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Made with a devil’s food cake mix, Chocolate Crinkle Cookies are soft, slightly chewy, and ideal for making with your kids this holiday season.
Alright, friends. We’re in the home stretch.
These little cake mix cookies are just the ticket when you need to make a last minute party dessert or gift. They whip up easily and taste so darn good!
I love how chewy these Chocolate Crinkle Cookies are, and you can customize them by adding flavors to the batter if you want. A little peppermint extract would be wonderful here (probably about 1/2 a teaspoon, if you decide to do it).
I’ve made these cookies for years, and we took them to several holiday parties this year. They’re a hit, whether it’s a school party, office potluck, or the proverbial ugly Christmas sweater party.
I love how these cookies look when fully baked. There’s some chemistry magic happening to make the powdered sugar with crackles and crinkles throughout look so pretty. You’re going to love them!
WHAT ARE CHOCOLATE CRINKLE COOKIES?
Have you ever had Chocolate Crinkle Cookies?
The dough for these chocolate cookies is rolled into balls, then coated in powdered sugar before baking. As they bake, the outside creates a crinkled appearance from the powdered sugar.
The best thing about Chocolate Crinkle Cookies, though, is how embarrassingly easy they are to make. That’s because they’re made with a cake mix!
If you like making Doctored Cake Mix, Pumpkin Crunch Cake or Caramel Apple Poke Cake, you’ll love this cake mix recipe as well!
HOW TO MAKE CHOCOLATE CRINKLE COOKIES FROM CAKE MIX
Because the base of this recipe is a devil’s food cake mix, you only need 5 ingredients to make these cookies:
- Devil’s food cake mix
- Eggs
- Vegetable oil
- Vanilla
- Powdered sugar (aka confectioners’ sugar)
Since they’re so simple to make, these are actually a great cookie for kids to make by themselves (aside from using the oven).
I use a mixer to mix together the dough – simply mix everything except the powdered sugar – but you could mix this dough by hand as well.
Once the dough is mixed, scoop balls of the dough and roll them in the powdered sugar before baking.
The cookies are done when the bottoms are set but the middles still appear slightly undercooked. It’s important not to overbake these cookies to keep that chewy texture!
CAN CHOCOLATE CRINKLE COOKIES BE FROZEN?
These Chocolate Crinkle Cookies are actually best fresh out of the oven, though they can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
While you probably can freeze them, I would not necessarily recommend it, as I don’t think the texture would be quite the same after freezing.
CRINKLE COOKIE VARIATIONS
There are lots of ways you could change up your Chocolate Crinkle Cookies.
For example, try adding a little peppermint extract to make chocolate peppermint cookies, or a bit of coffee extract for a mocha flavor.
You could even add a little orange zest to this batter!
I have also made these cookies with different flavors of cake mix. For example, using a lemon cake mix results in a delicious, chewy lemon cookie.
The sky’s the limit with these crinkle cookies! However you choose to make them, you’ll love how quickly you can quell a cookie craving with this recipe.
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 boz Devil’s Food Cake Mix 15.25 ounces
- 2 large eggs
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup confectioners' sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, combine cake mix, eggs, oil, and vanilla extract until well blended. Place confectioners’ sugar into a medium bowl.
- Using a medium cookie scoop (1 ½ tablespoons), drop balls of dough (dough will be sticky) into the confectioners’ sugar, roll to coat. Gently form dough into a ball by lightly rolling between your palms.
- Place dough balls on prepared baking pan about two inches apart.
- Bake in preheated oven for 7 to 9 minutes. The bottoms will be set but middles will look slightly undercooked. Allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes on pan before removing to a wire rack.
Notes
- These cookies are best served fresh out of the oven; however, they will keep in an airtight container for 2 days.
- Doctor up these cookies even more by playing with different extracts and add ins. I think a little orange zest would be a great addition, or try adding in a little mint extract for easy Chocolate Peppermint Crinkles.
- This base recipe does work well with other box flavor varieties, I have tried it with lemon cake mix which resulted in delicious, chewy lemon cookies.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I looooovee cokies i will try this at my home, Thank you for sharing yor recipe!
Thanks for stopping by and commenting! Happy baking!
-Jamie
Thank you for sharing this easy recipe! I used Pills ruby Devils Food cake mix. The cookies cracked open, but for some reason, they didn’t flatten. No worries – an extra roll in the powdered sugar while still warm turned them into wonderful chocolate snow ball cookies!
Hmmm that is interesting that they didn’t spread. Glad you were able to enjoy them as snowballs though! Happy Holidays!
-Jamie
But what about the non-shortcut way??? I don’t use boxed cakes, brownies, cookies, etc…
Heidi-
Here is a great recipe that does not use a box mix http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chocolate-crinkles-ii/ – they’re pretty easy too! I hope this helps.
-Jamie
My daughter & I have made these for a number of years. Last year she came up with the brilliant idea of adding coffee (a single packet of Starbucks Via works fabulously). She took them to a party and they were gone within a very short while! (She did have at least one friend text her later to say he ate 5 and couldn’t get to sleep until about 4am, though…)
I love the idea of adding coffee, Melanie! I’ll just have to make sure that I don’t eat them too late ;)
-Jamie
I make these all the time since finding them on your blog – in fact, my college daughter just called and asked me for the recipe for her favorite cookies. (the lemon ones)
What else can you use if you don’t have vegetable oil?
Melted butter, melted shortening, or coconut oil could be substituted in in a pinch.
– Jamie
Ok – I just made these and used mayo instead of oil – MOIST!
Karen-
I am so glad you enjoyed the recipe. Thanks for stopping by and providing your feedback- have a great day!
-Jamie
Okay – so I took your advice and made these cookies – and was so excited after tasting the first batch that when I was taking out the second batch tripped and they landed all over the floor…LOL.
Thank goodness I bought two packages of cake mix.
Grace
Jaime these are the BOMB!! I made these as soon as I saw the recipe since I had all the ingredients already and took them to work to “test” them out. The only complaint I got was “why didn’t you bring more?!” ;o) I can’t wait to try the other flavors that the other posts have talked about. They all sounds fabulous. Thanks for another great add to my files!!