Hot Chocolate Cookies

Hot chocolate cookies are the perfect cookies to bake this weekend. Cocoa, dark brown sugar, vanilla, chocolate chips and mini marshmallows. They’re soft, gooey and chewy and are basically hot chocolate in cookie form. Easy, delicious, and the sweetest kind of comfort food.

I thought it might be past the season to make hot chocolate cookies, but we woke up to snow twice this past week here in Ottawa. In addition to the snow and chilly temps, social distancing and spending almost all our time has me wanting comfort food like never before. Hearty soups seem to be my preferred savory comfort food and for sweets? Definitely chocolate.

These hot chocolate marshmallow cookies will definitely make you think you’re eating hot chocolate in a cookie form. They actually remind me a little of Italian hot chocolate which is even thicker and chocolatier than the Swiss Miss packets I grew up on in the US.

THESE HOT CHOCOLATE COOKIES ARE:

• a perfect comfort food (like a soothing, sweet cup of cocoa with marshmallows)
• soft and chewy (thanks to a whole cup of brown sugar)
• perfectly flavorful (loaded with vanilla and molasses flavor from dark brown sugar)
• super chocolatey (full of both cocoa and chocolate chips)
• gooey (chewy, tender with melty chocolate chips and soft, sweet mini marshmallows are baked on top)
• easy to make (no chilling, simple ingredients and take less than an hour)

Because it’s always a good idea to bake chocolate chip cookies, especially when browned butter, pumpkin butter, and cinnamon sugar are involved.

HOW TO MAKE HOT CHOCOLATE COOKIES

INGREDIENTS

Great news is that these comfort food cookies are just a few easy steps away! It’s a simple recipe made with basic ingredients. There are just a couple of ingredients that you may or may not have on hand, but I have substitutes for them.

• Mini marshmallows: I like how cute and fun mini marshmallows look, but regular marshmallows could also be used. Just slice them in half or in thirds and plop one right in the middle at the same time in the recipe that you’d add the mini marshmallows.
• Dark brown sugar: You can use light brown in place of dark brown sugar. I prefer dark brown sugar because it adds more of a molasses flavor, but both light and dark will work.

MAKING THE COOKIE DOUGH

This is a pretty standard cookie dough. I like to whisk to combine the dry ingredients first and have my eggs and butter out at room temperature before I start. Using the stand mixer makes things easier, but a hand held mixer works too!

Once you have the cookie dough mixed up, form the balls and place them on the cookie sheet. I usually bake six cookies at a time. Before putting the cookies in the oven to bake, it’s nice to stick a few more chocolate chips into the balls. I say a few which originally meant three or four, but I found myself loading them on with each batch of cookies I baked!

ADDING THE MARSHMALLOWS

The marshmallows don’t go into the oven until the last minute or two. Once the cookies have baked and taken shape, take them out of the oven and quickly and gently press three or four mini marshmallows onto each cookie. Pop them back into the oven for a minute or two. This will give the marshmallows time to stick onto the cookies.

No need to press them down or cook them til they get color. That would make them more s’mores cookies and we want cute, fluffy white marshmallows.

These hot chocolate cookies are not just for winter! They are perfect for anytime you are craving a chocolatey treat. They’re soft, chewy, gooey and are the ultimate comfort food cookie!

FOR MORE CHOCOLATE COOKIE RECIPES, BAKE THESE:

• SOUR CREAM CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
• SHORTBREAD COOKIES WITH MINI CHOCOLATE CHIPS
• TRIPLE CHOCOLATE CRINKLE COOKIES

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