These festive Chocolate Crinkle Cookies are perfect for the holidays and feature a fudgy brownie center with a crisp and crackly snowy powdered sugar exterior. I always include them in my cookie boxes for gifting every year and they get RAVE reviews!
Christmas cookie season is here and I’m SUPER excited to share the chocolate brownie crinkle cookies I made for my friend’s cookie swap party!
These little brownie bombs bake up like a cookie but with a fudgy brownie center and sweet crackly top that will leave you breathless.
Ok they’ll leave you breathless mostly because you won’t be able to stop shoving them in your face and will *probably* forget to breathe during your crinkle cookie faceplant.
Since you’re the one who will be baking them, you get to know the absolute joy that is biting into a warm, freshly-baked brownie crinkle cookie.
It’s legendary, y’all! Legendary!
I was eating a bowl of veggie chili while I baked in some sort of attempt to not eat all the cookies before the party began and still managed to shove three in my face almost instantly.
#worthit
I’m so excited for you to try them!
Brownie-Style Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
The ingredients for this rockin’ recipe are super simple and probably items you already have on hand in your fridge and pantry.
You will snag 2 eggs and about 5 TBSP of unsalted butter. The little measuring lines on the stick of butter will help you know exactly where to cut.
For dry ingredients, you’ll need chocolate, flour, granulated sugar, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and sea salt to bring out the chocolate flavors.
Q: What chocolate can I use?
I love using a quality bar chocolate (like Ghirardelli) but you can also use chocolate chips or chocolate chunks if that’s all you have on hand.
This recipe is made with both bittersweet (dark chocolate) and semi-sweet chocolate for an awesome balance of flavors and a cookie that perfectly balanced without being too sweet. In a pinch you can combine dark and milk chocolate or try the cookies with all semi-sweet chocolate for a sweeter cookie.
Reader Reviews:
★★★★★ “AMAZING and DELICIOUS! They were super easy to make. I’m a mom with young kids, I work outside the house and I go to college myself but yet your super easy directions made it so that I was able to whip these together on a school night fairly quickly. I made the dough the first night and let them sit over night and cooked the next day. I liked that you suggested to measure out the ingredients first that helped with my efficency. My husband was impressed. He was like these taste like a brownie. I was like yes I know thats the point. very crisp outside and fudge brownie on the inside. This recipe is a keeper.” – Nicole
★★★★★ “The BEST brownie cookies I’ve ever had! They are so delicious I can’t stop eating them” – Katie
Cookie baking tips:
For best results, I like to use a small inexpensive digital scale to weigh my flour and sugar. It comes in handy for fast, accurate results and is a great way to measure ingredients for baking.
I’m also a big believer in having all your ingredients measured and ready to go before beginning. This makes the process go by quickly and smoothly, makes baking quite enjoyable for me. It’ a great way to de-stress during a hectic holiday season!
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients
- 5 TBSP unsalted butter (70 grams)
- 4 oz quality bittersweet chocolate bar
- 4 oz quality semi-sweet chocolate bar
- ¾ cup granulated sugar (150 grams)
- 2 large eggs (cold from the fridge)
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- ½ tsp fine sea salt
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour (102 grams)
- additional granulated sugar for rolling (as needed)
- confectioners sugar (powdered sugar) for rolling (as needed)
Instructions
- Measure out all ingredients and set aside. Leave eggs in fridge until needed.
- Coarsely chop 6 oz of the chocolate (one and a half bar's worth if using 4 oz bars) then finely chop the remaining 2 oz. Keep separate.
MICROWAVE METHOD
- In a microwave safe bowl, add butter and 6 oz chopped chocolate. Microwave for 30 minute increments. Stirring well between each. This typically takes 60-90 seconds total.
DOUBLE BROILER METHOD
- Arrange a heatproof bowl fitted over a saucepan filled about ½-¾ with water to make a double broiler. Ensure the water doesn't touch the bottom of your bowl, then heat the water to a low boil until simmering.
- Add butter to the bowl of your double broiler and top with the 6 oz of coarsely chopped chocolate. Leave the bowl over the simmering water, stirring occasionally (then often towards the end) until the ingredients are just melted.
- Immediately remove the bowl from atop your pan and set aside.
COOKIE DOUGH PREP
- Use a metal whisk or fork to stir in the granulated sugar to the bowl of melted butter and chocolate. Mixture will appear grainy.
- One by one add your cold eggs, vigorously whisking to temper the eggs into the chocolate mixture. Mix for about a minute with each egg, then an additonal minute at the end to fully incorporate. Dough will appear smoother and shinier. If very little room remains in your bowl, transfer to a larger bowl before adding vanilla, salt, and flour.
