4-Ingredient Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

If brownies ever decided to get dressed up for the holidays, they'd turn into these chocolate crinkle cookies. Developed by our colleague Julia Levy in our Birmingham, Alabama, test kitchen, these snow-dusted, fudgy, chocolate-rich cookies taste just as festive as they look. They're dense and chewy like a brownie, with that delicate, crackled confectioners' sugar crust that's the signature of crinkle cookies.

Classic crinkle cookies are, frankly, kind of a hassle. Most recipes start from scratch, require multiple bowls, and have you chilling, rolling, and hoping for the correct ratio of crinkle to chew once the cookies are baked.

In this recipe, Julia decided to cut to the chase. Since crinkle cookies are already brownies pretending to be cookies, why not start with the best boxed brownie mix you can find and let it do the heavy lifting? Enter these four-ingredient crinkle cookies—the easiest, fudgiest, most no-fuss version of the classic you'll ever bake. But to get them just right—with soft centers and a crinkly outer crust—there are a few key techniques to keep in mind when starting with boxed brownie mix.

The 5 Key Techniques for the Crinkliest Crinkle Cookies

1. Start with a flavorful brownie mix. Julia tested several boxed brownie mixes and found that Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Brownie Mix (the one with chocolate chips) delivers the richest chocolate flavor with that ideal chewy-edge-to-gooey-center contrast. That said, any good-quality brownie mix will work here—just make sure it's one you actually like eating on its own (rich and chocolatey is key). Depending on the brand, you may need to refrigerate the dough a bit longer to reach that firm-yet-malleable texture that makes shaping easy and ensures the sugar sticks properly.

2. Skip the water. Almost all boxed brownie mixes call for water to create a pourable batter. But here, we skip it entirely—because this isn't a batter, it's a dough. Omitting the water ensures the dough is thick enough to roll and shape, so the cookies hold their form instead of spreading into brownie puddles.

3. Chill the dough. Right after mixing, the dough will seem a little too soft and almost batter-like, but don't panic. A quick 30-minute chill in the fridge transforms it into a dough that's easy to scoop, shape, and roll without sticking to your hands. The chill also helps the sugar coating adhere rather than dissolve, giving the exterior a head start on drying out and setting you up for maximum crinkle potential. Skip the chill, and you'll end up with sad, sugar-splotched cookies that taste fine but look like they've seen things.

4. Douse your dough in sugar. The powdered sugar coating isn't just for looks, though the dramatic black-and-white contrast is half the fun. Crinkle cookies get their signature cracks because the outside dries and sets before the inside fully cooks, causing the exterior to rupture. The sugar helps this along by drawing moisture from the surface so it dries faster, creating those gorgeous fissures as the centers continue to expand in the oven. Make sure to coat each dough ball generously—don't shake off the excess. The heavier the snowstorm, the better the crackle.

5. Don't overbake them. Crinkle cookies should be just set at the edges and still a little shiny in the center. Pull them when they look almost done. They should be cracked all over but not dull or dry. Overbake, and you'll end up with chocolate hockey pucks instead of cookies with fudgy centers. Let them cool on the pan for at least five minutes before moving them to a rack; they'll finish setting as they cool, firming up into that perfect chewy bite.

With just four ingredients and one bowl, you can make chewy, chocolatey crinkle cookies that look like you've been baking all day—but take almost no effort to pull off.