Chocolate Crinkles for the festive season

Festive season is just round the corner and it is the best excuse to relish your favourite food.  I have a soft corner in my heart for cookies and chocolates. One such dish that comes with the goodness of both is the chocolate crinkle. This is a classic cookie that comes with real chocolaty taste and the goodness of cookie. This cookie looks like it came straight out of a snowfall to you. This particular cookie is a treat to the eyes and a real delight for taste buds. The chilly weather and festive spirit just makes me crave for this cookie every year. These chocolate crinkles are a holiday staple in winter but are great at any time of the year. Dark chocolate dough is dusted with icing sugar; on baking, the dough rises and the chocolate dough is exposed in the forms of cracks or crinkles which appear all over the cookies giving them their unique and distinguishing look. They are definitely fancy and will not satisfy your chocolate cravings, instead increasing them to the next level. There are few variants of this cookie like the Mint Kiss Crinkle, where a minted chocolate cone is placed in the centre of the dough and then baked. Then there is a variant where chocolate fudge is placed in the centre and is called the Fudge Crinkle. Another variant is the Candy Cane Crinkle, where in a crushed candy cane is added to the dough and then baked, giving it a combination of dark brown and colourful colours of candy cane. You can also add a variety of nuts to the dough and make a Nutty Crinkle, I prefer mine with hazelnuts as they are healthy to consume in winters. You can pop in your favourite seeds like sesame seeds or sunflower seeds to your crinkles to make a Sesame Crinkle or so on. So, in essence, you can make your own signature style and recipe of crinkles to suit your taste buds and show your culinary skills to your friends and family. There is a tip while baking the cookies —  before you roll the dough in icing sugar, roll the dough ball in the castor sugar followed by icing sugar so that the cracks are more prominent and the icing sugar does not disappear after baking due to the moisture of the dough. To make mocha crinkle increase the quantity of espresso powder in the recipe to get a more dominant coffee flavour. And to add another simple twist to your regular crinkle cookie, add few drops of mint oil instead of vanilla extracts to make a Mint Crinkle Cookie. I always try and feature simple yet exotic recipes so that the common reader is motivated and can try these recipes at home. Chocolate CrinklesIngredientsCocoa powder 1 cupCastor sugar 1 ½ cupOil ½ cupEggs 4 noVanilla extract few dropsAll-purpose flour 2 cupsBaking powder 2 tspSalt ½ tspIcing sugar 1 cupEspresso coffee powder 1 tsp (optional)MethodSift the cocoa powder and combine in a bowl with castor sugar and oil.Whisk until the mixture is smooth without any lumps, you can use an electric mixer also to do it as it takes a while to mix it. In the mixture add one egg at a time and continue to mix, add the vanilla extract and mix till smooth.In a separate bowl sift flour, baking powder, espresso coffee and salt together and add gradually into the chocolate mixture.You will get soft dough— do not over mix it, cover the dough and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. Place the icing sugar in a bowl and keep aside.Using a spoon scoop out the prepared mixture and roll them into balls.Roll these balls in the icing sugar and flatten them using the palms of you hands; place them in a baking tray lined with baking paper.Bake in a preheated oven at 160 degree Celsius for 10- 12 minutes.You will notice the cracks appear on the cookie, remove from oven and allow to cool down.Serve along with your choice of beverage or store them in an air tight container for later use.Note: you can replace the castor sugar with brown sugar to get better tasting cookies. You can also use espresso coffee if you are a coffee lover.