Hot Cocoa Cookies Recipe (With Hot Chocolate Mix)
Hot Cocoa Cookies are rich chocolate cookies filled with actual hot chocolate mix, marshmallow bits, and crushed peppermint candies. These crowd-pleasing hot chocolate cookies are simple to make, chewy cookies unlike any other chocolate cookie, and taste just like a decadent cup of hot cocoa!
What do you get when you combine hot cocoa mix with a soft and flavorful cookie recipe?
Magic.
These hot chocolate cookies are unbelievably good. They don’t taste like any other chocolate cookie. They’re like eating a cup of hot chocolate bite by bite in cookie form. Delicious!
Everyone has their favorite Christmas cookies. Whether you belong to team thumbprints, team crinkle cookies, team chocolate chip cookies, team oatmeal cookies, team shortbread cookies, or some other cookie team, these hot cocoa cookies will compete for that top spot!
Every once in a while, it’s fun to try a new flavor of cookie (have you tried my new Eggnog Cookies?)!
My kids and I are all huge hot chocolate drinkers. I’ve been making homemade hot chocolate mix for years, and a huge batch never makes it through an entire season.
One year at our moms holiday cookie exchange, a fellow mom had brought hot cocoa cookies, and I couldn’t get enough of them! I was literally eating bite after bite of that chewy cookie.
I asked her for the recipe (I have no idea where she got it, so thank you if it was you!), and we’ve been making chocolate peppermint cookies ever since – they’re one of our favorite cookies!
Hot cocoa cookies are the perfect cookie for holiday cookie exchanges and the entire holiday season!
If you love a good cookie recipe, be sure to check out my Chocolate Caramel Shortbread Cookies and my Matcha Snickerdoodles Cookies.
Hot Chocolate Cookies Recipe Ingredients
- Butter
- White sugar
- Brown sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Hot cocoa mix – do not use sugar-free hot cocoa mix. I recommend using Swiss Miss Marshmallow Lovers Hot Cocoa Mix
- Salt
- Baking soda
- Baking powder
- Chocolate chips
- Crushed candy canes – use your food processor or buy crushed candy cane bits to save time.
- Marshmallow Bits
Helpful Kitchen Tools
NOTE: For more recipe details, please check out the handy printable recipe card at the bottom of the post.
How To Make Hot Cocoa Cookies
These delicious hot chocolate cookies are super easy to make – here’s how!
Step 1 – Mix Wet Ingredients
Cream butter and sugars in a large bowl o bowl of a stand mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.
Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.
Step 2 – Combine Dry Ingredients
In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients (flour, hot cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt).
Step 3 – Add Dry Ingredients To Wet Ingredients
Gradually mix the flour mixture into the butter mixture until blended.
Step 4 – Add Extras
Stir in chocolate chips, crushed candy canes, and marshmallow bits.
Step 5 – Chill Dough
Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare each cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
Step 6 – Add Cookie Dough Balls To Prepared Cookie Sheets
Drop 2 tablespoons of dough, roughly 2 inches apart, onto prepared baking sheets.
Step 7 – Bake Hot Cocoa Cookies
Bake 9 – 11 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.
Cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes, then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Enjoy your delicious hot cocoa cookies!
What kind of marshmallows are best for hot chocolate cookies?
I need to take a moment to say something important about which marshmallows to use in these cookies.
You can use regular mini marshmallows in this recipe, but the final cookie will be different. Since mini marshmallows get soft and melty, your cookies will be more like a s’mores than what I was going for with this recipe.
Instead, I recommend using the tiny freeze-dried marshmallows. They should be in your local grocery store on either the hot chocolate aisle or the marshmallow aisle. If you can’t find them in your grocery store (which has happened for me), you can grab them off of Amazon.
Pro Tip – If you need to buy hot cocoa mix and marshmallows for this recipe, I highly recommend killing two birds with one stone and using the Swiss Miss Marshmallow Lovers Hot Cocoa Mix which has the marshmallow bits already in the powder!
Hot Cocoa Cookie Notes And Expert Tips
Do NOT use sugar-free hot cocoa mixes because the cookies won’t turn out well.
Variations Of Hot Cocoa Cookies To Try
Leave out peppermint pieces – if you don’t want the candy pieces in the cookies, leave them out!
Use peppermint extract instead of candy pieces – this will still give you that amazing peppermint flavor, but it’s strong. So a little goes a long way. Seriously, you probably only need about 1/2 tsp.
White chocolate chips instead of regular chocolate chips! Yum!
Try different hot cocoa flavors! Use flavored hot chocolate powders to change up these cookies (leave out the peppermint candy pieces). This Land O Lakes pack offers four flavors: chocolate supreme, French vanilla, peppermint, and salted caramel.
Hot Cocoa Cookies Storage
These cookies don’t need to be refrigerated. If you have any leftovers (and that’s a BIG “if”!), they will stay fresh in an airtight container for up to 7 days.
Freezing
These cookies are not great after freezing, so I don’t recommend freezing them. If you really need to make them ahead of time and freeze the dough, do it before adding in the chocolate chips, marshmallow bits, and candy pieces.
More Delicious Cookies To Try
If you love these easy hot cocoa cookies, don’t leave without grabbing these cookie recipes too!
- Brown Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies (Using Heath Bars!)
- Festive Holiday Fruitcake Cookies
- Adorable Santa Gnome Cake Mix Cookies
- Christmas Peanut Butter Cookies
- Easy White Chocolate Raspberry Cookies Recipe
- Peanut Butter Thumbprint Cookies (With Jam Filling)
Pin For Later!
Hot Cocoa Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 packages hot cocoa mix (or 2/3 cups hot cocoa mix) **See note
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 3/4 cup crushed candy canes
- 1 cup Mallow Bits
Instructions
- Beat butter and sugars in large bowl with standing mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well.
- In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients. Gradually beat dry ingredients into butter mixture until blended.
- Stir in chocolate chips, crushed candy canes, and Mallow Bits*. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Drop 2 tablespoons dough, 2 inches apart, onto baking sheets lined with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
- Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets 5 minutes; remove to wire racks and cool.
Notes
**Hot Cocoa Mix - Do NOT use sugar-free versions
**Mini marshmallows melt and turn into a sticky mess, so I don't using them unless you want a very different cookie (more like a s'mores cookie)
