Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Chocolate Crinkles - Revisiting Childhood Memories

I've always loved food. And I've always had a sweet tooth. My mom was never a big baker, so when I was about ten, I decided to try my hand at baking. Probably because I wanted something sweet and there wasn't a cookie or treat anywhere in the house. 
I remember the first cookies I made were from a Girl Scout cookbook. I have no idea where that recipe is today. All I remember is that it was for chocolate chip cookies and included a box of cake mix. I thought they were the best cookies in the world.

So I guess my love of collecting recipes began at a relatively young age, though many of those early recipes have disappeared. Over the years, I've recalled a recipe called Chocolate Crinkles and wondered why I hadn't saved it. Or figured it had been lost in one of our many military moves years ago. So imagine my delight when I was going to through a stack of my mom's recipes and found that recipe card I'd hand-written at twelve years of age.

Last Tuesday was my friend, Drenda's, annual cookie exchange. Yes, I know I've been talking about it for weeks. Well, as soon as I found this recipe, I knew what I was taking.

Let's gather our ingredients.

2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable/canola oil
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. baking powder
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup confectioners/powdered sugar

Okay, let's start with that chocolate.
This is what you'll be looking for at the store. And it's a 4 oz bar, so that works out perfectly.
Chop it up to aid the melting process, then you can either melt it in the microwave in 30 second intervals or on the stove over low heat.

Once the chocolate is melted, set it aside to cool.

Once it's cooled, mix together the chocolate, sugar, oil and vanilla.

Blend in the eggs, one at a time.

Next, sift together your flour, baking powder and salt and slowly add to the chocolate mixture.

Don't be alarmed when your cookie dough looks more like a really thick cake batter.

We're going to cover this with plastic wrap and pop it into the refrigerator for 3 hours.
I press the plastic wrap against the batter so it won't dry out.

After three hours, your batter-like cookie dough looks like this.
Stiff and smooth. All of the sugar granules have dissolved.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Form dough into 1 1/2 inch balls. 

Roll balls in confectioners sugar.
Place 2 inches apart on baking sheet.
I ended up with somewhere between 5 and 6 dozen ball/cookies, so be prepared.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until set.

And voila!
Aren't they pretty? 

I will confess that they didn't taste quite as good as I remembered. Actually, they taste a lot like brownies. And my guys had no complaints. One even asked if he could take some to his friends. 
But I guess my taste buds have become more refined over the years, so next time I'm going to make one slight tweak.

Cinnamon.

Yep, next time I'm going to add a teaspoon or so of cinnamon to ramp up that chocolate flavor.

Now it's your turn. How old were you when you starting cooking/baking? 
Did you have a favorite recipe? Do you still have/make it today?

14 comments:

  1. I loved these chocolate crinkle cookies when I was a kid, but I got so frustrated looking for a decent recipe that I gave up years ago. But now I have a recipe for them! I'll have to try this.

    And I'm putting one of those cookie dough scoops on my Christmas list. Or maybe my pre-Christmas list since I'll be doing a bunch of baking in the next few days!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Do you think you'll try them with or without the cinnamon, Jan?

      Yes, that scoop was the best way to attack that dough, even if I didn't use an entire scoop full for each ball. Have two different sizes of those scoops. The bigger one is perfect for making uniform cupcakes and meatballs. I use both all the time. Perfect stocking stuffer. And if you have to raid the stocking early, so be it. :P

      Delete
  2. This is so funny, because I've thought the same thing about these cookies. And one of the brownie mixes, actually shows you how to make crinkles from brownie mix. I love the look, but they're not as delicious as they could/should be, right? And it's not that they're bad, they're not! It's kind of like a spectrum and they only end up with like a "6" when they look like a "10"!

    Jan, I just broke my 3 month old scoop. I don't know what I did, I was able to realign the little teeth and bar, and it still doesn't work right.

    I loved it, my daughter-in-law Lacey uses one all the time and she hasn't broken one yet. I'm rough on equipment, it seems!

    I'll have to see if I can find a better quality one. Mine was from Amazon for around $10/12 and I thought that would be solid.

    Nope.

    I started baking young, Mindy! I was a kid and my mom and dad weren't able to bake for holidays anymore and we had this old 1950's Betty Crocker cookbook, so at about age 9 or 10, I started teaching myself and asked advice as needed. I burned a lot of things, but I was baking, and I thought that was so cool!!! :)

    And I'm still doing it and loving it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ruthy, you just don't know your own strength. ;). The two scoops I have I got from Pampered chef and I've had the smaller one forever, so they're worth the extra cost for the quality. Though I don't recall them being expensive.

      I'll have to let you know how these cookies taste with cinnamon, because with looks like that, they deserve to be a ten.

      No wonder that 1950 Betty Crocker cookbook is so dear to you. Betty taught me how to cook, too. I remember being so proud of myself as a teenager when I "invented" mushroom meatloaf. All I did was add a can of sliced mushrooms to the meat and then top it with cream of mushroom soup. But boy was it good.

      Delete
    2. Hey Ruthy, I have that same Betty Crocker cookbook. It was my mom's. I love it.

      Delete
  3. These look pretty -- and what's not to like about a brownie tasting cookie?

    I started cookie when I was twelve. Had two recipes that I excelled at and have lost both recipes. One was a mocha cake. Sob. I still tear up thinking about the loss. LOL And the other was some weird thing called Jolly Breakfast Ring. All I remember about it was doughy sugar and cinnamon in a bundt pan and it was yummy. But lost too. :-(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kav, I'm glad I'm not the only one who lost recipes.

      Your Jolly Breakfast ring sounds like monkey bread. Just Google it. Cut up biscuits coated in sugar and cinnamon then put in a bundt pan and drizzled with melted but. Ooey, gooey heaven.

      Delete
  4. I've never made these. I must give them a try, especially since brownies are my favorite baked treat. :)

    I started early baking sugar cookies that we decorated with sprinkles and red and green sugar. Then I moved on to chocolate no-bake cookies with my friends about junior high age. Then in college, I went on a strawberry shortcake kick. Once I was married, I started trying new things like cakes and pies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh my gosh. I used to love those no-bake cookies, Missy. And you can forget about waiting for them to set. Just give me a spoon and the pan and I'm a happy camper. Chocolate, peanut butter... What's not to like? ;)

      Delete
  5. I started baking cookies as far back as I can remember. My sister and I used to make sugar cookies (like MIssy). Our main purpose was so we could eat the raw dough. ha ha.

    My favorite cookie though are snickerdoodles like my grandma used to make, I love those and will still make them occasionally. Although baking in the RV is a challenge so I don't do much of it. Probably a good thing. LOL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, yes, cookie dough is one of the major food groups, isn't it, Sandra? My youngest son will ask me to make sugar cookies simply for the dough. Makes me want to smack him. Not that I don't help myself. Chocolate chip cookie dough is another fave, though it must be everyone's since they have chocolate chip cookie dough everything nowadays.

      My husband loves snickerdoodles. Yet I almost never make them. Perhaps I should correct that.

      Oh, I can only imagine the challenges of baking in an RV. Not that it wouldn't be worth it, though.

      Delete
    2. Its definitely worth it, but then we have to go play two more games of pickleball to use up those calories. chuckle

      Delete
  6. Mindy, these look fabulous! I saw an interesting vegan recipe recently for a peppermint version of these. I'll try it and share them!

    ReplyDelete