Today is one of those days that I feel like having a sweet treats. Something chocolatey, something a little indulgent. Since Valentine’s Day is coming up, I thought why not make something that is Valentine’s Day theme. Although it doesn’t have to be Valentines’ Day for you to make this cookie.
We are making espresso Chocolate Crinkle Valentines Cookie. So you see, it doesn’t have to be Valentines’ DayYou can make this your sweet treat for anytime and anyway of the year.
Small Batch for Sharing
This cookie is a small batch recipe, perfect to cure your chocolate craving without being too overwhelmed by it. These recipe makes 12 bitesize cookies, you can keep all to yourself or be nice and share some with your friend. Although these cookies are small, they are quite decadent so 2 pieces for me is more than enough for one eating, maybe 3 if I would like to push it.
What is Chocolate Crinkles?
Chocolate Crinkles are decadent chocolate cookie made from melted chocolate and rolled in icing sugar for the snowy sugary look. It goes into the oven as a regular looking rolled chocolate balls, and emerged as a beautiful mouthwatering cracked topped cookie. This is a decadent chocolate cookie that will sure make any chocolate lover crazy. It has a really nice soft and moist texture, with inviting cracked topped and powdered sugar coating. Heaven in every bite!
Top it However You Want To
These are bitesize chocolate crinkles, topped with chocolate. You can use chocolate kisses which I’ve done before and make it a Crinkles Blossom Cookie. You can also use any mini Reese Peanut Butter Cups or maybe (just maybe), a marshmallow on top! I leave the decision to you, let me know what variations you want to make using this cookie dough.
Tips For a Beautiful Perfect Looking Crinkles
Let us put our nerd glasses on and tackle few things that we need to remember to get a beautifully looking and delicious Crinkles. Are you ready?
- Baking Soda + Baking Powder: A combination of this two leavening agent will help in lifting and spreading process of the cookie. The baking soda helps in the spreading because it rises the pH level of the dough and weakens the structure of the gluten thus resulting lifting and spreading of the cookie. But, baking soda alone is not enough to give the lift, this is why you need to add baking powder as well. The baking powder will give the lift, so that the cookie do not end up spread and flat.
- Room Temperature Cookie Dough: This is a fact, cold cookie dough spreads less than room temperature cookie dough. This is why you often see a lot of Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe recommending to chill the dough to avoid too much spreading. For the case of crinkles, we want the dough chilled but not too hard so we are only chilling it 15 minutes. Cold cookie dough spreads less because it takes time for the butter to melt (which helps in spreading) and By the time it melts, the dough is already set. So it is VERY important to leave it at room temperature at least 30 minutes before baking it specially if it comes from the refrigerator and even more if from the freezer.
- Bake One Sheet at a Time: A little patience will surely pay off here. Crinkles are delicate cookie, so be treat it as gentle as possible. Do not rush the baking. Although it may make sense to use the double layer of your oven to bake more cookie, this will not be ideal for crinkles. The hottest part of the oven comes from the top layer. If you bake two tray at the same time, the tray at the second level will not get as much heat needed to cook the cookie because it is being blocked by the pan in the top layer. So, bake one tray at a time. That will not be a problem for this batch as this is a small batch recipe but if you are planning to make the big batch, have that in mind.
A Touch of Coffee Flavour for an Added Twist
You ca make this plain just like a regular chocolate crinkles cookie, or put a twist on it by adding some coffee flavor. You can add more or less depending on how strong you like it. 1/4 tsp will be mild and nice, but for a stronger flavor 1/2 tsp it what you are looking for. I used instant coffee, just the plain decaf flavor. You can also use flavored instant coffee, the likes of hazel nut, french vanilla, caramel or whatever you feel like the most.
What Chocolate To Top it With?
For the toppings: There is no shortage of what chocolate you can use to top this with. The most commonly used is chocolate kisses which I have done before. For this one I used regular heart shaped chocolate, here are other options.
