My friend Lee and I have a Christmas-time tradition. Last night was our 5th annual Christmas cookie baking day. Now that I type that, I realize we need a better name. Christmas-palooza. Cookie Festivus. Sugar Eve. I guess we’ll keep working on that.
However, naming aside, this is one of my favorite baking days of the year. There are tall glasses of milk involved. Often tall glasses of wine as well. With holiday music caroling in the background, we cover my kitchen in flour like it was some kind of holiday fairy dust, returning the season to childhood origins.
I wanted to post these recipes separately. This first recipe is Lee’s discovery. I have it marked in my cookbook as Lee’s Chocolate Crinkle Cookies. Where the original recipe came from, I have no idea.
These are delicious and beautiful!
Ingredients:
Semi-sweet chocolate chips
Vegetable oil
Granulated sugar
Vanilla
2 Eggs
Flour
Baking powder
Salt
Powdered Sugar
Vegetable oil
Granulated sugar
Vanilla
2 Eggs
Flour
Baking powder
Salt
Powdered Sugar
Melt 2 oz. semi-sweet chocolate. Mix chocolate with ¼ cup vegetable oil, 1 cup granulated sugar, and 1 tsp. vanilla. Fold in 2 eggs, one at a time. Mix in 1 cup flour, 1 tsp. baking powder, and ¼ tsp. salt. Once all ingredients are mixed well, refrigerate for 4 hours or more.
After chilling, with a teaspoon, scoop out a small amount of the mixture, and form into a ball with your hands. Roll the ball in powdered sugar until it is fully covered, and then place the ball on the cookie sheet. Separate balls by 1 ½ inches or so.
Bake 10-12 minutes or until your finger leaves no permanent mark when you press on it.
Tips:
1) The smaller the chocolate chips, the easier it is to melt them. 2) The smaller the balls you create, the better the cookie. It’s taken us years not to end up with gigantic cookies that are moist in the middle but too crisp on the edges. Now, this cookie comes with a mantra: small balls! small balls! 3) The longer you refrigerate the better this seems to work. Plan ahead! 4) If you’re talking a lot when you’re forming the balls and work too slowly, the mix may get warm and stick to your hands. If this happens, either start working faster, or stick the mix back in the fridge for a few minutes.
When these cookies come out of the oven they look like snowflakes. The powdered sugar has broken apart where the cookie has grown just beautifully. These are cookies made for a tall glass of milk.
Happy baking and happy holidays!
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