These homemade chocolate crinkle cookies are rich, dark, fudgy, and impossible to resist! The recipe is perfect for any Christmas or holiday cookie tray.

Cookies that taste like brownies

If you’ve never tried chocolate crinkle cookies, you are in for a treat.

These classic holiday cookies taste like fudge brownies in the shape of a cookie, with a delightfully soft texture and rich chocolate flavor.

Roll the unbaked cookie dough balls in powdered sugar, then bake in the oven and watch as a beautiful crinkled pattern magically appears.

This is the best chocolate crinkle cookie recipe you will find. Hot from the oven, they are equally fancy and delicious!

Also make these Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate crinkle cookie flavors

Peppermint: Add a fourth teaspoon of pure peppermint extract along with the vanilla extract. Top the finished cookies with crushed peppermint candies or candy canes.

Cinnamon Sugar: Instead of coating the crinkle cookies in powdered sugar, roll them in half a cup of sugar mixed with two tablespoons of ground cinnamon.

Red Velvet: For red velvet crinkle cookies, add half a teaspoon red food coloring with the liquid ingredients. Use only a fourth teaspoon for pink velvet. Or for a healthy alternative to food coloring, add freeze dried strawberry powder or swap out the milk with an equal amount of beet juice.

Mocha: Add half a teaspoon of instant coffee granules with the dry ingredients. Or substitute four tablespoons of brewed espresso for the milk.

Vanilla Bean: Omit the vanilla extract in the recipe below. Instead, add the seeds from one vanilla bean or a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste.

Double Chocolate Chip: Stir half a cup of mini chocolate chips (dark, semi sweet, white, or milk chocolate) in with the dry ingredients.

Chocolate Orange: Add the zest of one orange and a tablespoon of orange juice. Use a small egg or decrease the milk of choice to three tablespoons.

Caramel: After rolling the crinkle cookie dough into balls, press a caramel or a piece of chopped date into the center of each cookie.

Rainbow: Add a fourth teaspoon of pure almond extract to the liquid ingredients. After baking, roll each cookie in rainbow sprinkles.

Here is a lemon version: Lemon Pixie Cookies

Easy chocolate crinkle cookie ingredients

The recipe calls for flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, salt, salted butter or a plant based alternative, milk of choice, optional egg, pure vanilla extract, and powdered sugar for coating.

Look for regular unsweetened cocoa powder, not Dutch cocoa. If possible, go for a high quality cocoa powder for the best tasting cookies.

Spelt flour, oat flour, and all purpose white flour are all great options. There is also a flourless keto crinkle cookie option included in the recipe box below.

I do not recommend substituting whole wheat flour, almond flour, or coconut flour.

The cookies can be sweetened with either traditional granulated sugar or unrefined coconut sugar for a healthy option.

The recipe has not been tested with pure maple syrup or honey swapped for sugar.

To make dairy free and vegan chocolate crinkle cookies, use a salted vegan butter and the option for extra milk of choice instead of eggs. Any plant based milk should work.

Unlike many other crinkle cookie recipes, this one requires no cake mix, and the results are so much better. Homemade is always better.

Holiday cookie recipe video

Above, watch the step by step crinkle cookie recipe video

Chocolate crinkles, also often called chocolate pixie cookies, are one of my all time favorite Christmas cookies.

The recipe below is adapted from my grandmother’s traditional recipe. I hope your family loves them as much as we do!

How to make chocolate crinkle cookies

Gather all of your cookie ingredients, as well as a baking sheet.

In a large mixing bowl or a stand mixer, combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Stir very well, making sure to break up any large clumps.

Add the liquid ingredients to the bowl or stand mixer. Use the beaters or a spoon to mix and form a cookie dough.

For baked cookies with the softest fluffy, chewy, and fudgy texture, it is recommended to cover the bowl tightly and freeze until chilled or refrigerate overnight. If you are in a hurry, you can technically skip this step.

Once cold, roll the dough into balls with a cookie scoop or clean hands.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit, and add the powdered sugar to a bowl.

Cover the crinkle cookie dough balls generously in the powdered sugar, then place the balls on the cookie baking tray.

Bake on the oven’s center rack for twelve minutes.

The cookies should look underdone when you remove them from the oven. This is what you want, because they will firm up considerably as they cool.

Let them cool on the baking sheet for at least ten minutes before handling.

Storing chocolate crinkle cookies

Once firm, move the crinkle cookies to a cooling rack or serving tray.

Or eat them straight from the baking sheet!

Store leftovers in an airtight container for up to five days on the counter. Alternatively, freeze cookies in a covered container for about two or three months.

For soft chocolate crinkle cookies, store in a plastic container. For chewy cookies with more of a crispy texture, store leftovers in a glass container.

Baking tips and tricks for best results

When making the chocolate cookies for the first time, be sure to follow the ingredients and instructions without any substitutions or cutting back on any ingredients.

This way, you will know how the recipe is supposed to turn out. Then you can have fun experimenting to see how swapping out a different flour or sugar, or making other modifications, may change the results.

To achieve the classic crinkle look, it is important to roll the cookie dough balls in powdered sugar before baking, not after.

Do not open the oven even a crack while the cookies are baking. And allow cookies to cool on the tray before handling, because they firm up as they cool.

These festive holiday chocolate crinkle cookies need no refrigeration and are perfect for Christmas cookie exchanges or packaging up as gifts to friends and family.

They are also a delightful Thanksgiving or Valentine’s Day dessert.

More Holiday Cookie Ideas

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cinnamon Sugar Pillow Cookies

Keto Peanut Butter Cookies

Oreo Cupcakes

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

Tahini Cookies

Vegan Sugar Cookies

3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Balls