Chocolate Crinkles

Lately I feel more like a chaotic cook than a "candid cook".  Maybe it's just that time of year, but I feel like I am hanging on by the skin of my teeth and everyone else is about 3 steps ahead.  Argh!

On the up side, I am cooking more than I have been.  I just updated my family budget and realized that we spent $6.41 on "dining out" in the first half of December.  And that $6.41 was for one large pizza from Little Caesar's one Friday night to placate the daughter who was very disappointed because she was NOT going to the slumber party.  A very worthy cause, in my humble opinion.  Otherwise, I've been cooking or we've been scrounging up what's in the kitchen.  However, because I feel like I'm doing a lot of "cooking in a hurry" these days, almost all of my meals have fallen into one of three categories:

1.  Tried something new, took a few pics, not worth your time or mine to post here
2.  Fabulous, but I didn't keep track and I'm not quite sure what I put in there
3.  Same old, same old stuff

Isn't that just the way it goes some times?

Christmas is now fast approaching,  and earlier in the month when I decided not to do as much baking this year I gave each of my family members the choice of what Christmas "goody" they'd like me to make.  The Monkey chose my chocolate crinkle cookies.  Although, really, it's not my recipe.  It's Better Homes and Gardens' recipe, though I did modify it to use unsweetened baking cocoa instead of baking chocolate squares.  But they are still so, so yummy.  Like brownies dipped in powdered sugar.  Since today was her school Christmas party, I decided to make these for her school festivities.  And as has been typical for me this month, I remembered that I needed to bake them about 10:30 this morning for a 1:30 party.

Chocolate Crinkles
(Original recipe in the Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book, 11th edition.  Printed here with minor modifications.) 

3 eggs
1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
3/4 c. unsweetened baking cocoa
1/2 c. cooking oil
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
powdered sugar

In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except for the flour and powdered sugar.

Beat until well combined and smooth.

 

Mix in as much of the flour as you can.  Because I am using powdered cocoa instead of the baking squares, I have reduced the amount of flour from the original recipe.  If you find that the dough is getting too thick before it's all mixed in, feel free to leave the rest out.  Or, if you feel like your dough isn't thick enough, add a little extra flour.  The dough needs to be firm enough that it can be rolled into balls.

 

Shape dough into small balls and roll in powdered sugar to coat.

 

Place balls on cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.

 

Bake at 375 for about 8 minutes.  See why they're called chocolate "crinkles"?

 

Remove from oven and let sit for about 2-3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.  In this picture, you can see why I am a huge fan of parchment paper.  I removed these cookies with my fingers, and look - no sticky sugar baked on the cookie sheet!