Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

I think it’s true you never know how much you love something until you let it go… in this case I’m not talking about some sappy love story, I’m talking about my oven! A month or so ago I was baking muffins when the second batch just wouldn’t bake. I kept adding another 3 minutes to the baking time since it didn’t dawn on me that the oven would just stop working mid-baking. Just my luck – my brand new GE oven that had plastic wrap on it when I moved in was already busted. Needless to say, I finally got it fixed. And, of course I felt compelled to put it to good use.

This summer one of my mom’s friends baked some cookies for her. They were so good she refused to bring them to a family BBQ and froze them to enjoy on her own terms. Now, for anyone who knows my mom, that is saying a LOT, because she could sit with a humongous bag of candy, or a big batch of brownies in front of her and have one little nibble. The woman has amazing will power and is not tempted by sweets. Sadly, I did not inherit that from her.

Anyway, I was told these delicious chocolate cookies were from a Williams-Sonoma recipe so I did some digging and here is what I found… Chocolate Crinkle Cookies. The best part is these are so easy… so if your oven hasn’t been used in a while, I recommend a chocolatey reunion.

Happy crinkling!

Ingredients:

• ½ cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 stick softened unsalted butter
• 1 ¼ cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:Preheat an oven to 350°F. Grease a baking sheet. (* I’d recommend lining it with parchment paper instead)

Put the confectioners' sugar into a bowl and set aside.

In another bowl, using a wooden spoon, stir together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until creamy, about 3 minutes. Add 1 egg and beat on medium speed until blended. Add the other egg and vanilla and beat until blended.

Turn off the mixer and add the flour mixture. Beat on low speed just until blended. (* Do this in a few additions or else flour, and particularly cocoa will be all over you!)



Using a tablespoon, scoop up a rounded spoonful of dough. Scrape the dough off the spoon into the palm of your other hand. Roll the dough into a ball. Roll the ball in the confectioners' sugar until covered. Place the balls on a prepared baking sheet. (*This process was a lot easier the second time around when I had refrigerated the dough to keep it cool in between batches. As the dough is quite sticky, it may be helpful to refrigerate the dough for a few minutes before forming the balls). Place the balls about 2 inches apart. Bake the cookies until they are crackled and puffed, 10 to 12 minutes. (*I made my second batch a little smaller and undercooked them a little bit and they were even better than round 1).