Fudgy Cracked Chocolate Cookies (aka Snowball Cookies) make not only a beautiful Christmas cookie, but one of the best as well! Super chocolatey and dense, with little bites of chocolate chips inside. Plus, you can’t get more beautiful than the crinkled surface created as it bakes.
Why I Love Cracked Chocolate Cookies
Every year for Christmas, we have a very large variety of cookies. Mainly because with six children, each one has their own favorite and it wouldn’t be the holidays if they didn’t get their favorite 🙂 This recipe for cracked chocolate cookies is the favorite of Jones kid #3, and honestly one of my must-haves as well. They are only beaten by my Grandma’s Italian Pizzelle Cookies, which are the definition of my childhood Christmas.
What are cracked chocolate cookies?
Think of them as the best little brownie bites you’ve ever had! They have bits of chocolate chips in them as well, plus each dough ball is rolled in powdered sugar before they bake, which is what creates the crackled and crinkled tops. Some people also know these as snowball cookies and they are a very popular Christmas cookie.
The key to these is not to over-bake them! You want fudgy…not dry and crumbly. You want them just start to set, then pull them out. As they cool, they will firm up perfectly. Many an amazing cookie has been ruined by over-baking. Don’t let these gems fall victim to such a crime.
If you need a recipe to get your kids involved in, this one is it! They love rolling each ball into the powdered sugar….and licking their fingers in between 🙂 I think that is what they call adding “love” to a recipe!
You could get creative with the base recipe here and personalize it however you feel would be best. Feel free to add nuts, dried fruit, or different flavored chips like white chocolate, butterscotch, peanut butter, or mint. I’ve also tried these with toffee pieces and they were fabulous!
Watch How to Make Cracked Chocolate Cookies
Looking for More Yummy Cookie Recipes?
Here are a couple of our most popular cookie recipes, especially for Christmas and the holidays!
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Print Fudgy Cracked Chocolate Cookies
These dark and rich chocolate cookies are like brownies in cookie form! The crinkles come from rolling the dough in powdered sugar before baking them.
- Total Time: 18 minutes
- Yield: 30 cookies 1x
Ingredients
- 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons dutch processed cocoa powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- powdered sugar for rolling
Instructions
-
Melt chocolate and butter in microwave for 1 minute and stir well. If needed, microwave for 20 more seconds. Set aside to cool slightly.
-
In a large bowl, beat together sugar and eggs for several minutes until thick and smooth. Mix in vanilla and melted chocolate to combine. Add all the dry ingredients, including the chocolate chips and mix until combined. Cover dough and refrigerate about 2 hours.
-
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Using a small 1 1/2″ cookie scoop, make the balls of dough and drop into a bowl of powdered sugar. Roll around until completely covered in sugar. Bake for 8-10 minutes until they just begin to firm.
Notes
Add some Andes mint pieces to the dough for a mint version!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 8 minutes
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookies
- Calories: 137
- Sugar: 12 g
- Sodium: 25 mg
- Fat: 7 g
- Saturated Fat: 4 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 1 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 19 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 2 g
- Cholesterol: 18 mg
Keywords: cracked chocolate cookies, chocolate crinkle cookies
Mary says
These were simply fabulous! Thank you Carole
You are very welcome! Thank you for coming back and leaving your review. It helps out so much 🙂
Shelly says
I’ve been looking for a really good version of this recipe for years and of course, you have it for me 🙂 These are so fudgy and loaded with chocolate. I overbaked my first batch because I thought they needed more time but I trusted you for the rest and you are right. Don’t overbake them or they are dry.
I”m so happy to hear it Shelly! I’m making another batch this weekend to send to my son in California 🙂 I’m going to try really hard not to eat too many
Amy Stone says
Where do the chocolate chips go?
Hi Amy! They get mixed into the dough with the dry ingredients.