Chocolate Cayenne Crinkles
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. You could even top them with crushed candy canes. Fun, right?
YAY, Christmas cookies!
Chocolate Cayenne Crinkles
Chocolate Cayenne Crinkles
Ingredients
- 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.
Notes
Nutrition
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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 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!
My batch did not turn out thin at all! I tripled the batch and included an additional whole egg and egg white since I was using small eggs. Before adding the extra eggs the batter was too hard. In the end the batter was very thick and kind of messy when transferring to the baking sheet. I added a couple of more minutes to the baking time since I made my cookies on the larger size. They turned out great! Crispy outside with a dense, fudgy center. I used cayenne, cinnamon, and dark chocolate morsels. Perfect flavor for Christmas!
Oh my sweet holy Lord. These cookies though. They didn’t turn out as pretty as the pictures (mine never do) but they’re unbelievably tasty.
I weigh my ingredients when baking, so 360 g powdered sugar and 60 g cocoa. I’m guessing the last commenter just has a measurement issue, because mine turned out well. I used a cookie scoop since the batter is runny.
This recipe was pretty awful, which is a shame as I love at least a dozen others I’ve tried of yours.
Mixture was like chocolate soup at first; super watery. Kept adding more dry ingredients, no real improvement.
Eventually got it thick enough to consider a cookie, came out like nasty, dry chocolate cakes.
UK, so perhaps ingredients are just too different.
For the record: Love many of your other recipes. This one was just a complete miss for us.
Hi Beth,
You may no longer be checking the comments on this (amazing) recipe, but just in case: I’m planning to make these for a group that includes someone who’s vegan. Do you or other commenters have any tips for replacing the eggs in this recipe? I’ve never used vegan egg replacers and am especially wondering about yolk vs whites. Thank you!! And thanks for this recipe – have made it many times and always to rave reviews!
Hi Rebecca! We’re always checking reader input! As for a vegan egg substitute there are a lot of options, I would suggest the flax seed route. To substitute, blend 1 tablespoon of flax or chia seeds with 3 tablespoons of water until the mixture is thick and creamy for each egg. This is a great post on other swaps you can make with what you have on hand in your pantry.
So I used regular large eggs (not x-large) and the batter was so thin that it was pretty much liquid. I tried it anyways and the way it baked was hilariously terrible and like one giant pancake cookies. I even refrigerated the dough and 20 minutes to see if it would stiffen up but it never did. Any reason you could think that the batter was that thin? I mean, should I just cut down on the eggs?
Yeah, something isn’t right there. The batter should be so thick that it’s hard to stir. I would double check all your measurements and the measuring cups you used. It can be really easy to accidentally mis-measure something.
These are fantastic! Take a bit longer to make full batch due to cooling out of oven on sheet but I don’t mind.
So delicious and very easy