- Vigorously whisk in vanilla and salt, then *gently* mix flour into the mixture unil just combined.
- Fold in remaining 2 oz of finely chopped chocoalte.
- Cover and chill for a minumum of 3 hours or, overnight for advance cookie prep.
READY TO BAKE?
- Preheat oven to 350°F and place rack in center position. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Place confectioner's sugar in a small-medium bowl, whisking or sifting if needed to remove any lumps. Place some granulated sugar in another bowl.
- Use an easy-release medium cookie scoop to scoop even portions of the chilled dough or use a tablespoon and an additional spoon to measure out your dough.
- Roll each into balls and generously coat each with granulated sugar first, then powdered sugar. I like to roll each around in the bowl until it's positively covered.
- Arrange, spaced, on parchment paper lined baking sheets and bake one sheet at a time. Bake each sheet of cookies at 350°F for 12 minutes, rotating the pan after 6 minutes. Cookies will spread and the powdered sugar will crack to look crinkled. Place the baking tray on a wire cooling rack and allow to cool on the pan for 2 minutes to crisp the bottom a little more, then transfer cookies with a spatula and place directly on the cooling racks. Repeat for the second tray of cookies.
- Allow to cool to room temperature and dig in! Fresh from the oven cookies will have a fudgy brownie-like taste and texture with a delightful crinkle topping of powdered sugar on top. Love them so!
Notes
Nutrition
These chocolate crinkle cookies are adapted from the ever-talented Dorie Greenspan’s snowy-topped brownie drops from her Dorie’s Cookies cookbook. Between her classic cheesecake recipe and her cookies, it’s safe to say I’m a super-fan!
These bad boys make awesome edible gifts for friends and family!
I like to wrap them up in festive baggies with a bow and gift them in an oversized holiday mug.
They’re also a crazy tasty addition to your holiday cookie tins and I’ve even made them as part of a cookie swap party. They vanished fast!
crazy for cookies?
I have a steady rotation of favorites for you to try next!
First up, I am straight up harassed by the besties to make my Peanut Butter and Macadamia Nut White Chocolate Cookies anytime we get together. They vanish FAST!
My SIL’s favorite is hands-down these Red Velvet Cake Cookies that use a box of cake mix as a speedy shortcut. She makes them for her Fire Station each year!
Cookie-ing it up with a crowd? Whip up this crowd-pleasing Sheet Pan Cookie Cake and watch your friends and family members legit lose their minds with glee. Love. It. So.
If you get a chance to try these brownie-style chocolate crinkle cookies this holiday season, let me know!
Leave some love in the comment form below or tag your photos with @peasandcrayons on Instagram so I can happy dance over your creation. I can’t wait to see what you whip up!
Questions & Reviews
Your recipes never disappoint, will try this one this weekend! Do you think I could add a little orange flavouring? I like chocolate orange.
Thank you Jenn! I’m so excited for you to try them! That would totally work for a chocolate orange combo! I would start super low with the orange extract since you can always test bake one or two and then stir in any additional flavoring to taste. Happy baking!
These are delicious! I should have been more generous with the powdered sugar. I will definitely make again. Thanks for the recipe.
Make it rain powdered sugar, yo! Thank you Lisa!!
These look amazing and I can’t wait to make them.
Jen, have you ever added peppermint to make them Mint Chocolate? Suggestions on doing so?
Thanks for all your yummy recipes!
Thanks Valerie, I’m so excited for you to try them! I haven’t added mint to a cookie recipe before (only crushed candy canes to make things like my peppermint bark minty) but I’d imagine a little peppermint extract would be the way to go!
Looks so delicious! I know my family would go crazy for this.
AMAZING and DELICIOUS! They were super easy to make. I’m a mom with young kids, I work outside the house and I go to college myself but yet your super easy directions made it so that I was able to whip these together on a school night fairly quickly. I made the dough the first night and let them sit over night and cooked the next day. I liked that you suggested to measure out the ingredients first that helped with my efficency. My husband was impressed. He was like these taste like a brownie. I was like yes I know thats the point. very crisp outside and fudge brownie on the inside. This recipe is a keeper.
AHHHH YAY! I’m so glad the recipe was a hit with your family and easy to make!
I love these. They taste just like the name. Not too crunchy like cookies and not too gooey like brownies. Great recipe!
Thank you, Cassie! So happy to hear it!
The BEST brownie cookies I’ve ever had! They are so delicious I can’t stop eating them ?
So glad you’re loving them! And you can probably expect more at some point b/c I can’t stop baking these bad boys! Mia loves rolling them in the sugar and making it “SNOW” haha!