Crinkle Cookies

Crinkle cookies...a tradition I've continued with my own family.  I had actually never had these cookies until spending a Christmas with my husband's family is Missouri a few years ago.  They were so good I had to ask my mother-in-law for the recipe.  Since then, I make them each year at Christmas, although I don't know why I save them for just once a year!  I love the idea of continuing on a tradition...even something as simple as a certain type of Christmas cookie.

I didn't manage to get a photo of them before they were all eaten in the mad rush of Christmas but here's what the finished product looks like thanks to a Google image search: COOKIES

Recipe my mother-in-law typed for me, complete with my scribbles, chocolate stains and flour from previous baking adventures.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 2 cups light brown sugar, packed
• 2/3 cup canola oil
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• Powdered sugar

Oil and sugar combined

Instructions:

• Melt chocolate - I do this in the microwave 30 seconds at a time.  Be careful not to burn it!  If you're a double boiler type of chocolate-melter, have at it!
• Combine melted chocolate in a large bowl with oil and sugar.
• Add eggs one at a time, beat well with electric mixer - I use a hand held mixer.
• Add vanilla.
• In a separate bowl, combine your dry ingredients: flour, baking powder and salt.  I do not own a sifter so I just use a whisk to "sift" the dry ingredients together.
• Add dry ingredients to chocolate mixture.  Mix well.
• Cover bowl and chill dough for at least 2 hours.
• After dough is chilled, fill a separate bowl with powdered sugar.
• Drop a tablespoon of dough in powdered sugar and roll to coat. Head's up, this gets your hands messy but it's fun!
• Place on greased or non-stick cookie sheet.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

I like to put my eggs in a small bowl separately before adding them to the wet mixture.  If a shell gets in there it's much easier to get out of the small bowl of eggs only.

Looking all glossy after adding those eggs!

Adding dry to wet

All mixed up, making a mess on the recipe paper

Per my mother-in-law's recipe this makes 8 dozen cookies if you make them small (teaspoon sized).  I make them larger and I think I got about 30-40 cookies out of this. When I make these cookies for just my husband and I, I split the recipe in half (see scribbles).  Since we hosted Christmas this year for 12 people (plus gave some away as gifts to my neighbors, I made the whole recipe).