Chewy Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

These Chewy Chocolate Crinkle Cookies are soft and turn out picture-perfect! The super easy dough make these the best Christmas cookies for your holiday baking!

Chocolate Crinkles are one of my favorite Christmas cookies. An extra-soft, chewy, fudgy cookie that’s dipped in powdered sugar before baking – what’s not to love?!

And they are so easy to make pretty: All you have to do is make sure the powdered sugar coating is thick enough before baking, and they’ll crinkle and become all beautiful during baking.

My mom used to make these every year when I was a kid, only she dipped them in granulated sugar vs powdered sugar for the crunch. She was wrong (sorry, Mom!). The powdered sugar coating is the best!

Watch the recipe video

These chocolate crinkles

• are incredibly easy to make!
• come out wonderfully soft and chewy
• have the perfect cracked pattern
• are wonderful for cookie swaps
• many readers have reported winning cookie contests with these!

Ingredients you’ll need

This is just an overview of the ingredients you’ll need (great as a visual guide at the store!). Scroll down to the recipe for exact quantities.

Ingredient notes

• Cocoa powder: Make sure to use the unsweetened kind. I used regular, but many readers have told me they used Dutch processed successfully.
• Butter: You can use stick margarine in place of the butter. Please do not use buttery spread or a spreadable margarine. I do not recommend using oil in place of the butter.
• Powdered sugar: I do not recommend using organic powdered sugar without anti-caking ingredients for these. I always get the regular powdered sugar to make sure it’s completely powdery and coats the cookie dough evenly.

How to make chocolate crinkle cookies

1) Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together.

2) Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat in until 3) just combined.

4) Combine dry ingredients and 5) add to egg mixture.

6) Slowly mix until dough forms – chill one hour.

7) Shape dough into balls and 8) roll in powdered sugar.

9) Place the cookie dough spread out on baking sheets and bake.

Recipe tips

Cookie size

To make larger cookies, use 2 tablespoons of dough per cookie. They will bake in 12-15 minutes.

To make smaller cookies, use 1 generous tablespoon of dough per cookie. They will bake in around 10 minutes.

Baking time

The exact baking times will depend on your oven and how hot it runs, so remember to check on your cookies frequently.

Don’t overbake or they will be hard – they’ll be soft like pudding when you take them out of the oven, but they’ll firm up as they cool! If you overbake, they will be tough AND they will not sink back down to reveal their beautiful crinkle pattern. 

Dough

• When beating in the eggs, only do them for max 10 seconds each, otherwise they will get too frothy and your cookies will blow up too much in the oven.
• Yes, it’s a sticky dough, and even after chilling it will start sticking to your palms – that’s normal. Just wash your hands after every few cookies you rolled and it will be fine.
• Make sure you stick to the ingredient amounts the recipe calls for. Otherwise the dough could be too sticky to ever roll, or you could end up with dry cookies.

Powdered sugar

Make sure you coat the cookies with a thick, even layer of powdered sugar without any gaps – that’s the only way to get that beautiful look! 

How to make taller/softer crinkles

If you prefer your chocolate crinkles tall and soft, here are a few ways to achieve it:

• chill the dough for a longer amount of time
• place the cookie dough balls on a chilled baking sheet
• bake the cookie dough balls straight after rolling them without letting them come to room temperature first
• let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes without touching them before transferring them to a cooling rack

How to make your crinkle cookies more chewy

If you want your chocolate crinkles to be a little denser and more fudgy (that’s how I love them!), here’s what to do:

• chill the dough just as long as neededplace the cookie dough balls on a room temperature baking sheet
• let the cookie dough balls stand at room temperature for 10-15 minutes before baking
• if the cookies are still very tall when they come out of the oven, you can gently press them down with the bottom of a drinking glass – you just have to do it RIGHT as you take them out!

Storage tips

On the counter: The crinkle cookies stay fresh in an airtight container at room temperature for about 3-4 days.

In the freezer: If you want to keep the cookies for longer, they freeze well for up to 3 months (see blow).

Freezer instructions

To freeze unbaked dough:

It’s easy to freeze the rolled cookie dough balls (don’t dip them in sugar though!). Freeze on a lined baking sheet in a single layer until firm (about 2 hours, then transfer to freezer bags and freeze for up to 2 months.

To bake, just take as many balls as you want to make from the freezer and let sit on a plate on the counter for 30 minutes, then roll in powdered sugar and bake. 

To freeze baked cookies:

Place the cooled cookies in layers in freezer containers, separating layers with baking parchment. Label with the name and use-by date (freeze for up to 3 months).

To defrost, put them on a wire rack and let them sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes. Do not let them sit in the container or on a plate, or they will get soggy.

If you want warm, freshly-baked cookie flavors, you can place the thawed cookies on a baking sheet and warm them at 275°C for 5-6 minutes.

More chocolate cookies

PS If you try this recipe, please leave a review in the comment section – I appreciate your feedback! Follow along on Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram. Sign up for my email list, too!

This is one of the cookies we usually leave out for Santa, and he takes his with a mug of Hot Chocolate and a Snickerdoodle on the side 🎅🏼😉

I hope you’ll love these as much as we do! Enjoy!

Recipe first shared on December 3rd 2018. Updated to make the post more helpful on 07/14/2020 (recipe unchanged and as good as ever!).