Michelle Darmody: How to bake crinkle cookies and the common mistakes to avoid

These cookies are fun to make with younger family members.

You can freeze the cookies for baking at a later stage.

Crinkle cookies have a lovely mottled, crinkled surface. You get this by rolling the balls of chocolate cookie dough in icing sugar before baking them.

This causes the surface of the cookie to dry out before the cookie is finished rising; The sugar dusted surface hardens and cracks apart, producing the two-toned cracked and crinkled exterior with a soft fudgy interior.

You can add a few pinches of cake spice to the cookie dough when adding the flour. The addition of the spices will give you a really nice, warming variation, and there are other lovely twists to try listed below. I particularly like the chocolate raspberry combination.

You can usually get freeze-dried raspberries in health food shops or specialist baking shops. The same with peppermint essence.

The cookies will feel a little soft coming out of the oven, but the outside should firm up as they cool, leaving a soft interior.

The texture also depends slightly on how long you bake the cookies — if you want a softer texture then bake a little less.

While, if you prefer them crunchy, add an extra minute of baking time and they will firm up more as they cool.

baker's tips

You do not need any fancy equipment to make these, just a weighing scales, bowl, wooden spoon and a baking tray. They are fun to make with younger family members.

You can use melted butter in place of olive oil, but it will change the texture slightly. The cookies will not be as crisp on the exterior but will be softer and more brownie-like inside.

If you need to you can use self raising flour in place of the flour and baking powder. The ratio of raising agent to flour will be slightly different so they may not rise quite as much.

The dough needs to be cooled before being rolled into balls. If it is too warm it will stick to your hands but also the icing sugar will melt into the dough rather than sitting on top. You can cool the dough a second time after making the balls, and then roll them once they are nice and cold.

Another way to ensure that the icing sugar remains on the exterior and does not blend into the dough is to not press the balls into the dough too much. Gently roll the cooled dough ball in the sugar so all sides are coated then give it a little tap and place in onto the parchment.

You don’t need to squash the balls of dough once rolled, and coated, just place them onto the baking tray as is.

If your crinkle cookies turn out flat, is it either because too much oil was added, or the wrong amount of flour was used, and the dough was not firm enough. Having the balls of dough too warm before baking will also affect how they rise, or don’t.

You can freeze the cookies for baking at a later stage. Roll them in icing sugar before freezing but then add another light dusting of icing sugar before popping them in the oven from frozen. When baking from frozen add about an extra three mins to baking time. The cookies will last about four or five days in an airtight container at room temperature.

Crinkle Cookies

recipe by:Michelle Darmody

You do not need any fancy equipment to make these, just a weighing scales, bowl, wooden spoon and a baking tray

Servings

24

Preparation Time

 20 mins

Cooking Time

 12 mins

Total Time

 32 mins

Course

 Baking

Ingredients

• 60g cocoa powder

• 60ml olive oil

• 190g golden caster sugar

• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

• 180g plain flour

• Pinch of sea salt

• 1 tsp baking powder, sieved

• 40g icing sugar

Method

1. Mix the cocoa powder with the oil and sugar until combined. Slowly add in the eggs until they too are combined.

2. Mix the flour, salt and baking powder together. Add this to the egg mixture and bring together into a smooth dough. Set the dough aside in the fridge for about an hour to firm up.

3. Line two large flat baking trays with parchment. Pre heat your oven to 190ºC/gas mark 5.

4. Tip the icing sugar onto a large plate.

5. Roll the dough into 24 balls between the palms of your hands. Keep them cool. Roll each ball in the icing sugar and place each one onto the baking trays. Leave some space between them so that they have room to spread.

6. Bake for 12 minutes. Once cool enough to handle place the cookies onto a wire rack to cool completely.

3 delicious variations

Coffee Crinkle Swirls

I have a weakness for coffee buttercream. When a cake is covered in it I often eat the icing first. These decadent biscuits are made by adding a swirl of buttercream and sandwiching it between two chocolate Crinkle Cookies. Whisk 75g of soft butter with 150g of icing sugar and 15mls of cold strong espresso. Whisk until it is completely pale, soft and creamy. Pipe onto the base of one cookie then sandwich another one on.

Peppermint Chocolate Crinkles

You can change the flavour of these by adding a few drops of peppermint essence when adding the eggs. For an extra treat add 30g of dark chocolate chips to the dough towards the end of mixing.

Chocolate Raspberry Crinkles

Add 15g of freeze-dried raspberries to the dough towards the end of mixing. Continue as instructed.