It’s Christmas cookie time! Every year I make at least one type of Christmas cookie. It’s a fun tradition and they make an easy, super inexpensive gift (who doesn’t like cookies?!). This year I made these awesome Chocolate Cayenne Crinkles that have all the spicy cocoa flavor of my favorite Aztec Cocoa in a light, chewy cookie.
I saw these Flourless Chocolate Cookies on Cooking Classy and immediately wanted to make them. There are only a few simple ingredients and they looked a lot like the delicate and delicious shell of a macaron. I love how the exterior of a macaron is shiny and thin, but the inside is kind of dense and chewy. That’s exactly how this entire cookie is. YUM!
I wanted to put my own spin on the Flourless Chocolate Cookie, so I decided to add some cayenne pepper. Cayenne and cocoa is an age old duo and one that I can’t get enough of. You can leave the cayenne out and do a plain chocolate cookie, if you desire, or try replacing some of the vanilla extract with peppermint extract for a sort of mint hot cocoa effect. Cinnamon could also work (a chocolatey alternative to snickerdoodles, maybe?) You could even top them with crushed candy canes. Fun, right?
YAY, Christmas cookies!
Chocolate Cayenne Crinkles
Servings 20 cookiesIngredients
- 3 cups powdered sugar ($0.54)
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder ($0.48)
- 1 Tbsp cornstarch ($0.04)
- 1/4 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper ($0.05)
- 2 large egg whites ($0.42)
- 1 large whole egg ($0.21)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract ($0.28)
- 1 cup chocolate chips ($0.91)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, cornstarch, salt, and cayenne pepper until evenly combined.
- Add the egg whites, whole egg, and vanilla extract to the powdered sugar mixture. Carefully stir the mixture until all of the powdered sugar has dissolved into the eggs and a very thick batter forms. It may seem like there is not enough moisture to stir in all the powdered sugar, but keep stirring and it will eventually melt in. The mixture will be very thick and stiff, so use a strong spoon. Add the chocolate chips and stir until incorporated.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Spoon the batter, one heaping tablespoon at a time, onto the baking sheets. Be sure to leave a couple inches between each cookie because they will spread. (I suggest ten cookies per sheet.)
- Bake one cookie sheet at a time for 14 minutes or until the cookies are puffed and cracked over the surface. Allow the cookies to cool before removing from the parchment.
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Notes
Nutrition
How to Make Chocolate Cayenne Crinkles – Step by Step Photos
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a LARGE bowl, combine 3 cups powdered sugar, 3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 Tbsp cornstarch, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper. If you’re scared of the spiciness, start with 1/4 tsp cayenne. Make sure the dry ingredients are very well mixed. Hint: use a bowl with steep sides, or you’ll get powdered sugar everywhere.
Add two large egg whites, one whole egg, and 1 tsp vanilla extract. Begin to carefully stir these into the powdered sugar mixture. You can use a whisk at first, but it will soon get too thick and you’ll need to switch to a spoon.
As you stir the eggs and vanilla into the powdered sugar it will seem like there’s not enough moisture to make it work (I went back and checked the recipe THREE times to make sure…), but just keep stirring and eventually all of the powdered sugar will melt into it. The batter becomes very thick and stiff.
Stir in one cup of chocolate chips. I happened to have some leftover mini-chocolate chips, so I used those.
Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper. Drop the batter onto the sheets in heaping tablespoons, about ten per sheet. Leave a couple of inches between each cookie for them to spread while baking.
Bake one sheet at a time for 14 minutes, or until the cookies are puffed up and cracked along the top (they deflate upon cooling). Let the cookies cool completely before removing them from the parchment.
Enjoy the warm chocolatey goodness and the sassy kick of cayenne!
These look fantastic, so yummy, gonna try this recipe when i can.
These did not turn out well at all. :( The dough is more like batter than dough – thin and runny, even after adding an extra cup of powdered sugar and more cornstarch. It just spread out thin all over the baking sheet
Hmmm,that’s really strange. Mine was so thick that I could barely stir it. You didn’t use three whole eggs, did you? And did you use large sized eggs?
Nope, I used two egg whites and one whole egg. The eggs I get are HUGE, though, so maybe that had something to do with it? But I added a ton of extra dry ingredients to make up the difference, with no effect.
I’ll try again this weekend, and if it’s still batter-y instead of dough-y, I’ll just make it into cayenne crinkle brownies. :)
Ahhh, yes, the size of the egg definitely matters. Use “large” eggs and the moisture ratio will be right and it will probably work better. :)
I made these again using much smaller eggs and was successful! Next time I’ll add more cayenne, though. :)
I had the same problem of it being more like batter than dough, and did make mine into brownies. They came out great! I think my cook time was something like 30 min at 350 degrees, but I had to check them several times throughout.
