Chocolate Crinkles

Source: An old cookie cookbook that belongs to my mother-in-law.

I have searched for years for a good chocolate crinkle recipe. The recipe I had, which I got from who knows where, was just terrible. This year, my mother-in-law confessed that she had the same problem. She pulled out this book, from which she used to make cookies years ago, and we decided to both make a batch of chocolate crinkles. She even donated the chocolate squares to my cause! And, finally, the recipe lived up to the promise! These cookies are everything I remembered them to be; slightly crunchy on the outside, but still soft and chewy with a great chocolate flavor. (I wonder if it is because it calls for oil instead of shortening.) This is a fabulous everyday cookie.

YIELD: 6 dozen cookies

1/2 cup vegetable oil

4 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup powdered sugar

Mix oil, chocolate, and sugar. Blend in one egg at a time until well mixed. Add vanilla. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt, and blend into oil mixture. Wrap dough in plastic wrap or ziploc bag, and chill several hours or overnight. (I'm convinced that chilling the dough is a critical step.)

The next step says to shape the dough into small balls and roll them in powdered sugar. I tried to keep the dough from sticking to my hands by covering my hands with powdered sugar first. This effort failed miserably. The dough sticks, there is just no way around it. I recommend working on this step while you are near a sink! It is just so disappointing to see all that yummy dough go down the drain!

Place them on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 350, 10-12 minutes. (As always, do not overbake!)