Cookies are always my preferred thing to bake/eat, especially around Christmas time! These chocolate crinkle cookies are a very slight riff on a recipe my mum always made when I was growing up. I haven’t had them in a while and, now that I’ve moved out, the smell of them baking makes my flat feel like a proper home.
I’ve had some time off of blogging and social media for a while now. I turned off push notifications for my emails and basically unintentionally banned myself from instagram. I’ve stepped back from most sponsored work too and just relied on freelance stuff/savings for my income which I realise is an incredibly privileged thing to be able to do. I’m basically only able to do that because I’ve had my parents supporting me until this year so any money I’ve made previously I’ve been able to save most of.
The time off has provided some much needed R&R for my brain as I was getting very bogged down by *everything* and it was definitely affecting my mental health. It’s been a big year what with graduation, moving out, running a retreat in Ireland and figuring out what I actually want to do with my life! People always asked me how I managed to balance blogging and school and to be honest, it was the freedom from having all that ‘life admin’ that allowed me to do it. It was also a simpler time in terms of content production back in 2011 when social media wasn’t expected/required. The online world is a whole different ballgame now with platforms pushing for more and more original, complex content which requires so much more time commitment.
I’ve also been doing some food styling assisting work, as I’ve mentioned before. It has been SO nice to go into a kitchen and get a list of recipes to cook without me having to think about the social media side of things or recipe testing or anything. I just go onto autopilot and cook someone else’s recipe. It’s tiring being on your feet all day but the fact I can just switch off the ‘content production’ side of my brain has been very freeing! Of course it’s always interesting to cook other people’s recipes and learn tricks from the food stylist in charge, too.
Anyway, that was a long update which I thought was due if you were wondering where I’d been! But most importantly let’s talk about these cookies!! This is a basic cocoa powder cookie dough – it’s jazzed up with some cinnamon and bittersweet chocolate chunks. The balls of dough are rolled in granulated sugar to give em a sparkle and a kinda crunchy coating. They’re a bit like ginger-molasses crinkle cookies so if you like THOSE, you’ll probably like these. My mum used to make these with shortening back in the day and called them chocolate snappers! I’ve adjusted the recipe with unsalted butter here instead which provides a chewier cookie. I’ve always made these with golden syrup as it’s so easy to get in the UK but if you can’t get it, you can sub a different syrup (brown rice, agave, corn) or honey.
Happy holidays everyone!
Other Christmas cookies to bake:
- Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Lemon + Cardamom Gingerbread Cookies
- Geneva Cookies
- 15 Minute DIY Thin Mints
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- 165 g (3/4 cup) unsalted butter (softened)
- 200 g (1 cup) 200g granulated sugar, plus extra for rolling
- 1 large egg
- 90 g (1/4 cup) golden syrup, honey, agave syrup or brown rice syrup
- 210 g (1 3/4 cups) plain white flour (all purpose flour)
- 55 g (1/2 cup) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 100 g (3.5oz) 70% cocoa chocolate (bittersweet chocolate)
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Preheat the oven to 180oC/160oC fan/350oF. Line a couple of baking sheets with baking paper or non-stick liners.
- Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until smooth. Add the egg and preferred syrup then beat again to combine fully. Stir in the flour, cocoa, cinnamon, baking soda and salt so you get a soft dough. Roughly chop the chocolate into chunks then fold into the dough.
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Pour about 50g (1/4 cup) of extra granulated sugar into a wide, shallow bowl. Scoop heaped tablespoons of dough, roll into balls and roll in the extra granulated sugar to coat. Place on a baking sheet spaced about 5cm (2 inches) apart.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until the cookies have spread well and are slightly crinkled. Let cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes so they can set before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat the rolling and baking to use all the dough.
- Store cookies in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
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