Dark Chocolate Orange Crinkle Cookies
Dark Chocolate Orange Crinkle Cookies are super chocolaty with a hint of orange flavor. Get the kids in the kitchen and let them help roll the dough in the powdered sugar!
This recipe and the giveaway included in this post is sponsored by Adams Extract #ChristmasCookie Week. All opinions are my own. Thanks for supporting the brands that make A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures possible.
Confession. Yes, I know it’s really not great to start a post off with a confession, but I feel like I need to get this off my chest first thing. I have never made crinkle cookies every in my life. And I think I’ve only had maybe one or two ever in my life? “So why make them now, ” you ask?
Because they look so cool!
Don’t they? With their hidden chocolate peaking out through all that powdered sugar. They just look so cool and fun to make. And, well, any cookie with chocolate in it is delicious in my book. Heck, ANYTHING with chocolate in it is delicious in my book. Unless it’s like chocolate salmon or chocolate asparagus or chocolate cilantro. That’s just not good.
I think this all comes from my aversion to powdered sugar. I don’t like powdered sugar donuts which sucks because all the jelly ones are powdered sugar. And I like jelly donuts. It’s messy. No matter how hard I try I make a killer mess in the kitchen every time take the container out. No matter how hard I try!! If I eat a donut or anything with powdered sugar on it, it gets all over me. That’s never pleasant.
And I made a total mess making these cookies. Which stressed me slightly. Because the hubs cleaned the kitchen recently. Then I told him Christmas Cookies Week was coming up. His comment? “Well there goes my clean kitchen!” It’s not like I don’t clean up when I’m finished. Heck sometimes you can’t even tell I’ve been in the kitchen. So, with the powdered sugar in this recipe, I was stressing.
Not only in rolling the dough in the powdered sugar but taking the Dark Chocolate Orange Crinkle Cookies off the tray to cool on the rack. Then putting them on the plate. And moving them to the prop plate before putting them in the zip top bag when I was finished. I left a trail of powdered sugar everywhere! EVERYWHERE! Even on the floor. The dogs were stressing because they wanted to help me clean up. But I had the vacuum ready to clean up the mess before they could.
My own personal furry Roomba.
Anytime I drop anything on the floor our little Hoover is like one of those robot things and just bee lines right for it. So much so that now the new dog is learning this behavior, too. Which sucks. When you’re in the kitchen trying to cook something up they’re always at your feet. At least with kids you can give them something to entertain themselves with. I try bones. They’re not interested. Treats last like seconds. I’m seriously considering a second baby gate so I can block them from the main cooking area.
But, with all the trials and tribulations I had while making these Dark Chocolate Orange Crinkle Cookies just look at them! Perfectly crinkled with the dark chocolate poking through. Feel free to use regular cocoa powder. I have an affinity for the dark chocolate since dark chocolate is my favorite chocolate. But that’s another post and another issue all together.
They have such a great wow factor in any cookie tin. I would suggest separating these out with some parchment or put them in those festive holiday cookie bags to keep the powdered sugar from infiltrating the other items in your tin. Because I don’t give cookie tins I’m not sure how y’all would do that, but think on it.
I couldn’t stick with just chocolate in these cookies. And, to be honest, walking through Lidl I saw a chocolate orange and knew I had to make a chocolate orange cookie this year. And since most crinkle cookies are chocolate, I thought, “Why not make Dark Chocolate Orange Crinkle Cookies?”
It really was as simple as that.
No extravagant epitome that hit me while searching for some other cookies. Cause, sometimes that does happen to me. And when it does I feel the need to explain how my thought process works. But this was see a chocolate orange and then chocolate cookie lead to dark chocolate orange crinkle cookies.
Now, initially I was going to add some orange extract, too. Don’t do this. The 2 teaspoons of fresh orange zest is plenty. I was afraid that it would be too much. These Dark Chocolate Orange Crinkle Cookies smelled really orange when I was rolling them. And then when I put them in the oven, I was concerned that it would be too much. But, I tasted one when it came out of the oven and it’s the perfect amount of orange flavor!
And some might scowl at the 3 eggs in these cookies. But that’s what makes these Dark Chocolate Orange Crinkle Cookies so fudgy and chocolaty delicious all the same time. That extra egg makes them rich and super delicious! Without it, I’m guessing it will still be a good cookie, but just not as chewy and fudgy as they are now. I can’t say fudgy enough. Because they truly are fudgy which I love!
These Dark Chocolate Orange Crinkle Cookies makes the powdered sugar mess all worth it!
I used Adams Extract vanilla in these cookies.
