrigerating the dough definitely helps, as this is a stickier cookie dough. We’re glad they worked out for you and that you enjoyed them!

  37. With even less than a week to Christmas, I made these today with my 4 year old daughter! ? They will certainly not last until Christmas!! ? They turned out yummy and lovely looking, and I took a dozen to share with my crochet group ladies tonight! They loved them too. We got 30 good-sized cookies from the recipe. It’s certainly one to keep, thank you for sharing it! ?

  38. Never mind, just saw that it makes 20-22 cookies.  :)
    Making them tonight for tomorrow.  

  39. These are one of our favorited, although we put cherry and peppermint kisses in the middle after baking….yummy!

    • We’re so glad you love them and the cherry and peppermint kisses sound like a great addition!

  40. I was wondering can I used sweetened cocoa powder instead? That’s what I have on hand but will I need to adjust any sugars to help balance out the sweetened cocoa? Thanks cookies look great

    • Hi Liz! Unfortunately we wouldn’t recommend using sweetened cocoa powder for this, especially since we’ve never tried it wand wouldn’t know how to advise you on the amount of sugar you’d need to cut back on in the recipe.

  41. These cookies were easy to put together, but for some odd reason half the batch came out super bitter and I have no clue why. Going to have to try them again and maybe roll them in more sugar or something. Also, 10 minutes was way too long, next time I will bake for 5-6 mins only. Thanks for sharing.

    • Uh oh, it sounds like one of the ingredient measurements was off because these should definitely not be bitter :( We’re sorry these didn’t quite work out!

  42. hi
    i was just wondering do we have to use dutch process cocoa powder , or can we use herseys cocoa powder
    thank you for your response
    nathalie

  43. Thank you sooo much for this recipe! I made it in less than an hour. My husband and daughter enjoyed it so much.

  44. I too could not get my dough to form into a ball so I just kept it in a bowl while it chilled. I measured the ingredients according to the recipe. I agree 10 minutes was too long to bake . Although they still tasted great! 

    • Hi Debbie! Yes, sometimes you need to chill the dough a little longer for these to be easier to work with. We’re sorry they were a bit overbooked — we’ve tested them many times and 10 min is the magic number for us, but each oven is different! Next time maybe set your timer for 8 min and check every min. after that. We hope that helps!

  45. I just finished washing up and the dough has been in the fridge for just 15 minutes so far. Looking forward to baking in a few hours. Like many others, my “dough” was also sticky and more like a thick batter straight out of the mixer. I triple checked each step as I went after having read comments BEFORE I began. I wasn’t able to form into a ball for the fridge but i poured the thick sticky batter onto plastic wrap, fashioned it into a pouch of sorts and we’ll see what happens in a few hours. Looking forward to tasting these!

  46. UPDATE: These cookies are delicious!! Despite not being able to form a true ball for the fridge, once removed, it was formed enough to be able to shape the individual cookies for baking. I went with the suggestion to roll in a mixture of cocoa powder and powdered sugar and will do so each time I make them from now on. Yummy!!!

  47. I made these cookies this morning.  My batter turned out the consistency of cake batter, I measured everything precisely as I always do when baking, so I added 1/2 cup more flour……there was no way I could form a ball otherwise.  I chilled the batter and baked as directed. Very, very yummy.  I’m curious as to how oil and sugar actually get fluffy when beaten together?   I think that is the problem, not the amount of flour.  I could’ve beat the sugar and oil for 10 minutes and it would not be fluffy.  But….yummy cookie.  

    • Hi Linda! We’re sorry for just now getting to your comment, and we’re sorry you had trouble with the dough! You want the butter and sugar to be pretty fluffy, so it does sound like they needed to mix a bit longer.

  48. I have made these twice now and they get devoured every time! Everybody loves them. Great recipe!






  49. Tried it and my hubby loved it! Since I baked this almost at bedtime, I didn’t want to taste it….might eat them all! But my husband said my mom-in-law will love them, too!….meaning?….I have to bake more to share with her tomorrow???. Trying to make points with her to be the favorite daughter-in-law.???Thanks a lot for sharing the recipe!






    • Thanks, Ana, we’re so glad to hear that, and we hope your mom-in-law loves them as well! :)

  50. I made these Christmas and everyone loved them, especially my granddaughter. These are now her favorite cookies, so I made some to surprise her with at the waterpark tomorrow and to share with her friends! Sure hope I don’t get caught smuggling them in..lol