cookies Archives - A Kitchen of Herbs

This recipe for Chocolate Crinkle Cookies is my go to.

When I need to bring something decadent but relatively simple to a gathering, this is the recipe that comes to mind.

I’ve been making these cookies for years. Along the way, I’ve learned more about the science of baking and tweaked the recipe accordingly. The fact is, crinkle cookies are a weakness of mine, as evidenced by my decades long love of Ginger Crinkles.

Death-by-Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Yield: 24 servings

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 12 minutes

Cooling Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 47 minutes

Ingredients

4 oz. Unsweetened Chocolate Baking Bar (if you don’t have this, substitute Unsweetened Chocolate*)
1/4 c. (1/2 a stick) Salted Butter
1 c. All Purpose Flour
1/2 c. Cocoa Powder
1 t. Baking Powder
1/4 t. Baking Soda
3/8 t. Salt
1 1/2 c. Brown Sugar
3 Eggs
4 t. Instant Espresso Powder, optional
1 T. Vanilla Extract
—
1/3 c. granulated sugar
1/3 c. powdered sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325*.
Melt chocolate and butter together.
Add dry ingredients to a large bowl and whisk to combine.
Combine brown sugar, eggs, espresso and vanilla and mix well.
Add melted chocolate mixture to egg Mixture and whisk to combine.
Gradually mix in dry ingredients, stirring just until combined and there are no streaks of flour.
Let dough rest 5-10 minutes or refrigerate until ready to use.
If refrigerated, be sure dough reaches room temperature before forming and baking.
Prepare 1 bowl each of granulated sugar and powdered sugar respectively.
Roll dough into 2″ balls and roll first in granulated sugar, then powdered sugar.
Place on parchment lined or lightly greased cookie sheet.
Bake 10-12 minutes on middle rack, turning once.
Remove from oven and allow to cool on sheet.
Cookies should look soft and doughy in middle; they may even seem raw.
The latent heat will cook them, don’t worry! This is how they end up chewy and melt-in-your-mouth instead of being hockey pucks.

Notes

Latent heat is powerful. Don't be afraid to pull 'raw' cookies from the oven!
Espresso powder is completely optional. The flavor kicks things up a notch, but these are delicious regardless.
*Recipe for Unsweetened Chocolate is coming soon.
The espresso powder gives it a nice kick - I have a self grinding coffee maker and the part you have to clean out once in a while where the fine coffee dust accumulates? I use that stuff as my 'espresso powder'.
You can easily substitute salted butter, just reduce the salt in the recipe to 3/8t.
I do recommend having at least 2 baking sheets so that you can be prepping one while the other bakes and then bake the second while the first one cools. It's a marathon, but this recipe is well worth the effort, I promise you!

Truth be told, if you bring these cookies to a holiday gathering, no one will question the lack of festive decor or colorful references to the season. They will be too busy consuming these decandent bites of chocolatey goodness to think about whether or not they align with the seasonal requirements. Chocolate always wins, folks. It always wins.

Fudge Globs are One of My Favorite Recipes to Make

I’ve also heard these referred to as no-bake cookies. I grew up calling them globs and so shall they always be to me. They are quick, easy and delicious treats in a flash! Besides, they have oatmeal in them, which makes them healthy, right?

At one point I discovered that the recipe just wasn’t turning out like I remembered. It just so happens that when I made these all the time as a kid, I often forgot to set a timer so I usually cooked them much longer than the 2 minutes the recipe called for.

As an adult, I’m much more meticulous and was following the two minute cook time to the letter! Guess what? They needed to be cooked longer! Kid-me had more of a handle on these delicious blobs than adult-me.

fudge glob cookies on a table — Photo by Arts Dianti on Pexels.com

In case you run into the same issue I have, here’s what is happening. I think it is also the reason store-bought globs are too sugary and seem gritty for me. When the ‘fudge’ is not cooked long enough the sugar crystallizes differently. The excess water prevents the sugar from forming a controlled number of small, fine crystals. Instead, the sucrose molecules form large, coarse crystals on their own. This gives a sugary, almost gritty texture to the globs.

In a Nutshell:

If you UNDER-COOK fudge…	If you OVER-COOK fudge…
Too much water remains	Too much water evaporates
Result: Soft, sticky, gooey, and gritty	Result: Hard, crumbly, and dry (like hard candy)

I’ve also run into the issue with overcooking the fudge causing the globs to crumble into glob chunks and dust. I still don’t use a candy thermometer, because this is just not the kind of recipe I tend to get that technical about. But I can tell you that the perfect amount of cooking is between 5 & 7 minutes because that’s about the amount of time required to reach the soft-ball stage. That’s the key here, if you want to be technical or if you’ve had issues getting what seems like a very simple recipe to work for you.

I love the science of why things happen and how they work. It means that when I feel silly for not being able to achieve ‘simple’ recipes, I know that there is a missing link somewhere in the chemistry. Once I understand the why, I can fix the how and voila!