Yes, I put vanilla in my chocolate cookies. Don’t you? Just because they’re chocolate doesn’t mean they can’t use an uplift in flavor from the vanilla. It elevates the sweet and gives these Dark Chocolate Orange Crinkle Cookies an extra layer of flavor.
Dark Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Dark Chocolate Orange Crinkle Cookies are super chocolaty with a hint of orange flavor. Get the kids in the kitchen and let them help roll the dough in the powdered sugar!
Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons orange zest
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 cup cocoa dark powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Combine the granulated sugar and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer with the butter. Beat with the whisk attachment until creamy.
- Switch to the paddle attachment and add the eggs one at a time, stirring after each addition.
- Stir in the vanilla extract and the orange zest.
- Combine the flour with the cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl. Stir with a whisk.
- With the speed set to low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until all the flour is incorporated.
- Place the powdered sugar on a shallow plate.
- Scoop teaspoon sized balls of dough and roll the balls in the powdered sugar. If necessary, after rolling the dough into the powdered sugar, you can roll them in your hands to make an evenly round ball.
- Place the balls on a baking sheet lined with a silpat mat. Bake at 350 for 15 to 18 minutes until they are no longer soft to the touch and have crackled.
- Cool slightly in the pan before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.
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Nutrition Information
Yield
26Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 131Total Fat 4gSaturated Fat 2gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 1gCholesterol 31mgSodium 106mgCarbohydrates 21gFiber 1gSugar 13gProtein 2g
While that may look realistic, please count your product calories to be sure.
Thank you to Ellen of Family Around the Table and Christie from A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures for hosting #ChristmasCookies Week! And a huge thank you to our sponsors Adams Extract and Millican Pecan for supporting the bloggers and events like Christmas Cookies Week.
Check out today’s cookie recipes:
Chewy Hazelnut Oatmeal Cookies by Food Above Gold
Cinnamon Pecan Snowball Cookies by The Spiffy Cookie
Cream Cheese Red Velvet Thumbprint Cookies by Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
Dark Chocolate Orange Crinkle Cookies by A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures
Eggnog Crackle Cookies by Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
Eggnog Snickerdoodle Cookies by Cheese Curd In Paradise
French Toast Snickerdoodles by Love and Confections
Gluten Free Hungarian Rugelach by Frugal & Fit
Iced Molasses Cookies by Palatable Pastime
Lemon Sponge Tassies by Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
Peppermint Madeleines by Books n’ Cooks
Raspberry Shortbread Cookies by Blogghetti
Salted Chocolate Pecan Cookies by Cookaholic Wife
Speculoos (Belgian Spice Cookies) by Karen’s Kitchen Stories
White Chocolate Cranberry Shortbread Cookies by Red Cottage Chronicles
Your ingredients say “baking powder” and your directions say “baking soda”. Which is correct?
That would be making powder. My apologies for the confusion!
The crinkle in your cookies is perfect! I would love to try these! Orange and chocolate is delicious!
Thank you! They went quickly at work.
I love the look of these cookies as much as I love the flavor idea. Chocolate and orange is one of my favorites.
Right? And my friend bought me a chocolate orange for watching her kitties. Can’t wait to devour it and make these again.
Love dark chocolate and orange together…these look so pretty!
Aren’t they so good? Thank you! They looked better than I hoped.
I’ve always loved German Chocolate cookies.
German Chocolate cookies? Now that’s one I’ll have to look into.
I like that you made them from scratch. So many crinkle cookies use a cake mix but making them from scratch is easy and so much better. Chocolate orange is a great flavor combination!
I almost did make them from a cake mix, but I only had lemon cake mix and the hubs doesn’t like citrus desserts. So, it was homemade crinkle cookies for me!
That splash of orange sounds so good!
It really it just a light orange flavor. Not overpowering at all.
These are almost to yummy looking to eat! And the orange is a nice twist!
Thank you! It’s a flavor combination I love, so I had to make them into a cookie. They devoured them at work.
These do look pretty cool. You’re right about powdered sugar. It’s worse than glitter. It gets everywhere. But it tastes so good!
Thank you! No matter how careful I try to be, it just goes EVERYWHERE!
You nailed these! I can’t believe these are your first stab at crinkle cookies!
Thank you! I can’t believe it either. I just haven’t thought about making them before, but I will be making them again.
These really are so pretty- I wouldn’t have to make any others for a beautiful cookie plate! Here I was lamenting about not having an IRobot, and now you made me glad I don’t!
LOL I have thought about the iRobot, too, but I think the dogs would just be terrorized. They hate the regular one as it is. I can’t imagine one that chases them around the house.