- Hershey’s Kisses
- Mini Reese Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
- Marshmallow – use a blow torch if you have one. Toast it to look like S’mores
- Any Bar Chocolate – break into a size that fits the cookie
Quick Summary How to Make This Cookie
- Melt the chocolate, butter and espresso powder
- Add Egg Yolk
- Add Dry Ingredients & Mix
- Chill
- Divide into 12 pieces
- Roll in granulated sugar
- Roll in icing sugar
- Bake
- Press chocolate on top
- bake another minute
- Cool
Ok, that’s about it. Time to make this decadent treat! Let’s get baking 🙂
Chocolate Crinkles for Valentine’s Day – Soft, Fudgy, and Irresistibly Sweet
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Preheat oven to 350F and place rack in center of oven. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Melt the chopped chocolate with butter and instant coffee powder either in microwave or by putting the bowl with chopped chocolates on top of simmering water. Stir until all chocolate is fully melted. Do NOT leave unattended, keep stirring to retain smooth consistency. Add vanilla extract and salt and stir. Set aside to cool.
- Add Egg: Add egg yolk to the melted chocolate and mix.
- Mix Dry Ingredients: Add flour, baking soda and baking powder. Stop when the flour is fully incorporated. Do not over mix to avoid tough cookie.
- Chill the cookie dough for at least 30 minutes
- Divide and Shape: Divide the cookie dough into 12 portions. I used kitchen scale for even size, you can just eye-ball it if you do not have kitchen scale. You can also use 1 teaspoon to measure each portion. Roll each ball in palm of your hand to make it moist.
- Coat with Granulated Sugar: Roll each piece in the granulated sugar, making sure each ball is completely coated, with no chocolate showing through.
- Coat with Confectioners Sugar: Roll each piece in the confectioners sugar next, making sure each ball is completely coated, with no chocolate showing through. Place the sugar-covered balls on the prepared baking sheet, spacing about 2-3 inches apart.
- Bake the Cookie: 10 grams size cookie (approximately 1 teaspoon or 1-inch): Bake for about 6 minutes or just until the edges are slightly firm but the center is still soft and the outer shell starts to crack (For moist chewy cookies do not over bake. Over baking these cookies will cause them to be dry.)
- Top with Chocolate: Remove from the oven and top each cookie with chocolate kisses. Return to the oven for another 1 minute.
- Let Cool: Remove from oven and leave on the pan to cool until no longer soft to transfer in a cooling rack. These cookies are very fragile so be very careful when transferring it.
Notes
- This cookie can be made ahead of time. Form the dough into balls and leave in the fridge. When you are ready to bake, take out from the fridge and roll the balls in your palm to moisten it. This will help the sugar stick to the cookie better.
- If you leave the cookie dough overnight in the fridge, leave it at room temperature for 30 minutes before baking it. This will soften the cookie dough a little bit and will bake faster. Baking it straight from fridge will result to under bake cookie. If you prefer to do this, you may need to increase the baking time by 1 – 2 minutes.
- Please note, if you leave the cookie dough overnight in the fridge, it is not going to spread as much when you bake it. It helps to flatten the cookie by pressing it between the palm of your hands.
Make it a Big Batch for Sharing: This is a small batch recipe for Chocolate Crinkles, to make a larger batch, check the recipe HERE
What Chocolate to Use in Making Crinkles
I personally recommend using a plain bar chocolate instead of chocolate chips. Although chocolate chips will work, I find that chopped bar chocolate gave a better texture. This is because chocolate chips are made to stand the heat, and so it does not spread as much. With chocolate crinkles, we want to achieve a beautiful cracked top, and a balance of cookie expansion and lift. Not too flat, and not too thick. Just about right to see the cracked top trademark of this cookie.
How to Unfreeze Unbaked Crinkles Cookie
Super Easy! Make the cookie dough, divide and roll each piece into balls and store it in a ziplock bag and freeze up to 3 months! When ready to bake, take it out from the freezer and leave in room temperature at least 30 minutes to 1 hour or until it is no longer cold. Roll each piece in sugar and bake as per recipe instruction. Thawing the frozen cookie is a MUST, otherwise the cookie will not spread.
Do you want to try something unique? Why not give this Purple Yam Crinkles a go. Watch the Video now and see how I made it.
My Other Cookie Videos:
Featured Posts:
- [VIDEO] Peanut Butter Blossom Cookie
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- [VIDEO] Almond Butter Blossom Cookie
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Categories: Baking, Cookies, Recipe, Small Batch Recipes, Video, Video Recipes
SweetnSpicyLiving
Hope you have a sweet Valentine’s Day!
Likewise Dorothy! Enjoy the day 🙂