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.
alice says
These look amazing! I’m definitely going to bake these this holiday season. I noticed you said in the comments that the sticks of butter convert to 1/2 cup per stick but the sticks of butter in your photo look like full packages of butter (2 cups per package here in Canada). Which is closer to the amount of butter needed? Thanks for posting such a beautiful recipe!
Christi says
Hi Alice, it is 1 1/2 cups butter, our sticks are 1/2 a cup here and as noted, I used MORE than shown in the photo (it was a while making, I realized it needed more type of thing!). Hope that helps! 🙂
Alice says
Hi Christi!
I just wanted to let you know that I tried your recipe and these were AMAZING. They were so good and so perfect for Christmas that I actually made twice! The second time I added a little bit of cocoa powder to make them a touch more chocolatey but both versions were fantastic. Thanks so much for sharing such a creative and delicious recipe!
Christi says
So glad you enjoyed them Alice!
Jeslyn says
I tried this recipe today, the taste is quite good. I subbed half the hot choc powder with Hershey’s cocoa powder because I was afraid that the cookies would be too sweet. One problem I had was that the marshmallows melted into the cookie during the baking process – would you have any idea why? The melted marshmallows made the cookies really sticky to eat.
Christi says
Jeslyn, were you using regular marshmallows or the Mallow Bits that I used in the recipe?
Steph says
This recipe is a cookie lovers dream!!! I made them yesterday and thought I would share what I did. I used Starbucks double chocolate hot cocoa, pressed the dough in a crisscross pattern with a fork, and baked for 15 minutes which gave me crazy good crispy cookies!
Deborah says
These look amazing! I will definitely try these out. I have some quick questions though. How much of the marshmallows and chocolate chips should I add? And do you add them after you mix the wet and dry ingredients together? Also, how many servings does this recipe make? Thank you for sharing this!
Christi says
Deborah, you can really add as little or as much as you like, since the marshmallows and chocolate chips are add ins, the amount won’t impact how your cookie baked up. You could use a cup of each, as I wrote in the recipe, or go with a little more or less. And just like shown, add your mix-ins after you have combined your wet and dry ingredients. For servings, cookies are highly dependent on what size you make them – you could get anywhere from 12 jumbo to 48 tiny cookies. I think 36 is probably a good average.
lisa t says
My son and I made these tonight. We used peppermint Marshmallow Bits. They were outstanding!
Thanks for a great recipe!
Christi says
Lisa, so glad you enjoyed them. They truly are one of my favorite cookies ever!
Phyllis Villarreal says
Is there a printable version of this recipe? If I hit print on this it will print all the pics and recipe! I don’t need 7 or 8 pages to print a recipe. Thank you.
Christi says
Phyllis, just added one for you.
Norma Espinoza says
Walmart has the Kraft Marshmallow Bits . I’ve seen em on end of ice cream aisle and baking aisle
angee says
Found your recipe actually on the back of the bits that we’ve used for a couple of years now. Mine turned out like some of the others mentioned–not “dry” but too soft. I even added more flour since I’m high altitude. I had a really hard time getting them off the cookie sheet because they are too soft and won’t hold their shape. Not sure what I could have done differently. Despite the flatness, they were good! Thanx for the recipe!
Christi says
Angee, hmm – not sure. I know Kraft made a lot of batches before considering putting them on the product, using that recipe. Butter temperature can always have an impact. Did you try baking them longer? From what you say it sounds like they might be undercooked? Living in the desert, I have no advice when it comes to high altitude (which shows any time I head up north and attempt to bake!).
Laura says
Try adding a small package of vanilla / chocolate pudding it works great in nestles chocolate chip cookie recipe
Kristine says
Made these cookies yesterday. DELICIOUS! They are seriously addictive — and we are not big sweet lovers here. I will be making these again soon for a bake sale. Thanks!
Kristen says
So I just tried making these tonight. I’m baking them as I type this, lol:) I saw the Marshmallow bites at Target as well and picked them up because I saw the recipe on the back. I’m hoping they will come out as well as yours. I put in about 1 cup of cocoa powder because on the back of the cocoa it tells you to add 1/4 C to make one serving. The cookies that are finished baking look a little lighter than I expected but that could be because of the brand of cocoa (Generic store brand). Hopefully they will taste good!:) I also found I had to add about two to four minutes to the cooking time because they weren’t baking completely through at 11 mins.