These chocolate crinkle cookies are the ultimate crowd-pleaser with their dramatic cracked appearance and irresistible fudgy texture. They’re like individual brownies disguised as cookies with crispy, sugary exteriors that give way to soft, chewy centers. Best of all, they’re completely dairy-free without sacrificing any of the rich chocolate flavor that makes them disappear from cookie platters in minutes.
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Why This Recipe Works
The secret to perfect crinkle cookies is the precise balance of ingredients and technique. Using vegetable oil instead of butter creates the ideal chewy texture while keeping them dairy-free. The extended chilling time allows the flour to hydrate, creating that signature fudgy interior fully. When the cold dough hits the hot oven, rapid expansion creates those beautiful cracks that give crinkle cookies their iconic appearance.
Ingredients
For the Cookie Dough:
- Unsweetened cocoa powder – The foundation of chocolate flavor; use premium brands for best results
- Granulated sugar – Provides sweetness and helps create a chewy texture
- Vegetable oil – Keeps cookies dairy-free while ensuring perfect moisture and chewiness
- Large eggs – Bind ingredients together and add richness
- Vanilla extract – Enhances the chocolate flavor with aromatic depth
- All-purpose flour – Provides structure without making cookies tough
- Baking powder – Creates gentle lift for the perfect texture
- Salt – Balances sweetness and intensifies chocolate flavor
For Coating:
- Powdered sugar – Creates the signature white coating that cracks beautifully during baking
- Cornstarch – Optional addition that helps prevent powdered sugar from melting
Don’t skimp on the cocoa powder in this recipe. Although a bit more expensive, a premium brand like Ghirardelli Majestic Premium Cocoa Powder or Black Cocoa Powder from Modern Mountain Flour Company delivers superior flavor and color.
How to Make Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Making these cookies isn’t difficult, but because of the required resting time for the dough, they can take a long time:
- Mix the unsweetened cocoa and granulated sugar together in a large bowl. You don’t need to use an electric mixer to make this recipe, but it helps. If you want to stir by hand, use a heavy-duty wooden spoon or, better yet, a Danish whisk.
- Pour the oil and add the eggs to the cocoa mixture. Mix until well combined.
- Add vanilla extract, baking powder, and salt into the bowl and mix a few times to combine thoroughly.
- Add the flour slowly while continuously mixing at a low speed. After adding all the flour, turn the mixer to medium and combine all the ingredients. Use a dough scraper or spoon to scrape off the mixer attachment.
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least three hours and up to overnight. Chilling the chocolate crinkle cookie dough is critical, so don’t rush it.
- Roll the cookie dough into 1-inch balls. Using a cookie scoop makes things much easier.
- Coat each cookie dough ball with powdered sugar and place it on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Make sure that there are at least 2 inches of space between each cookie and the sides of the baking sheet.
- Once the cookies have come up to room temperature, bake them at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Sometimes, it can be difficult to tell when the cookies are done, so starting at 9 minutes, use your fingers to check every minute if the sides of the cookies are set and remove them. It is better to slightly undercook these cookies than to overcook them.
- Cool the cookies on the baking sheet before moving them to a wire rack.
Chef’s Notes
The key to exceptional crinkle cookies is embracing the sticky dough rather than fighting it. Never add extra flour, as this will result in tough cookies. Premium cocoa powder makes a noticeable difference in both flavor and color. Ghirardelli Majestic Premium Cocoa Powder or specialty black cocoa will elevate these cookies significantly. Remember that slightly underbaked is better than overbaked for maintaining that perfect chewy texture.
How to Work with a Sticky Cookie Dough
Yes, the dough for this Chocolate Crinkle Cookies recipe is sticky. It should be, so don’t add more flour to try to make it easier to handle. There are some tricks you can use to make things easier for you.
- Keep the dough cold. The cold temperatures make it less sticky, but be sure to let the cough come up to room temperature before baking, or the cookies won’t spread out enough.
- Before working with the dough, dip your hands in ice water. The cold water helps prevent the dough from sticking to your hands.
- Use a dough scraper to get all of the dough off your hands and your working surface.
- Wear food-safe vinyl or nitrite gloves. The dough won’t stick to them.
How to Prevent the Powdered Sugar from Melting
The powdered sugar should not melt before the cookies bake, but adding three teaspoons of cornstarch to the powdered sugar in this recipe will give you a bit of extra protection.
How to Store Crinkle Cookies to Keep Them Chewy
While hard Chocolate Crinkle Cookies aren’t the end of the world, they are much better when soft and chewy. If you plan on storing your cookies for up to three days, your best bet is to keep them on the counter in an air-tight container.
To ensure they stay chewy, try adding a piece of bread to the container.
How to Freeze Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
You can freeze baked cookies for up to three months by letting them cool, stacking them between sheets of wax paper, and then putting them in a freezer-safe container, but they won’t have the same consistency once thawed.
However, freezing the raw dough for these Chocolate Crinkle Cookies and baking them later gives you the same chewy consistency everyone loves.
How to Freeze Chocolate Crinkle Cookie Dough
- Follow the recipe up to form the dough into balls.
- Instead of rolling the dough balls in the powdered sugar, put them on a tray in the fridge for about an hour. Doing this helps dry out the outside of the dough balls and keeps them from sticking to each other.
- Transfer the dough balls to a freezer-safe container and store them in the freezer for up to three months.
- To use, thaw the dough balls and roll them in powdered sugar. Bake as written.
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies – Dairy-Free & Chewy
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 4 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine unsweetened cocoa and granulated sugar.
- Add vegetable oil and eggs to the cocoa mixture. Mix until blended.
- Add the vanilla extract, flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix until the dough is combined.
- Place the dough in an airtight container and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours before preparing cookies. Ideally, the dough should be refrigerated overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Take 2 teaspoons of dough and roll it into a ball.
- Drop the dough ball into the powdered sugar.
- Place the sugar-covered ball on the parchment-lined baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Repeat with the remaining dough, spacing cookies 2 inches apart on the baking sheet.
- Bake at 350°F for 10 to 12 minutes.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 1 minute before transferring them to a wire rack.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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I followed your recipe and these cookies turned out splendid. I took your advice and chilled the dough for a “good” 24 hours. Thanks
My girls loved these cookies.
Your recipe of chocolate crinkle cookies is looking so yummy. I love chocolate and thank you for sharing it.
I loved these!
Why are we preheating oven as stated first in the directions if dough needs to never refrigerated for hours?
Are they still great if not chilling dough?
Getting ready to make now. ; )
It’s most likely I didn’t know where to put the preheated oven. I hope you weren’t preheating your oven for 2 hours.
These chocolate crinkle cookies are so Instagrammable and adorable! Definitely, I will prep it on the weekend for my family.
I am obsessed with desserts like your chocolate crinkle cookies! It would be perfect breakfast with coffee! I found your post from Pinterest! I’m also gonna pin this post on my Pinterest board my followers will love it. Thanks for sharing!
Never made crinkle cookies before but now that needs to change!!
These are an all tie favorite in our house.