Scientific Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Chocolate crinkle cookies are a classic. Lots of cookbooks include a version, and I have memories of these from when I was a little kid. The difference here is that this recipe was developed by a biochemist! Shirley Corriher, the cookie's mastermind, is a cooking teacher and food scientist from Atlanta, Georgia, and her tips throughout the recipe definitely make me feel like I'm doing each step for a reason.


For example, she recommends rolling each ball of cookie dough into granulated sugar before rolling it into the traditional powdered sugar and her scientific reason is so that the powdered sugar doesn't absorb into the hot-out-of-the-oven cookie and disappear once it cools. The granulated sugar acts as a shield so the powdered sugar stays white and pretty. When I made these cookies, I froze most of them in a plastic freezer bag to serve a week later. I thought for sure the powdered sugar would be gone when the cookies defrosted and the condensation destroyed the nice white coating. But nope! They remained perfectly white post-freezer. Shirley, you're a genius!


Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Recipe by Shirley Corriher in Bakewise and republished in EveningEdge.com

1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons, spooned and leveled, bleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 3/4 cups granulated sugar, divided
1/3 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup confectioners’ sugar

In a medium bowl, beat together well flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

Melt chocolate in the microwave on 50 percent for 1 minute, stir, and microwave for 15 seconds more and stir.

In a mixer with paddle attachment, beat 2 1/2 cups sugar, oil and corn syrup together to blend. Beat in eggs, egg yolk and vanilla. On low, beat in melted chocolate. Add flour mixture and beat in on low.

Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight.

Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Take out about a quarter of the dough at a time to shape. Roll the dough into 1 1/2 to 2-inch balls. Pour 1/4 cup granulated sugar into one bowl and the confectioners’ sugar in another bowl. Roll each cookie dough ball very lightly in plain sugar first and then very heavily in confectioners’ sugar. By rolling in plain sugar first, the confections’ sugar does not soak in so much and stays on the surface better.

Place release foil (nonstick side up) on a baking sheet. Arrange cookies 2 inches apart. For crisp cookies, bake 12-14 minutes. You can have several sheets of foil covered with cookies ready. When one sheet is done, you can pull off the foil and cookies to a cooling rack. Rinse baking sheet with cold water to cool and then slip the sheet under a foil with cookies and get it right back into the oven.


Step-by-Step in Pictures

Mix together the sugar, corn syrup, and oil, then add the eggs and vanilla...

Will look just like this! Thick, yellow, and goopy...

Blend in the melted chocolate...

Add the dry ingredients and the batter will become thick...

Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours...

Roll out balls of dough and prepare two bowls, one for granulated, one for powdered sugar...

First roll the ball of dough in granulated sugar...
Then roll the dough in powdered sugar...
Evenly distribute on the baking sheet...

Bake at 325 degrees F until perfectly crackly!

So good! And so pretty!