These Chocolate Crinkle Cookies are easily one of my favorite recipes ever.
I know, that’s very high praise. But if you make this recipe, you’ll see exactly why I love it so much.
These healthy chocolate crinkle cookies are essentially soft, decadent brownies in cookie form.
They’re soft and moist inside, and yet the outside has a slight crisp to them. If you like brownies with crackly tops (who doesn’t?) then you’re going to LOVE these chocolate crinkle cookies.
Each of these cookies is only 65 calories, contains 4g of protein, and is gluten-free and sugar-free.
Healthy cookies have never tasted so good.
How to make healthy chocolate crinkle cookies
Once you have mixed up the ingredients for your chocolate cookie dough, we have to let the dough chill for one hour.
Since the “crinkle” effect is so important for these cookies, chilling is essential. By chilling the dough, it prevents the cookies from spreading, allowing us to create that crackly effect after they are baked.
If you skip the chilling process, your cookies will spread thinner and you won’t achieve the same crinkle effect.
Once the dough has chilled, we’re going to roll 9 cookie dough balls and generously coat them in powdered sugar substitute (or regular powdered sugar).
These cookie dough balls should look just like Chocolate Donut Holes at this point (and you can technically eat them at this point if you truly couldn’t help yourself since the chocolate cookie dough is safe to eat raw).
Bake the cookies at 350 degrees F for 8 minutes.
Remove from the oven, then immediately press the cookies down with a spatula or with the back of a spoon to create the crinkle effect.
Don’t squish the cookies completely flat, because we still want there to be a soft & gooey interior to them. Just a little bit of pressure is all you need to press the tops of these chocolate crinkle cookies down.
Allow the cookies to cool for roughly 10 minutes, then they are ready to be enjoyed.
You can store these cookies at room temperature, or they are great served chilled out of the refrigerator, for up to one week.
More chocolate recipes to enjoy
Ready to get chocolate wasted? While these chocolate crinkle cookies are truly my favorite chocolate recipe on the blog, I have plenty more chocolatey recipes to satisfy your cravings. Here are some of my favorites that are worth checking out:
- Half Pound Chocolate Protein Cookie with 50g Protein
- Easy Chocolate Fudge
- Low-Calorie Fudgsicles
- Healthier Chocolate Donut Holes
- The BEST Protein Brownies

Healthy Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
I am proudly dubbing this one of my favorite cookies of all time! Think of a moist, decadent brownie, but in cookie form.
Ingredients
- 30g (1 Scoop) Chocolate or Vanilla Protein Powder (I use PEScience, which is a blend of whey/casein protein. See notes below)
- 28g Oat Flour
- 10g Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- 30g Brown Sugar Substitute
- 32g (2 Tbsp) Creamy Peanut Butter
- 50g Unsweetened Applesauce
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 30g Lily's Sugar-Free Baking Chips (or any chocolate chips)
- Pinch of salt
- Powdered Sugar Substitute for Coating
Instructions
- Melt chocolate chips down in the microwave, then mix with the peanut butter and applesauce until smooth.
- Add all of the dry ingredients to your bowl (except protein powder) and mix until it forms a thick batter.
- Mix in your protein powder last until it forms a thick cookie dough- you'll likely need to work the dough with your hands until there is no dry powder remaining.
- Refrigerate the dough for one hour.
- After the dough has chilled, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
- Break off small pieces of the dough and roll them into balls before placing them on a cookie sheet. I made 9 cookies out of my dough, but you can make more or less depending on the size you would like.
- Roll each dough ball in powdered sugar to completely cover, then bake for 8 minutes.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and immediately press the cookies down with the back of a spoon or spatula to flatten them and create the crinkle effect.
- Let the cookies cool for 10 minutes, then enjoy!
Notes
- The protein powder I use (PEScience) is a blend of whey & casein protein. In my experience, this works best for cookies. You can likely use 100% whey, but the resulting cookie may be dry. You can check out my protein powder substitution guide here, and you can save 15% on PEScience protein using the code "Matt"
- Chocolate protein powder obviously works great here, but you can use vanilla as well! Since we're adding cocoa powder, it will still work.
- If you cannot eat peanut butter, you can use any other type of butter in its place. I find the peanut butter & chocolate combo to work great, but regular butter, almond butter, sunflower butter, etc, should all work.
- I don't count the sugar substitute in my carb totals, so be sure to include those in your calculations if you are very strict about carbs.
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Nutrition Information
Yield 9 Serving Size 1 Crinkle CookieAmount Per Serving Calories 65Total Fat 3gCarbohydrates 6.5gProtein 4g
Kara
Sunday 12th of December 2021
I can’t wait to make this! Do you think whole wheat flour can be used instead of oat flour?
Kara
Tuesday 14th of December 2021
@Matt Rosenman, gotcha, I will just blend some oats! Thank you so much for this!
Matt Rosenman
Monday 13th of December 2021
@Kara, It might make these a little more "cakey" but I would guess that it will mostly work!