Despite what social media might tell you, not everyone owns a stand mixer, and that's okay. Stand mixers are nice to have, but they also take up lots of space on a kitchen countertop and are pretty expensive. The good news is that you don't even need one if you like to bake, especially when it comes to simple recipes like crinkle cookies.
Most recipes for crinkle cookies call for very soft or melted butter, which means you can easily hand mix the dough and get picture perfect results. Home-sized models of stand mixers are a relatively modern development. The first models date back about 100 years.
This might seem like a long time, but people have been making things like cookies, bread, and pasta for centuries without the help of electric mixers. The only barrier to baking without a mixer is your own arm strength, since you'll be doing all the mixing by hand. So if you're going the mixer-free route, try to always choose recipes like crinkle cookies, which don't require too much strength for steps like creaming butter and sugar.
Cookies need creaming Skim through any modern cookie recipe and you're bound to find directions for mechanical mixing. Even The Daily Meal's own recipes for strawberry flavored crinkle cookies , chocolate-based crinkle cookies , and red velvet crinkle cookies recommend it. That doesn't mean you need to run out to the store and get a KitchenAid, however.
Stand mixers simply make quick work of creaming butter and sugar together, which is just a fancy word.