And also for Christmas and Chocolate Crinkles! Coincidence? I think not.
I’ve gotten permission from my cousin Kate to share her mom’s recipe for our family’s favorite Christmas cookie. I think this is a pretty standard holiday cookie, and I don’t know how Aunt Anne’s recipe differs from others — all I know is, these are the tastiest version of these cookies that I have ever eaten.
Chocolate Crinkles
yields approx. six dozen
4 one-ounce squares unsweetened baking chocolate
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
Preheat oven to 350°.
Melt chocolate,* combine with oil, vanilla, and sugar. Add eggs one at a time and blend well after each addition. Mix in the flour, salt, and baking powder.
Chill overnight.
The next day, form into one-inch balls and roll thoroughly in the confectioner’s sugar.
Bake for ten minutes. Do not overbake.
I repeat, do not overbake. These cookies must be soft and chewy to offer maximum deliciousness. Overbaking can result in tragically diminished sugar-coated hockey pucks.
* I’m not a devotee of the old-school manner of melting chocolate on the stove in a double-boiler. I microwave it for about two minutes and it comes out perfectly melty and not burnt at all.
***
Updated March 2012 to put in a nicer photo, from 2011’s Christmas cookie baking.
Yum! Must make these once we get back to DC – and have you over to test them for ultimate quality assurance.
Happy Christmas!
Sweetpea, I am DULY chastened …. I do LOVE Crinkles … and LOTS of other Christmas cookies … I am quilty of TRIPLE dipping in the tin of homemade fudge today while I was helping in our mailroom. HOW could I possibly have asked you to “pass” on the baking. Would be better to sacrifice some sleep than sacrifice cookies. Mea Cupla! LOVE YOU, Auntie Fran
The Holy Grail of cookie recipes!!! Woo hoo!!!!
Believe it or not, I did bake cookies this year (my mom’s ginger snap recipe) and they did come out great. Honest!
I’ll have to give this a try this weekend.
I am actually printing it off; my recipe card is about as old as Sarah, I think, and barely legible — lots of scratch ‘n sniff on it too!