How to make Chocolate Crinkles

A few days ago my hubby mentioned he was craving some chocolate crinkles so I decided to scout for a good recipe. Unfortunately, the first few recipes we found all required tempering chocolate, which was still quite tricky for me. Another deterrent was having to refrigerate the dough for a minimum of 4 hours before baking since I bake after work hours and I didn't want to stay up too late.

Luckily, thanks to Google and a little patience, I found a recipe that uses unsweetened cocoa powder instead of the melted chocolate - so here goes. I scaled down the recipe I found to a quarter portion since I was trying it for the first time, but now that I've had some I'm definitely making more!

You will need:

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey's)
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar (for dusting)

***This is only a quarter of the original recipe and yielded 9 pieces for me. Also learned from experience that these are at their best the morning after - not after cooling from the oven!***

In a medium bowl, mix together cocoa, white sugar, and vegetable oil. Beat in the egg, then stir in the vanilla. 

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the cocoa mixture. Cover dough, and chill for at least 4 hours. In my case, I just put the dough in the freezer for 30 minutes - until it was firm enough to shape little chocolate balls.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). (Line cookie sheets with parchment paper) - Didn't bother with this step since I had nonstick pans . Roll dough into one inch balls. I used the smallest scoops I had on hand and dropped them into the confectioners sugar before rolling by hand.

Coat each ball in confectioners' sugar before placing onto prepared cookie sheets.

Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Let stand on the cookie sheet for a minute before transferring to wire racks to cool.

They were pretty soft and gooey right out of the oven, but don't fret because they will still continue to bake even after you take it out. Don't go over 15 minutes or they will turn out crumbly.

After they cooled we immediately tried some - and at the time the chocolate flavor was a bit overpowering and too gooey for our taste - so I proceeded to refrigerate the left over cookies (after they cooled completely), resigned to look for a new crinkles recipe. 

I ate the left over crinkles with my morning coffee today, and they were phenomenal! Chewy, chocolate-y, and perfect! *Nomnomnom* I'm making these again tonight, to be enjoyed tomorrow morning. Enjoy :)