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These Gluten Free Chocolate Crinkle Cookies are the perfect treat, with a fudgy, chocolate centre and a gorgeous snowy coating. These chocolate snowball cookies are gluten free and dairy free – and so easy to make. The perfect gluten free festive bake!
If you’ve never had a gluten free chocolate crinkle cookie before – also known as chocolate snowball cookies or crackle cookies – you’re in for a treat.
This super easy bake is somewhere between a cookie and a brownie. A little crunchy on the outside, fudgy and chewy on the inside, and they look beautiful as a Christmas bake.
As the chocolate fudge cookie spreads in the oven, it creates this lovely ‘crackle’ cookie effect, with the chocolatey goodness peeking from underneath the sugar coating.
This gluten free dairy free crinkle cookie recipe is great fun to make with kids or on your own, they’ll love rolling them in icing sugar and watching them crackle in the oven.
Of course, for the perfect festive baking day, team them up with some of my other bakes, including Gluten Free Gingerbread Cookies and Gluten Free Lebkuchen.
And if you love a chocolate cookie, why not try my Giant Chocolate Cookies, my delicious Chewy Gluten Free Cookies or my White Chocolate Chunk Cookies next?
Ingredients
There’s a full printable recipe card below, but for the shopping list you will need the following ingredients to make my chocolate crinkle biscuits:
- Cocoa Powder: Most cocoa powder is gluten free but always double check. I always use an unsweetened cocoa powder from the baking aisle.
- Caster Sugar: In the US you’ll need a baker’s sugar for this recipe.
- Vegetable Oil: Any neutral oil will work. Using a flavoured oil like olive oil will create an unusual taste!
- Eggs: I haven’t worked out an egg-free version of these crinkle cookies yet. The eggs help to bind the dough together.
- Vanilla Extract: If you want to make flavoured cookies, you can use a mint or orange extract instead.
- Gluten Free Plain Flour: Make sure you use a gluten free flour blend like FREEE or Juvela’s white mix. In the US use an all purpose gluten free flour blend.
- Xanthan Gum: This is essential for making the cookie dough pliable. A little goes a long way – without if you may find the cookies go less fudgy.
- Baking Powder: Always ensure you’re using gluten free baking powder (baking soda in the US) and some products contain wheat.
- Icing Sugar: Or confectioner’s sugar / powdered sugar in the US. This is what creates the gorgeous snowy coating on the crackle cookies!
How to make Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
There’s a printable recipe card below with the method. But here are some step-by-step photos to show you how easy this gluten free crinkle cookies are to make:
Add the cocoa powder, caster sugar and oil to a large mixing bowl. Beat together with a wooden spoon until combined.
Crack the eggs into a mug or small bowl and lightly beat together with a fork. Add to the mixture as well as the vanilla extract and beat again until the mixture has combined.
In a separate bowl, add the baking powder and xanthan gum to the plain gluten free flour and stir together. Pour into the main mixing bowl.
Use a wooden spoon to continue to beat the mixture together until there is no loose flour and it has formed a smooth, slightly sticky dough.
Place the bowl of cookie dough into the fridge to chill for one hour – do NOT skip this step! The chilling is super important.
To bake the crinkle cookies:
Once the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 180’C / Fan 160’C / Gas Mark 4. Line two large baking trays with baking paper (parchment paper).
Remove the cookie dough from the fridge, break off a small lump of dough and roll into a ball using your hands – it should be around the size of a cherry tomato.
Pour the icing sugar on a plate then roll the cookie dough balls in the icing sugar until coated. Place on one of the baking sheets.
Repeat with the rest of the dough, leaving a couple of inches of space between the cookies to allow them to spread.
You may have to bake a few batches, if so just place any leftover dough back in the fridge before baking.
Place the cookies into the oven and bake for 10 minutes – they should spread into small domes and have ‘crackled’ on top.
Remove from the oven and allow the cookies on the tray (places on on a baking rack) to cool completely before moving, as they will initially be quite soft!
Recipe Tip
Do NOT skip the chilling step in this recipe! The crinkle cookie dough will be very sticky and hard to handle if it is not chilled. If you find the dough getting too sticky, simply pop it in the fridge for a little longer.
Storing and Freezing Crinkle Cookies
Once you’ve baked these gluten free crinkle cookies you can store them in an airtight container for up to a week.
You can also freeze them before and after baking by following these instructions:
To freeze the crinkle cookie dough:
Option one: Make the cookie dough, scrape it into clingfilm (plastic wrap) and wrap it up in a big sausage shape. Freeze like this and defrost before making your cookies as per the recipe above.
Option two: Make the cooking dough, chill and roll into balls. Before dusting in icing sugar, place the dough balls on a lined tray or board and freeze. Once frozen, decant into a bag or tub. You can then defrost, roll in icing sugar and bake whenever you need a cookie fix!
Gluten Free Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients
- 65 g cocoa powder
- 190 g caster sugar
- 60 ml vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 175 g gluten free plain flour
- 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3-4 heaped tbsps icing sugar
Instructions
- Add the cocoa powder, caster sugar and oil to a large mixing bowl and beat together with a wooden spoon until combined.
- Crack the eggs into a mug or small bowl and lightly beat together with a fork. Add to the mixture as well as the vanilla extract and beat again until the mixture has combined.
- In a separate bowl, add the baking powder and xanthan gum to the plain gluten free flour and stir together. Pour into the main mixing bowl.
- Use a wooden spoon to continue to beat the mixture together until there is no loose flour and it has formed a smooth, slightly sticky dough. Place the bowl of cookie dough into the fridge to chill for one hour – do NOT skip this step!
- Once the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 180'C / Fan 160'C / Gas Mark 4. Line two large baking trays with baking paper.
- Spoon the icing sugar onto a plate and spread out. Remove the dough from the fridge, break off a small lump of dough and roll into a ball using your hands – it should be around the size of a cherry tomato.
- Roll the dough in the icing sugar until coated, then place on one of the baking sheets. Repeat with the rest of the dough, leaving a couple of inches of space between the cookies to allow them to spread. (Note: You may have to bake a few batches, if so just place any leftover dough back in the fridge before baking)
- Place the cookies into the oven and bake for 10 minutes – they should spread into small domes and have 'crackled' on top. Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool completely before moving.
Video
Notes
- Weighing Scales vs Cups: You can toggle this recipe card to convert the ingredients into cups – I have weighed each item individually to ensure the conversion is accurate as possible. However, I always recommend using weighing scales – these are cheap to buy and much more accurate. And in gluten free baking, a tiny variation can make a huge difference!
- Step-by-Step Photos: Check out the blog post above for step-by-step photos to guide you through how this crinkle cookies recipe should look at each stage.
- Storing and Freezing: Check out the post above for more information about freezing and storing these crinkle cookies.
- Variations: Want to mix up the flavours? Try swapping the vanilla extract in this recipe for a mint or orange extract instead.
- Like this Recipe? It would mean SO much to me if you could leave a 5* rating and tell all your gluten free friends about this Gluten Free Crinkle Cookies!
Nutrition
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These are delicious & so easy to make. We’re allergic to chocolate/cocoa so substituted with carob powder & it was fabulous
Just made these today, and I think I’ve already eaten 5! I love your lebkuchen recipe, and this is another absolute winner.
These cookies are fantastic! I’m not gluten free, but two people in my life are. I could have been fooled if I didn’t know they were gluten free. Thanks for this great recipe!