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.
Mickey says
Can’t wait to make these! Thanks for sharing!
Kristi says
Found this recipe on the Kraft Mallow bits container, my family and I loved them, so yummy, although the recipe on the container is missing the salt ingredient after I read your recipe here but they still were great. I had a canister of hot cocoa and I used 8 tablespoons and it worked great, thanks for the recipe and look forward to trying other recipes from your blog
Denise says
I am excited to try this recipe for this year’s annual cookie swap. How many cookies does the recipe above yield? And using what size scoop?
Christi says
Denise, for the scoop I guess “standard”. It’s the one I somehow have like four of (guessing it’s probably around 2 tablespoons). I’m thinking it made about 36-48 cookies with that scoop. But make them whatever size YOU need! I’m all about being totally flexible on things like that. 🙂
Kelsey says
Loved the mallow bits in the cookie. Fantastic! I had made the original recipe with the 3 types of chocolate chips before. Im really curious why you added an extra stick of butter and why you added baking powder? Would really like to know. Thanks!
Christi says
Kelsey, I added baking powder to my cookies to help them rise a bit more. The additional butter came from my not being terribly happy with the first batch, and the extra butter seemed to do the trick and get them just the way I wanted them. 🙂
Frenchchef says
These cookies not only look cute, they have a fantastic mild crunch and a chewy yummy center. Baked them today for my kids coming home from the Uni. We loved it ! It is better molded with the hands, comes out round and chubby with marshmallow bits. So cute !
Sue says
Well, don’t know if I got it exact but whatever I did worked! Made these today and, in the words of my kids, they are “awesometacular” (They got it from Jeremy Jahns on YouTube so guess I should credit) Thanks!
Sue says
Can anyone translate 4 hot chocolate packs into one measurement-like tablespoons or maybe ounces? I have a wonderful hot chocolate powder from Whole Foods that comes in a bottle and would rather use this than packets. These look great and would like to try. Thanks!
Christi says
Sue, since a packet is one serving, I would see how much one serving is on your bottle, and swap out the number of packets for the same number of servings. So if your powder says two tablesspoons is one serving than x4 servings = eight tablespoons. Hope that helps!
JET-PUFFED Marshmallows says
Hey Christi!
We’re loving the new Bits recipe for Buttercream cupcakes. We can’t wait to try them at KRAFT Kitchens!
FYI – We just launched our new Facebook page yesterday and showed the recipe some link love.
http://www.facebook.com/jetpuffed.com
Samantha says
I really want to try these.. but how much is 1 stick of butter? We dont have ‘sticks’ here…
Christi says
Samantha, here’s a reference that might be helpful…
1 stick of butter = 1/4 pound
1 stick of butter = 1/2 cup
1 stick of butter = 8 tablespoons
1 stick of butter = 4 ounces
1 stick of butter = 113 grams
C H says
In your recipe you said to use 2 and a half sticks of butter, but next to it in parentheses you said that it is 1 and a half cups. Those are actually not equal- at least by american “sticks”. Which do you mean? I made these cookies and just estimated the butter in the middle. Great flavor! My sister ate almost the entire batch before we went sledding! They did run a lot though (not complaining though, I love gooey cookies).
dianna lester says
I too was giddy with delight upon finding the mallow bites at the end of the aisle in Target one day. I think I may have even screamed like a little girl. I have always thought that someone should package those little tiny babies just so I could eat them without having to fight my hot chocolate for them. 🙂 Cookies are in the oven…I opted out, for the first batch at least, on the chocolate chips. The batter also tastes amazing! So happy to find this recipe. And….I also bought the peppermint ones…so they may go in the next batch!