I made these and the flavor was there, but the texture wasn’t at all. Like another commenter said, my dough was stiff in the bowl but spread out a lot on the sheet. The effect was that most of the filling seemed to wind up outside of the “shell” of the cookie, which had a really interesting crunchy texture!
Could it have to do with using sweetened cocoa powder? I didn’t notice until after they were baked that we only had sweetened. Or maybe I messed up the eggs!
Hmm, if it was stiff in the bowl then spread on the cookie sheet, I wonder if it had something to do with the oven temperature. It’s hard to say without seeing the process… if my first attempt had failed it would be easier to diagnose! :)
Something similar happened to me. I followed the step by step picture instructions and after the fact noticed that you did not include the corn starch in this part of the instructions so I forgot to include it. This may have been what happened to others if they were following the pictures and instructions underneath. It still turned out really delicious though!
These cookies literally melted in my mouth. This is where that whole concept of portion control gets soooo challenging when the food tastes this delicious. Thank god for the “sharing is caring” idea and I’m making the cookies for friends. The cayenne provides that perfect little spicy-punch without being overwhelming. Fantastic recipe.
My dough looked even thicker than the stuff in the picture. The only difference I could think of is that my eggs are kind of old. It seemed to cause them to actually rise instead of spread so I baked them a little longer…weird. Still yummy though! Just kind of a weird texture.
Made these yesterday and they’re pretty great. My wife doesn’t like much spice so she wasn’t the biggest fan but I thought they were great and a different than most cookies. They stayed soft and chewy for a couple days too. I think I’ll use some peppermint extract and leave the spice out for my neighbors christmas cookies. Powdered sugar on top sounds wonderful too!
Unfortunately these cookies did not turn out for me. Normally I’m a pretty lucky baker and things tend to work out, but these turned into a gooey chocolate mess. The crinkle started after a few minutes, then the chocolate oozed out underneath a few seconds later in the oven, doubling them in size, and they did not set after trying to let them cool. The flavor was all there, but they didn’t work out that well for me. :(
I made these cookies by omitting the cayenne, chopping up an orange dark chocolate bar instead of the choc chips, and adding a few drops of orange extract. I took them to a friend’s party and they were a huge hit! Thanks!
Oo, yummy! Another awesome combo to substitute for the cayenne and vanilla could be orange extract and orange zest, chocolate orange style! I might try that and report back how it turns out :)
Your recipes are awesome!! I want to make these as gifts. Do you know if they will hold well to be shipped?
I don’t know, they’re pretty delicate. Mine seemed to dry out a bit after a few days, too, although I don’t think my container was quite air-tight.
Cayenne pepper sounds like the perfect addition to a chocolate treat- these look delicious!
Any idea how long these would last in a Tupperware container? We have a cookie exchange on Christmas Eve and I want to make them now because they look so good!
I think I’d definitely wait. Mine dried out a little after a few days, but I think the lid on my tupperware container isn’t quite air-tight.
I made these cookies this morning and they taste great! How should these cookies be stored?
After they’re completely cool, just keep them in an air-tight container (ziploc bag or tupperware type container).
Would these be gluten free? I exchange treats with a family member and she has celiac disease. It is always a struggle to find recipies.
They are as long as you make sure your chocolate chips and cornstarch are gluten free. Sometimes brands can sneak a little gluten into those products, so you just have to check.
Saw your comment while commentstalking for informational purposes, and thought I’d chime in. In addition to making sure there’s no gluten in the chips or cornstarch, there’s also some risk that you might have gotten gluten into your ingredients by reusing a spoon when baking with all-purpose flour. To be absolutely safest, I’d advise using new containers of cocoa, sugar, and starch; hopefully these are ingredients that you’ll be able to use up the remainder of elsewhere, since they’re pretty common.
Oh, and one more thing: bless you for baking for someone with Celiac disease. Social occasions are so much nicer when one can join in on the noshing of sweets.
I really want to make these but the closest thing I have to cocoa powder is Nesquik, which I’m assuming I probably can’t use. Is there any way to substitute it?
Yeah, you definitely don’t want to use nesquik. That has sugar and maybe even powdered milk in it. There really isn’t anything similar to unsweetened cocoa powder, unfortunately.
Tried to use sweetened cocoa powder once and it exploded in my oven! My oven set off the smoke detector for a couple of days after I cleaned it out, too. I finally bought some unsweetened cocoa powder and made it today for Valentine’s day (we’re going to celebrate it tomorrow instead of Tuesday) and it worked out great! I’m so glad, because I wasn’t sure I was perfect on the powdered sugar (after the second cup it looked like I had JUST enough for a third and couldn’t get it in the measuring cup so I dumped the entire bin in). I can’t wait for the boyfriend to try it. :)