If you love a nice mug of hot cocoa, then you are going to absolutely adore these Hot Cocoa Cookies. Made with hot cocoa mix, they truly taste like hot chocolate!
With the addition of dehydrated mini marshmallows, you have all the flavor of hot chocolate in these delicious hot cocoa cookies! These make the perfect addition to your Christmas Cookie baking and holiday cookie exchanges!
On a recent trip to Target a new product jumped into my cart…
(2020 – Update: Unfortunately it seems Mallow Bits are very hard to find in stores year. Any freeze dried marshmallows will work. They are easy to find online, though in store can be a bit harder. Check by your hot chocolate area. Also, some brands such as ChocoMaker are now selling what appear to be identical marshmallows as sprinkles, so check the sprinkle isle.
2017 – Fun update, a few months after I shared this post back in 2012, the folks at Kraft reached out to me, and a few months later after much testing on in the Kraft Kitchens, this cookie recipe appeared on the actual Jet-Puffed Mallow Bits container, as well as some of the Swiss Miss Cocoa containers. You can still find it there today!)
Kraft Marshmallow “Mallow Bits”. Clearly I had to buy some. They were available in both vanilla and peppermint, and were on the end of an isle, where all the products you can’t find seem to reside.
While I’m sure they would be great to eat out of the container for lunch, I decided I would work them into a recipe. Hot chocolate cookies sounded like fun.
Hot Cocoa Cookies
The Mallow Bits can be a bit (no pun intended) hard to find. Check both the marshmallow area and the hot cocoa/coffee isle. More often than not I find them with the hot cocoa.
But if you can’t find those, or you like to have things in mass quantities, there is always Amazon. You can get a pack of the Mallow Bits or a different brand of dehydrated marshmallows.
I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting anything spectacular from these cookies.
I mean the only difference from a regular cookie is swapping the cocoa powder for hot chocolate mix – no biggie.
Well surprise surprise, these were GREAT.
Both my daughter and a friend of ours agreed – while they knew they’d be good, they ended up being much better than expected. Woohoo! Here’s how to make them… 
RECIPE FOR COOKIES MADE WITH HOT CHOCOLATE MIX
Hot Cocoa Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 1/4 cups flour
- 4 packages Hot Chocolate Mix not sugar free - or 3/4 cups
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 1 cup Marshmallow Bits*
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a mixing bowl, mix butter until light and fluffy. Add in sugars and mix until well combined. Add eggs and vanilla, mixing until just combined.
- Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine. Add to wet ingredients and stir to combine.
- Scoop onto baking sheets lined with silicone baking mats or parchment paper, approximately 2-3 tablespoons of dough per scoop, and bake for approximately 9-11 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool at least ten minutes prior to transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Disclaimer
Nutrition information is estimated as a courtesy. If using for medical purposes, please verify information using your own nutritional calculator. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Taylor S. says
I made these and they were really delicious but they came out super thin. Any recommendations to keep them fluffy like the pics?
Christi Johnstone says
Check the expiration dates on your ingredients, and if you don’t have an oven thermometer, I’d get one. My first sign that I had an oven going bad was that cookies were all coming out flat. Also, when you make them into balls, you can shape the mounds of dough higher than wide, and that helps.
Susan Del Giudice says
Just made this recipe yesterday and they are delicious. I followed your recipe exactly and baked for 9 minutes 30 seconds. I ended up making 3 1/2 dozen cookies. Only thing I did wrong in the beginning was to try to take them off of the pan and try to put them on a wire rack to cool, as soon as they came out of the oven. Went back to your recipe and saw what I did wrong. Those few that fell through the rack because I didn’t read to the end, were not wasted. I saved the pieces and ate them as soon as they cooled down. So I ended up eating four cookies at once, which I do not regret. Even not thoroughly cooked, they were to die for. This of course, was my fault, not yours. I also tried one today and it was as good as yesterday. I only hope they freeze well. I will not be able to confirm this, because I’m afraid if I take any out of the freezer before Christmas, I will not be able to stop myself from eating them all. Thank you so much for a recipe that is so easy and so delicious.
Emily says
Delicious batter but they all burned starting two minutes in when I baked them. Wondering if you know why that would happen? I placed them on parchment paper on baking sheets.
Christi Johnstone says
Do you have an oven thermometer? If anything is burning two minutes in, it’s extremely likely that the oven is running too hot. Did you preheat the oven before putting the cookies in? If you put them in while preheating, it can often be a bit like broiling them.
Kelly C Chambers says
Is the Cocoa Mix the kind with dry milk already added? I use Starbucks cocoa at home and wondering if that will not work because I have to add milk to it. Thanks!
Christi Johnstone says
Whatever type of hot chocolate mix you use should be fine. Just make sure it’s not pure cocoa (aka baking cocoa, which you would also need to add sugar to if you were making a cup of hot chocolate).
Kristina says
Hi! Wondering if you think this would be okay to make ahead and chill overnight? Or do you think the dehydrated marshmallow would get werid/soak in moisture too much?
Christi Johnstone says
Yeah, the dehydrated marshmallows don’t do the best with that. What I’ve done in the past if I’ve chilled the dough overnight is I’ve left them out than added some by hand to each cookie before putting them into the oven.
Chloe says
Hi – can I make the dough ahead and freeze? Would you freeze the mallow bites in the dough?
Christi Johnstone says
They will absorb the liquid and kind of just bake out. What I recommend is leaving them out, then when you go to make the cookies, adding some to each by hand before baking. It’s a bit laborious, but unfortunately the Mallow Bits don’t do well with an extended wait before baking.
Amy Foster says
My kids loved them, the only thing I noticed is that I had to cook them for double the time, when I took them out after 11 mins, some of them were still almost raw in the middle. Otherwise, a fun holiday cookie!
Tristan Ball says
These are soo good! Super quick and easy to make and came out perfectly!
Anonymous says
Halved this recipe, and like another comment that I read way too late – noticed the “batter” was super dry – like kinetic sand, maybe drier. Told myself to trust the process – but cookies never flattened out and remained mostly in the same shape as how I placed them. Was delicious, slightly too sweet. I would reduce the sugar a bit more next time, and perhaps add a splash of milk like another user suggested. Probably also would be tastier with regular marshmallows or bigger dehydrated marshmallows. I substituted hot choco powder with hershey’s unsweetened, but yeah, still way too sweet.
Christi Johnstone says
If you substituted the hot cocoa powder with plain cocoa as mentioned, then I would expect the cookies to turn out too dry. Also if too much flour was added (which happens if people scoop with the measuring cup vs spooning it in, or don’t level) that will create too dry of a cookie.
Yes, they are sweet! Chocolate cookies with marshmallows and chocolate chips, I think it’s to be expected. š Hope that helps!