Happy Monday! One of my favorite Christmas cookie to bake during Christmas time is chocolate crinkle cookies. BUT, now I came up with this new version : HOT CHOCOLATE CRINKLE COOKIES. I know… it sounds AMAZINGGGG and they are!

These cookies have the perfect chocolate color because I use regular cocoa powder and dark cocoa powder. Resting the dough in the fridge overnight is a trick that will help you have thick cookies and not flat ones. Rolling them in a good amount of sugar makes your cookies have a nice crackle top.

Anyway, here is the recipe and hope you enjoy it. Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram @Pastry_Tales , you’ll find all the videos of all my recipes posted on the blog, specially this one. If you make these cookies, let me know or tag me!

Let’s start with the recipe!

Yield about 12 cookie sandwiches

Ingredients

For the cookies

1/4 cup dark cocoa powder

1/4 cup regular cocoa powder

1 cup white granulated sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs, room temperature

1 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup powdered sugar

For the marshmallow filling

2 large egg whites (room temperature, this is VERY important)

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

pinch of salt

1 cup granulated sugar (divided 1/2 and 1/2 cup)

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (I like to use clear vanilla for this type of filling)

6 tablespoons water

Directions

For the cookies

1.-In a bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

2.-In a bowl of a stand mixer or any other mixer add regular and dark cocoa powder, sugar, oil. Mix well. Add in eggs and mix again. Add vanilla extract, mix for another minute.

3.-Add dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until you don’t see any flour.

4.-You can cover the bowl with plastic wrap or you can take the dough out from the bowl and pour the sticky dough on the top of plastic wrap and cover again with plastic (this is what I usually do). Place the cookie dough in the fridge for at least 6 hours or overnight. I get better results when the dough rest in the fridge for a whole night.

Next morning…

5.-Preheat oven to 350 F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Make balls of dough with your hands (about one inch size). Coat each ball in powdered sugar, coat them good! If your hands get dirty, wash them and start rolling again. If the dough gets soft quick, place it into the fridge again.

What I usually do is cut my dough in half, work just with that and let the other part in the fridge until ready to use.

6.-Place all the sugar coated cookie balls onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake for about 12 minutes. After baking, take the baking sheet out of the oven and let the cookies cool for about 2 minutes before placing them on cooling racks. Let the cookies cool completely.

For the marshmallow filling

1.- Let’s make the sugar syrup. Place 1/2 cup granulated sugar and water in a small pan. Place the pan over medium heat and cook until the syrup boils and reaches 235 F. I use a candy thermometer for this. Be careful while doing this because the sugar mixture is super hot and you can burn yourself. Before you reach 235 F, start with the meringue:

2.- For the meringue: Place egg whites, cream of tartar and salt into a large mixing bowl until foamy. Then, add 1/2 cup granulated sugar in a very slow and steady stream, mixer has to be on while you do this. Continue whipping until the meringue can hold stiff peaks. Add in vanilla extract and keep mixing in low speed.

3.- Add in the hot sugar syrup to the meringue while continuing to whip on low speed. When all the syrup has been added, set the mixer to high speed and whip and whip until stiff and glossy. This took me about 5-7 minutes.

How to assemble

1.-Transfer marshmallow filling into a pastry bag  with a tip. I used 1M by Wilton. Pipe the underside of half of the cookies with the marshmallow filling. Top with another cookie, creating a cookie sandwich.

2.-Now you have 2 options: toast the marshmallow with a kitchen torch (if you have one) or just eat the cookies! It’s up to you! 

3.-Storage the cookies in a container with a lid and they can last for days. Enjoy!!