HOT COCOA COOKIES

Adapted from familycookierecipes.com

Hot Cocoa Cookies made with hot cocoa mix, chocolate chips, crushed candy canes and marshmallow bits. These hot chocolate cookies are simple to make and have all the flavors of a cup of your favorite hot cocoa!

I don’t like being cold at all, but one perk of winter and cold weather is hot chocolate. There is nothing better than sitting by a fire and drinking a cup of hot chocolate that is loaded with marshmallows. While reading a really good book.

Hot Cocoa Cookies are cookies that are made with hot chocolate mix in the dough. Throw in some chocolate chips, crushed candy canes and marshmallow bits before baking and the cookies will taste just like your favorite cup of hot chocolate.

INGREDIENTS IN HOT COCOA COOKIES

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Butter – You need 1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) of butter. Make sure the butter is softened to room temperature. For best results, use real butter.

Sugars – You will need regular granulated sugar and light brown sugar as well. For best results, make sure the brown sugar is fresh and soft.

Eggs – Two large eggs will help bind everything together.

Vanilla extract – Just a teaspoon of vanilla adds some extra richness and flavor to the cookies. The higher the quality of vanilla, the better.

Flour – All-purpose flour works best in this cookie recipe.

Hot cocoa mix – You will need 4 packets instant hot cocoa or 1/2 cup of hot cocoa mix. You can use any brand or flavor of hot cocoa that you like best, but make sure it is NOT sugar free.

Baking soda and baking powder – Baking soda and baking powder are the leavening agents in the cookies. For best results, make sure they aren’t old or expired.

Chocolate chips – The recipe calls for a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips. You can use milk chocolate or white chocolate or dark chocolate…or even mint chips. They all taste delicious! I like to use the holiday variety around Christmas to add some red and green color to the cookies.

Jet-Puffed Vanilla Mallow Bits – Sometimes these dehydrated marshmallows are a little bit tricky to find, but they are perfect in the cookies. They can usually be found in a can near the hot chocolate mixes at the store.

Candy canes – You will need a cup of crushed candy canes. Sometimes you can find crushed candy canes in the baking aisle around the holidays and I love using those for the convenience factor. If you do crush your own candy canes, it’s much easier to crush the mini ones. You will need about 40 miniature candy canes to get a cup’s worth. Make sure not to crush them too finely – you will want some bigger chunks in the cookies.

HOW TO CRUSH CANDY CANES

It is much easier to crush candy canes if you use the tiny ones rather than full sized candy canes! The tiny ones are much more fragile and break a lot easier.

I just take them all out of their individual packages and then place them in a ziplock bag. Let all of the extra air out of the bag before sealing and then use the end of a rolling pin or a meat mallet to smash them.

You don’t want to smash them so hard that you end up with a fine powder – you definitely want larger chunks that you can actually taste in the cookies. The crunch of the candy cane pieces adds a fun texture to this hot cocoa cookie recipe.

Just this year, I have been able to find bags of crushed candy canes in the baking aisle during the holiday season, and have been taking full advantage! I love not having to take the extra step of opening all of the little candy canes and then smashing them. So make sure to look for those bags – the ones at my store were green!

HOW TO MAKE THE BEST HOT CHOCOLATE COOKIES

After trying out multiple chocolate chip cookie recipes over many years, I have picked up several important tips for making the absolute BEST hot cocoa cookies.

Make sure that you have enough flour in the dough. If the dough is too sticky, you may need to add a little bit of flour.
Spend a little extra time when you mix the butter and sugars. Creaming them together for 2-3 minutes will improve the consistency of your cookies.
Also, spend extra time mixing once you have added the eggs and vanilla. Another 2-3 minutes is usually perfect!
Preheat the oven. This will help your cookies turn out right every time!
Use a cookie scoop! If you want all your cookies to be perfectly shaped and have them all be the same size, a cookie scoop is the way to go.
Use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Doing this will make it really easy to remove the cookies from your cookie sheet so that you don’t have to scrape them off the pan – they will just slide right off in perfect shape!
Don’t over bake the cookies – when I take mine out of the oven, they still look slightly under baked but they will continue to bake on the cookie sheet for a couple more minutes so that’s ok!