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Chocolate Fudge Snow Cookies

Fudgy, brownie-like gluten-free chocolate cookies with a cracked, snow-white powdered sugar coating — a holiday favorite year-round.

Prep20 min
Cook10 min
Total3 hr 30 min
Serves24 cookies
DifficultyEasy
The gluten-free part
Uses 1-to-1 gluten-free all-purpose flour blend (with xanthan gum included) — This dough is closer to a brownie batter than a cookie dough, and gluten-free 1-to-1 flour holds together well in that kind of dense, fudgy base without needing any other adjustments. Make sure your cocoa powder is labeled gluten-free — most pure cocoa powder is, but some blends include malted milk or wheat-based anti-caking agents.

These are also called chocolate crinkle cookies — fudgy, brownie-textured cookies that crack open through a coat of powdered sugar as they bake, giving them a distinctive "snow-covered" look. They taste like a cross between a brownie and a cookie: crisp at the edges, dense and chocolatey in the middle. The dough needs a proper chill, but the payoff is a genuinely impressive-looking cookie for very little effort.

Ingredients

220 ggluten-free 1-to-1 all-purpose flour blend
90 gunsweetened cocoa powder
1 tspbaking powder
0.25 tspfine sea salt
180 ml (3/4 cup)neutral oil (such as avocado or sunflower oil)
300 ggranulated sugar
4large eggs
2 tspvanilla extract
1 tspinstant espresso powder (optional, deepens the chocolate flavor without tasting like coffee)
170 gsemisweet chocolate chips
60 ggranulated sugar, for rolling
120 gpowdered sugar, for rolling

Instructions

1

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.

2

In a large bowl, whisk the oil and sugar together until combined. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking well after each addition, then whisk in the vanilla and espresso powder if using.

3

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.

4

Cover the dough and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or overnight — this dough is very soft and needs the chill to be rollable.

5

Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

6

Set up two small bowls, one with granulated sugar and one with powdered sugar.

7

Scoop the chilled dough into 2-tablespoon balls. Roll each ball first in granulated sugar, then generously in powdered sugar until fully coated.

8

Place the coated dough balls about 5 cm apart on the baking sheets.

9

Bake for 9–10 minutes, until the cookies have spread and cracked with the chocolate showing through the sugar coating, but the centers still look soft.

10

Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Tips & notes

Coating the dough in granulated sugar first, then powdered sugar, gives a thicker, more defined crackle than powdered sugar alone.
These cookies look underdone when you pull them from the oven — that's correct. They firm up entirely as they cool.
Leave real space between dough balls on the sheet; the dough spreads more than a standard cookie dough as it bakes.

Storage & freezing

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. The powdered sugar coating will soften slightly in humid conditions but the cookies stay good. Freeze baked cookies for up to 2 months, or freeze the rolled, unbaked dough balls and bake straight from frozen, adding 1–2 extra minutes.

Always check that every ingredient and appliance is certified or verified gluten-free before cooking for someone with celiac disease. This recipe is general information, not medical or dietary advice.
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