Teresa’s Bake Shop – Christmas Cookie edition – 2012

We love these amazing chocolate cookies. Lots of wonderful chocolate and powdered sugar in every bite. Yum, yum! We have baked these cookies for years for our Christmas Cookie Extravaganza because they are so simple and easy to put together, yet so scrumptious to the taste buds.

Chocolate Crinkles are a wonderful chocolate cookie made with unsweetened baking chocolate and rolled in powdered sugar before baking. Then when the cookies bake and spread large cracks appear in the cookie distributing the powdered sugar accordingly. They really are a fantastic cookie and fairly easy to make as well. As far as economy goes, except for buying the unsweetened baking chocolate you probably have all the ingredients on hand unless you aren’t a baker.

I got this recipe during the Christmas season of 1980 when I was working as a secretary at First Baptist Church of Indian Rocks, in Largo, Florida, and the music minister’s wife, Babs Kelley, brought these fabulous cookies in  one day for our office staff  to consume. And consume them we did–or should I say inhale them! We scarfed down these cookies in no time and all of the secretaries begged Babs to give us the recipe. She gladly complied.

Because this recipe doesn’t have a lot of flour it is imperative that you chill the dough a couple of hours before rolling the dough into balls and then rolling in powdered sugar. The dough will be too sticky and unworkable otherwise. I’ve tried increasing the flour in this recipe but it really doesn’t work. The cookies end up like Ellie Mae Clampett’s brick-like hotcakes on “The Beverly Hillbillies!” They get too tough. So it’s best to just be patient and chill the dough before baking.

If you’re looking for a quick and easy Christmas cookie to take along to parties or to prepare for your family dinners this spectacular cookie fills the bill. If you’re a chocoholic you will love these cookies. Even if you’re not a chocoholic these cookies are fabulous. Why don’t you try adding these to your holiday baking list this year? I love having cookies in my repertoire that don’t have to be iced, decorated, or have so many steps that they take all day to bake and be finished! Yet, these come out beautiful in appearance and excellent in taste, texture, and crunchiness. You can also make up the dough the night before, refrigerate overnight, and then make them up the beginning of the next day.

We really enjoy Chocolate Crinkles and believe your family will love having these cookies added to their tasty treats to sample this year! Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!

These cookies are elegant enough in appearance to take along to Christmas parties.

Chocolate Crinkles are also great to offer for special occasions.

Your kids will love these tasty treats.

Bring these along to your office and your coworkers will make short work of them. Before you know it you will blink your eyes and they’re all gone!

This close up view gives you a good idea of the texture of these fabulous cookies.

Here’s what I did.

Melt Bakers unsweetened baking chocolate over low heat in small saucepan. (I was making multiple batches so take that into consideration when you look at the amounts in the pan and the pictures that follow).

Slowly melt the chocolate (you don’t want to scorch it!) Keep it on a low to medium heat and stir occasionally with a wooden spoon.

Once the chocolate is melted and smooth, remove from heat. Set aside to cool slightly.

Meanwhile, place oil in a large mixing bowl.

Add sugar.

Add eggs.

Add vanilla.

Add salt and baking powder.

Add cooled chocolate.

Mix all the ingredients together with an electric mixer. This is what that looks like.

Add UNBLEACHED all-purpose flour. Bleached flour toughens cookies.

Here’s what the mixture looks like after stirring in the flour with a wooden spoon. Don’t use an electric mixer to add flour to cookie or cake recipes or it toughens baked goods.

Here’s what the dough looks like after refrigerating for a couple of hours. It’s a whole lot easier to work it if the dough has been chilled first. You have to work really fast rolling the balls of dough into powdered sugar. You don’t want the dough to get to room temperature as it becomes really difficult to roll the dough again.

Pinch off a small part of the dough and shape into a ball.

Place ball of dough into a bowl containing the powdered sugar.

Roll the chocolate cookie dough into the powdered sugar being sure to cover the ball really well with powdered sugar.

Place Chocolate Crinkles on baking sheets that are well coated with cooking spray.

Bake until done. The original recipe said to bake about 8-10 minutes. I’ve never had these cookies cook that fast. These took about 16 minutes before they weren’t still goopy in the creases.

Here’s a tray of these delicious goodies.

Your family will love these amazing goodies.

These are really fairly quick to make. Especially if you make them the night before and they’re ready to bake first thing the next morning.

Take a plate of these tasty treats to your holiday parties and they will soon be all gone.

Don’t these look fabulous?

Here’s another close up so you can see the texture.

I’ve reserved a few for you!

Here’s the recipe.

CHOCOLATE CRINKLES

(Recipe adapted from Babs Kelley, when we attended First Baptist Church Indian Rocks, Largo, FL)

½ cup oil

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

½ tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. vanilla

2 cups UNBLEACHED all-purpose flour (bleached flour toughens baked goods)

4-oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

Mix oil, chocolate, sugar, eggs, vanilla, baking powder and salt. Stir flour into oil mixture. Chill several hours or overnight. (You must chill this recipe or you will not be able to work the dough). Heat oven to 350°. Drop teaspoonfuls of dough into powdered sugar. Roll in sugar; shape into balls. Place about 2” apart on well-greased or well-sprayed cookie sheets. Bake 8-10 minutes. Do not overbake, but your oven may take longer. Mine took almost 16 minutes to bake enough that they weren’t gooey in the creases. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Oh, yum!

These elegant cookies are great for Christmas Cookie Exchanges or for giving as gifts.

Yeah! I think it’s time for a bite of these spectacular cookies.

Here’s a plate I’m taking to our church this Sunday night. I’m filling two dessert tables with all kinds of Christmas cookies this year. Prepare for a sugar high!

Here’s a close up so you can drool over the texture.

Here’s a few to pass around to neighbors and friends.

This stack shows the texture really well.

You may also like these delicious cookie recipes:

Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies

Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies

Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies

Double Chocolate Peppermint Crunch Cookies

Reese’s Peanut Butter Chip Chocolate Cookies

Chocolate Drop Cookies

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