Holiday Chocolate Crinkle Cookies with a twist! Made with Mexican chocolate, these festive cookies are soft, chewy and covered in powdered sugar.
I’m ashamed to admit this, but this is my FIRST holiday cookie recipe of the year! And Christmas is only a few days away!
I’m such a bad food blogger. You’d think that I’d be all about the online cookie swaps, the cookie exchanges, the cookie parties, but alas, I am not. Since baking doesn’t come easily to me, it takes a significant amount of effort for me create a recipe that actually works. Fortunately, these chocolate crinkle cookies only took me two tries to get them exactly how I wanted them. I call that a win in my book.
Related: 12 Mexican Christmas Recipes to Make This Year
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies – Mistakes to avoid
Mistake #1: I accidentally used orange extract instead of vanilla extract. The taste wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t what I envisioned.
Mistake #2: I didn’t add enough chocolate. I used one full tablet of Abuelita Mexican Chocolate and didn’t use cocoa powder at all. While it sounds good in theory, I forgot that Abuelita Mexican Chocolate isn’t just cocoa powder, but also contains coarse sugar, cinnamon and other spices that give it a nice Mexican twist. So while I knew I wanted to include some, I still needed to play around with the total amount.
Mistake #3: The cookies were too big. I used an ice cream scoop which was about twice as big as I wanted them. They ended up melting together in the pan and forming one big cookie monster. Not a terrible thing, but not exactly cute little crinkle cookies.
And yet, after all those mistakes, I still ate them. #NoCookieLeftBehind
Ingredients in Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- butter
- granulated sugar and powdered sugar
- Mexican chocolate and unsweetened cocoa powder
- eggs
- vanilla extract
- all purpose flour, baking powder, salt
My favorite Mexican chocolate
While you could make these chocolate crinkle cookies with normal cocoa powder, I highly recommend using some Abuelita Mexican chocolate if you can. It has a very granular texture with coarse sugar and spices mixed throughout that really give it a unique flavor.
It’s normally found in your grocery store’s Hispanic Foods section, but if you can’t find it there, try looking in the hot chocolate section. If you prefer shopping online, you can easily find it on Amazon here.
It’s normally used to make hot chocolate, but my Mom uses it to make various sauces like mole. Here are a few recipes that I’ve made using Mexican chocolate:
- Chocolate Pumpkin Seed Granola
- Authentic Enchilada Sauce
- Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls
- Hot Chocolate Cookies
Happy holidays! I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!
More recipes to try
- Marranitos (Mexican Gingerbread Pigs)
- Mexican Hot Chocolate
- Mexican Bunuelos
- Conchas (Mexican Sweet Bread)
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter melted
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 disc (46 grams) Mexican Chocolate, ground into a powder in a blender (I used Abuelita brand)
- 1/4 cup 100% unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup powdered sugar, for coating the cookies
Instructions
- In a large bowl, add the butter, white sugar, ground Abuelita Mexican Chocolate disc and unsweetened cocoa powder. Beat on medium speed with a handheld mixer (or whisk together) until fully combined.
- Add in the eggs one at a time followed by the vanilla extract, beating each until combined. Then add in the flour, baking powder and salt and mix together with a fork until combined and the mixture has formed a dough.
- Form the dough into a large ball and cover it completely with a sheet of plastic wrap or place it in a bowl and cover it it with a towel. Refrigerate for 1 hour until completely chilled through.
- After 1 hour, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a large cookie sheet (or two smaller cookie sheets) with parchment paper. Add the powdered sugar into a small bowl.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and using a tablespoon measure, grab a heaping tablespoon of the dough and form it into a ball. Roll the ball in the powdered sugar until it is completely covered and place it on the cookie sheet. Do this until about 24 cookies are formed.
- Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven and let the cookies cool on the baking sheet until they reach room temperature. Serve and enjoy!
Nutrition Information
Thanks for sharing this recipe!
My dough was also very gooey 🙁 I left it in the fridge for 3 hours.
Rolling with wet hands helped a bit but it was still quite challenging. Next time I will add more flour until able to make a dough-like ball. and maybe more Mexican chocolate! The taste was very subtle.
All in all, delicious cookies for my bible study taco bar night! And exposure to Mexican hot chocolate at home!
Thanks again! I’m excited to try more of your recipes.
Hi,
I’m not sure what I did wrong, I followed the recipe.
But my dough was too gooey for me to roll… please help!
Thank you.
Hi Danielle! It sounds like maybe the dough needed a little more flour. Next time we suggest adding a small amount at a time until its not so gooey and can be rolled. Hope this helps!
Las gallates era muy buenas. Me gusto Como no era demasiado dulces.
Since we couldn’t be with family this year due to the pandemic, my husband and I decided to have a Mexican Christmas and try all new recipes from another culture. We used many recipes from your website and loved them all! These cookies were excellent – I loved the soft, chewy texture and delicate sweetness. And they’re so festive looking! Thank you!
I bought the already ground Abuelita Chocolate. What is the equivalent to the 1/2 tablet called for in the recipe?
Hi! 1/2 tablet is about 42 grams. You can use a scale to measure the amount.
I wanted to try new recipes for the holidays so I decided to make these since I had a few tablets of Abuelita. And I’ve just got to say the recipe is AMAZING! I made a second batch to take to my work friends and they all raved and asked for the recipe. I will definitely save this recipe for every Christmas!
I’m so happy you liked it, Bee! Happy Holidays!
Please add the step to add in the unsweetened cocoa. I went step by step, popped the dough in the fridge and realized I hadn’t added the cocoa, haha.
Oh no! Thanks for letting me know! I’m updating it as we speak. 🙂
Hi! I was wondering if I could use an Ibarra hot chocolate tablet instead of Abuelita? Unfortunately, Abuelita has an allergen in it so I always buy Ibarra. TIA!
Yes, Ibarra will also work!
These chocolate crinkles tame my cravings and as a bonus use very little butter and sugar.
These turned out great! I didn’t have the Mexican chocolate so I doubled the cocoa, added a TBSP of espresso powder and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Delish!
Hooray! That sounds perfect! I’m glad you were able to make it work!