Red Crinkle Cookies
Red Crinkle Cookies are a classic holiday treat! This easy recipe yields perfectly soft and chewy cookies with a hint of chocolate.
Servings: 15 cookies
Calories: 240kcal
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- ½ cup white granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ - 1 teaspoon red gel food colouring
Decorations
- ½ cup granulated white sugar
- 1 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Whisk to combine and set aside.
- In the large mixing bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment fitted, add the butter and beat for 2 minutes or until creamy.
- Add the eggs, vanilla and a small amount of gel food coloring and beat well until uniform in color. If the mixture isn’t red enough add a touch more food coloring and mix it in.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and use a rubber spatula to gently fold together. Take care not to overmix. The color will turn from bright red to a deep crimson red.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line 2-3 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Once chilled, remove the dough from the fridge. Portion out the dough into heaped tablespoonfuls. Use your hands to roll the dough into smooth balls.
- When you have rolled out all the dough, fill two small bowls: one with the granulated sugar and one with the powdered sugar.
- First, roll each ball of dough in the granulated sugar. Next roll each ball of dough in the powdered sugar, thoroughly coating it. You should add a very thick coating of powdered sugar at this stage.
- Arrange the dough balls on cookie trays leaving some space in between.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies have puffed and cracks of powdered sugar appear on the surface.
- Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Notes
- Spoon and level the flour. If you use too much flour in this recipe, the cookies will lose their soft and tender texture. If you’d like to weigh your flour, it should be 250 grams.
- We recommend Dutch-processed cocoa powder (like Hershey's Special Dark) for its wonderfully smooth taste and lovely dark color.
- We used Americolor Super Red food gel. There are lots of brands available, but do opt for a gel instead of liquid food coloring, as you will use less so the taste won’t transfer to the cookies.
- When you add the coloring, the mixture turns bright red. Don’t be alarmed because when you add the cocoa powder, that red color will deepen to crimson, which looks beautiful against the whiteness of the powdered sugar.
- We have found that rolling the balls of dough in granulated sugar before coating them helps the powdered sugar to stick and prevents it from seeping into the cookie dough.
- When you roll the cookies in powdered sugar, make sure you cake it on, as some will evaporate in the oven and get knocked off when you transfer the cookies. You can really pack it onto the cookies very well, and they will look and taste amazing.
- Storage: Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days.
