Dark Chocolate & Sea Salt Crinkles

I once got a gift box from a company that was trying to get me to do some business with them. It didn’t go anywhere, but the gift box was pretty special. Upon opening, I found a lot of personalised and branded bits and bobs, but also a little tin of crinkle cookies. To be fair, I didn’t think much of it as I have always thought that crinkle cookies are more style over substance, but these blew my mind!

I had to have more, but the cookie company printed on the label didn’t seem to exist online. A cookie enigma. Luckily, they had printed the ingredients on the label, so I had a starting point. I searched and searched before eventually finding a recipe that looked fairly similar. But, this recipe only had 2 out of 5 stars after 1.5k reviews. I couldn’t believe it was true.

It felt a lot like that Friends episode where Monica is trying to recreate Phoebe’s family cookie recipe. I worked on the cookies, over and over, with just the ingredients as a rough guide, and have finally come out with something I think is almost reminiscent of the wonders I tasted on that fateful day.

 

for the crinkles

270g 70% dark chocolate

100g sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

60g cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp cornstarch

1 tsp baking powder

0.5 tsp sea salt

125g icing sugar

a pinch of flaky sea salt

extra icing sugar to roll the cookies in

method

Timing is vital for this recipe, so let’s get prepped before we start to make the cookies.

  1. Start by preheating your oven to 190 °C.

  2. Line 2 large baking trays with baking paper.

  3. Split your chocolate into 2 portions, one of 180g and the other of 90g, then melt the 180g in a bowl placed over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Stir it until it has all melted evenly.

  4. With an electric mixer, whip the eggs with the sugar, balsamic and vanilla until they are light and frothy. Continue to whisk whilst slowly pouring in the melted chocolate.

  5. Sift in the icing sugar, cocoa powder, cornstarch and salt, then gently fold in by hand until combined.

  6. Chop the remaining 90g of chocolate, then stir it in as well. Keep stirring until the batter begins to stiffen up.

  7. Using an ice cream scoop or a spoon, portion out a cookie’s worth of the batter and drop it into a bowl of icing sugar. Roll around until the outside is completely coated.

  8. Place them on a baking tray, leaving just over an inch between each one, then give them a little press to slightly flatten them.

  9. Bake for 10 minutes (I promise, this is enough), then remove and let cool on the tray until they can be lifted to a cooling rack. Eat as soon as they are cool.