Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Choco­late Crin­kle Cook­ies are fudgy, chewy, “please don’t inter­rupt me” deli­cious! I have yet to meet some­one who does­n’t rave over this easy choco­late crin­kle recipe.

This Choco­late Crin­kle Cook­ies recipe is one that I made as a kid and have con­tin­ued bak­ing for my own crew. It’s a hands-down fam­i­ly favorite! I think you’ll love Choco­late Crin­kles, too.

Many peo­ple rel­e­gate Choco­late Crin­kles to the hol­i­days only. Not me! If you love choco­late, fudgy cook­ies you will nev­er find one that sat­is­fies like this choco­late crin­kle cook­ies recipe.

Choco­late Crin­kle Cook­ies rise and puff up as they bake, and then set­tle into crin­kled fudgy per­fec­tion as they are cool­ing. The edges are a lit­tle bit crisp and every­thing else about these scrump­tious cook­ies is chewy, fudgy choco­late heaven.

If you’re the per­son who loves the brown­ies in the cor­ners because they have more edges, these Choco­late Crin­kle Cook­ies are for you. 

And friend … if you’re the per­son who wants the brown­ie from the mid­dle of the pan because its soft, chewy, fudgy yum, well then Choco­late Crin­kle Cook­ies are for you, too. 🤣 

This crazy good Choco­late Crin­kle Cook­ies recipe has it all! You’re gonna love them!

The Ingredients

Choco­late Crin­kle Cook­ies require the usu­al cast of cook­ie ingre­di­ent char­ac­ters. You will like­ly have all of them in your pantry.

• But­ter
• Sug­ar
• Unsweet­ened Cocoa Pow­der (Bak­ing Cocoa, not hot choco­late drink mix.)
• Vanil­la Extract
• Eggs
• Flour
• Bak­ing Powder
• Salt
• Pow­dered Sug­ar, for rolling cook­ie dough in

How to Make Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Choco­late Crin­kles are sim­ple to make. They require a lit­tle pre-plan­ning because the dough needs to chill, but the actu­al mix­ing of the dough requires 10 min­utes or less. 

Mix it up. 

Cov­er the dough and pop it in the fridge. 

Come back to it when you have time to roll them and get them baked. I have suc­cess­ful­ly kept the dough in the refrig­er­a­tor for an entire week, just bak­ing a few cook­ies at a time, as we need­ed them.

This recipe devi­ates a lit­tle from the typ­i­cal “cream the but­ter and sug­ar; add the eggs” method, so I’m includ­ing a cou­ple of pho­tos for you. 

1. Start by putting the but­ter, sug­ar, cocoa and vanil­la in the bowl of your mix­er (or in a mix­ing bowl if you’re mak­ing these by hand). 
2. Mix them until every­thing is com­bined. (The mix­ture will look grainy and chocolatey.) 
3. Then you can mix in the eggs.
4. Once the eggs are mixed in, you can add the dry ingredients. 
5. Then, when every­thing is incor­po­rat­ed, the dough will still seem pret­ty sticky. That’s just right. It is thick, but too soft to roll in your hand. So that’s where the chill­ing comes in. 
6. Cov­er the dough and pop it in the fridge for at least two hours.

After the Dough Has Chilled

7. Once the dough has chilled and you have a few min­utes to bake them, take the dough out of the fridge. 
8. Roll the dough into 1 1/2″ balls. (I use a #50 cook­ie scoop _{[affil­i­ate link]} to make it eas­i­er to keep them uni­form, but you can def­i­nite­ly do it just by hand.) 
9. Put the balls into a bowl with some pow­dered sug­ar in the bot­tom. Roll them around to be sure the out­side of each one is com­plete­ly coat­ed. This is the point where you will roll the dough into a smooth ball. The pow­dered sug­ar will help, but you’re still going to get a lit­tle messy. It’s def­i­nite­ly worth it!

How to Know When Chocolate
Crinkle Cookies are Done

10. Once you have the dough balls rolled and shaped, place them on a greased or lined bak­ing sheet and bake. 
11. I put a time range of 8–11 min­utes on the recipe card, since I under­stand all ovens are dif­fer­ent. I want to stress how impor­tant it is not to over­bake these, though. 

12. Start with the short­est time and add 30 sec­onds to one minute at a time until they are done. The cook­ies will puff up. The tops will be cracked and the choco­late part of the tops will be dry to the touch. The cook­ies will still seem very soft in the mid­dle, though, when you touch them. That’s exact­ly per­fect. They will con­tin­ue to set up on the cook­ie sheet, even after they’re out of the oven. 
13. Set the sheet on a cool­ing rack and let the cook­ies rest for 3–5 min­utes. Then, you’ll be able to put them direct­ly onto the cool­ing rack to fin­ish cool­ing and you can keep work­ing on a new pan of cookies.
14. Store Choco­late Crin­kles in an air­tight con­tain­er. They should keep well on the counter or in the fridge for up to 4 days if they are sealed prop­er­ly. They can also be frozen for up to 4 months. 

Do I Really Have to Chill the Dough?

When To Serve Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Any­time! If it’s a good time for choco­late, it’s a good time for Choco­late Crin­kle Cook­ies! Seri­ous­ly though, Choco­late Crin­kles will be wel­come on so many occasions.

• After school and study snacks
• Packed into lunch boxes
• On a table of tail­gat­ing snacks
• Your con­tri­bu­tion to the dessert table at a potluck
• Add them to cook­ie trays for the hol­i­days. (They’ll be the first to disappear.)
• Movie Night
• Christ­mas and Birth­day gift baskets
• Dessert after fam­i­ly dinner
• a sur­prise for new neighbors

You’d be hard­er pressed to find a rea­son NOT to serve these deli­cious Choco­late Crin­kle Cook­ies. They will be loved wher­ev­er you take them and YOU will be respect­ed as the cham­pi­on of cook­ie baking!

Make some­body hap­py! Go bake Choco­late Crin­kle Cook­ies. Enjoy!

The Recipe

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More Cookies to Love, for the Holidays and Every Day

If you’re look­ing for even more cook­ie recipes to add to your hol­i­day reper­toire, check these recipes.

Pota­to Chip Cookies

Frost­ed Drop Sug­ar Cookies

Melt-In-Your-Mouth Orange Short­bread Cookies