These hot chocolate cookies are perfect treat for wintertime and Christmas. Chewy milk chocolate cookies packed with chocolate chips and dehydrated marshmallows that taste just like hot chocolate! Hot cocoa cookies pair perfectly with a warm mug of hot chocolate!
Ingredients for Hot Chocolate Cookies
- Unsalted butter – Room temperature, softened butter.
- Light brown sugar – Adds chew and sweetness.
- Granulated sugar – For more sweetness.
- Eggs – Large eggs, room temperature.
- Vanilla extract – Vanilla extract adds great underlying vanilla flavor.
- All-purpose flour – Be sure to fluff the flour before scooping and level the measuring cups.
- Cocoa powder – For these cookies, I recommend using regular cocoa powder. You can use dark cocoa powder if you prefer, but the regular cocoa powder gives the cookies a lighter chocolate brown color which is more reminiscent of hot chocolate.
- Baking soda – Leavening agent to help the cookies spread.
- Salt – To cut the sweetness in the cookies.
- Chocolate chips – Use milk chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips, or dark chocolate chips. You can also use chopped chocolate or chocolate chunks.
- Dehydrated marshmallows – This is the secret ingredient in this recipe! Dehydrated marshmallows add a chewy texture and marshmallow flavor. I prefer to use dehydrated marshmallows as they do not melt and disappear like regular mini marshmallows.
Tools & Supplies for Baking Hot Chocolate Cookies
How to Make Hot Chocolate Cookies
To make the hot chocolate cookies, you will need an electric hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Here are the basic steps involved in making these cookies:
- Cream unsalted butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar.
- Add eggs and vanilla extract to the butter mixture and mix until smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients (all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt). Mix on low until cookie dough forms.
- Fold in chocolate chips and dehydrated marshmallows.
- Portion the cookie dough with a medium cookie scoop. Chill for about 15 minutes.
- Preheat oven and prepare baking sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Place cookie dough balls on the prepared baking sheets and bake for approximately 8 to 10 minutes.
- Remove from oven, cool the cookies on the pan for a minute or two and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Hot Chocolate Cookies Recipe Tips
The secret ingredient – dehydrated marshmallows
For this recipe, my secret ingredient is dehydrated marshmallows – like the ones you find in hot cocoa mix! I love using dehydrated marshmallows for cookie recipes as the marshmallow bits soften and become gooey without completely melting and disappearing. I’ve tried making this recipe with mini marshmallows, but they seem to melt in the oven and cause large holes in the cookies! I purchase dehydrated marshmallows right on Amazon!
Cocoa powder
To mimic the flavor of hot chocolate, I recommend using regular unsweetened cocoa powder. It gives the cookies a milk chocolate flavor that is reminiscent of hot cocoa.
Cookie sizes
For this cookie recipe, you can use either a small, medium, or large cookie scoop to portion the cookie dough. Be aware that the different sized scoops will affect the yield and will also alter the baking times. The larger the cookie scoop, the longer the baking time will be. For these cookies, I used a medium cookie scoop, and the bake time was about 10 minutes. For small cookies, check around 8 minutes and for large cookies, check around 11 or 12 minutes.
Press in extra chocolate chips and marshmallows
To make the cookies look spectacular, immediately when they come out of the oven, gently press some additional chocolate chips or dehydrated marshmallows into the soft, warm cookies.
Make the dough ahead of time
I love making cookie dough ahead of time, especially around the holidays. You can make this dough about a week before you want to bake the cookies. Portion the dough using a cookie scoop, chill the dough balls, and then store the chilled dough balls in a resealable storage bag or freezer bag in the refrigerator. When you want to bake the cookies, simply remove them from the refrigerator, pop them on a baking sheet pan, allow them to sit at room temperature for a few minutes and bake as directed. You can also freeze the cookie dough balls for up to a month! Before baking, allow the cookie dough balls to thaw so they soften up.
Storing
The baked cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 to 4 days!
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Hot Chocolate Cookies
Equipment
- Electric hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ¾ cup dehydrated marshmallows
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or in a large bowl with an electric hand mixer, cream unsalted butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs and vanilla extract and mix until smooth.
- Add all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix on low until cookie dough forms.
- Fold in chocolate chips and dehydrated marshmallows.
- Portion the cookie dough with a medium cookie scoop. Place the cookie dough balls on a baking pan and chill for about 15 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350° F and prepare a baking sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Place cookie dough balls on the prepared baking sheets and allow space for spreading. Bake for approximately 8 to 10 minutes until the cookies are set on the edges but still appear soft in the center.
- Remove the pan from oven. Cool the cookies on the pan for a minute or two. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
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