Looking for new Christmas cookies to try? If you’re looking for a creative twist on sugar cookies or chocolate sugar cookie recipes, you’ve gotta try these Hot Chocolate Cookies!
Why You’ll Love These Hot Chocolate Cookies
A rich, chocolatey cookie filled with mini marshmallow bits- what’s not to love!
- Your favorite warm beverage turned dessert – These chewy cookies are like a cup of hot cocoa in cookie form! Perfect for dunking into, well, a mug of hot chocolate!
- Great for holiday cookie exchanges – Instead of traditional chocolate chip cookies or the usual cutouts, these gooey hot chocolate cookies will be a welcome surprise.
- Perfect for chocolate lovers – If chocolate desserts are your favorite, these will become your new favorite cookies.
Ingredients
The ingredients for these chewy hot chocolate cookies are quite simple. And you might be surprised to see they do not include hot cocoa mix!
- Butter – You want to make sure this is softened. I prefer to use unsalted butter to be able to control the salt content of these chocolaty cookies.
- Light brown sugar – I like the more mild flavor of light brown sugar, but feel free to use dark brown sugar if you’d like to.
- Eggs – Eggs provide structure for this chewy chocolate cookie. Room temperature eggs are best.
- Vanilla – I always like to use a good quality vanilla extract when baking, especially when I’m gifting to others for Christmas.
- Cocoa powder – Dutch processed cocoa powder is what gives us that rich chocolate flavor.
- Flour – All purpose flour provides structure and is the base for this hot chocolate cookie recipe.
- Baking soda – This acts as a leavener and provides that deliciously chewy texture we love.
- Fine sea salt – You can omit this altogether if you ended up using salted butter. Keep in mind, different salts measure differently.
- Mini dehydrated marshmallows – Instead of becoming melty marshmallows, these keep their shape and add extra flavor and texture to these rich chocolate cookies.
Variations
There are plenty of ways to make these hot chocolate cookies your own. Here are a few suggestions.
- Toppings – While the cookies are still warm, add a sprinkle of hot chocolate mix or press some extra marshmallows into the top of the cookies.
- Frosting – While these cookies are already quite sweet, you could add some fluffy marshmallow fluff or dark chocolate frosting to the top.
- Mix ins – In addition to the mini marshmallows, try mixing in some milk chocolate chips or white chocolate chips.
- Nuts – You could also try mixing in some chopped nuts to make these more like rocky road cookies.
How to Make Hot Chocolate Cookies
Making these hot cocoa cookies is the perfect way to kick off the holiday season.
- Combine dry ingredients. In a medium mixing bowl, sift together cocoa powder, flour, baking soda and fine sea salt. Set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a large mixing bowl with an electric hand mixer, cream together butter and brown sugar with a mixer until fluffy.
- Add eggs and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time. Then add vanilla, blending until mixed.
- Add dry to wet ingredients. Slowly add dry mixture until dough forms.
- Fold in marshmallows. Fold in mini dehydrated marshmallows.
- Chill dough. Cover and refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour and up to 36 hours.
- Prepare oven and baking sheet. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an insulated baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Add dough to cookie sheet. With a cookie scoop, scoop cookie dough balls onto prepared baking sheet.
- Bake, and remove right before they look cooked.
- Cool before placing on a cooling rack and allowing to cool fully.
Storage and Freezing
How to Store Hot Chocolate Cookies
While the cookies do not need to be refrigerated, you can store them in the refrigerator in an airtight container or resealable plastic bag for up to 5 days.
Can I Freeze These Cookies?
Freeze the cookies in a freezer bag or freezer-safe container for two to three months. Thaw at room temperature.
More Christmas Cookies
Making cookies for Christmas is one of my favorite things to do! Here are some of the best that we know you’ll love too.
Hot Chocolate Cookies
Hot Chocolate Cookies are must-make Christmas cookies! A favorite chocolate sugar cookie recipe with marshmallows, you’ll never be able to eat just one!
Servings:
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter , softened
- 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 3/4 cup mini dehydrated marshmallows
Instructions
- In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the cocoa powder, flour, baking soda and fine sea salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a large mixing bowl with an electric hand mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar with a mixer until fluffy, approximately 5 minutes.
- Add the eggs, one at a time and then stir in the vanilla, blending until mixed.
- Slowly add the dry mixture until a dough forms.
- Fold in the mini dehydrated marshmallows.
- Cover and refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour and up to 36 hours.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F. Line an insulated baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Drop 1 heaping tablespoon of cookie dough onto the cookie sheet leaving 2 inches between each.
- Baking for 9-11 minutes and remove right before they look cooked.
- Cool for 10 minutes before placing on a cooling rack and allowing to cool fully.
- If you've tried this recipe, come back and let us know how it was in the comments or star ratings.
Notes
Adapted from Chocolate, Chocolate and More.
Nutrition
Calories: 131 kcal, Carbohydrates: 18 g, Protein: 1 g, Fat: 6 g, Saturated Fat: 3 g, Cholesterol: 25 mg, Sodium: 165 mg, Potassium: 58 mg, Sugar: 10 g, Vitamin A: 190 IU, Calcium: 16 mg, Iron: 0.8 mg
Did you make this recipe?I’d love to see your recipes – snap a picture and mention @savoryexperiments or tag #savoryexperiments!
How did we go from 10 min prep time to chilling in the fridge for an hour at leas to a day and a half at most? Just put that into the prep time so you’re not actively lying to people reading the recipe for the first time.
Hi Barry- just an oversight, no need to get nasty. I am not “actively lying” to people maliciously over cookie dough chilling times. All fixed now.
I made these for the first time today. Followed the recipe exactly, and let it sit in the fridge for about 3 hours. Unfortunately, when I added in the marshmallows, it escaped me that they would melt, so instead of looking like the beautiful pictures, it kinda looked like a melty crackly mess. They’re not super sweet, so make sure to have them with a cuppa hot chocolate. I think the thing about this recipe that I would change about this is, adding in just a few of the marshmallows on the top nearer to the end of the baking time, to make it not only look nicer, but to avoid the marshmallows completely melting on the sides. They’re quite ugly, and look nothing like the pictures, so it was a bit sad to see them like this when my expectations were a bit higher. I think I will try these again at a later date, but putting the marshmallows in the center of the cookie and then wrapping it around, and then taking the cookies out after 11 mins (oven doesn’t go super hot), and put some marshmallows on top near and then put it in for maybe 2 minutes to make them brown and look nice.
Hi Anya! Did you use soft marshmallows or hard marshmallow bits? I used the hard bits, so they don’t really melt, which might be the difference 🙂 Thank you for the feedback and I’m glad they tasted good even if they didn’t look pretty. 🙂
How cute and delicious are these! My kids (and I) can’t get enough!
My kids have been begging me to make a chocolate and marshmallow cookie like this.
I’m a Christmas cookie baker too, so I can totally relate. And I love this idea. A cup of hot chocolate in a cookie sounds really tasty!
This looks amazing and I love the idea of having Hot Chocolate Cookies—with—YES Hot chocolate! (Don’t judge) lol
These are beautiful! My son’s two favorite foods — chocolate and marshmallows. Need to try these for Christmas!