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posted by Christy Denneyon Nov 10, 2014 (updated May 6, 2023) 101 comments »
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Hot Chocolate Cookies – cookies made with hot chocolate mix, milk chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and mini marshmallows. Great for Christmasand the holiday season.
HOT CHOCOLATE COOKIES
Every single night after I tuck the kids in bed, I sit down on the couch with a cup of hot cocoa and unwind to a little reality TV.
When I first started doing it my husband looked at me sideways. Who drinks hot chocolate in 85 degree weather? Me.
Now he comes home with an economy sized pack of hot chocolate from Costco to make sureI don’t have to go a night without it.Needless to say, Ihad plenty of hot chocolate for these Hot Chocolate Cookies.
They didn’t even put a dent in my stash.
You’ll need four 1-ounce packages of hot chocolate. I measured 4 packets of instant hot cocoa mix and it happens to be right around 1 cup of mix. Don’t use sugar-free or your cookies will taste awful.
The original recipe called for white chocolate chips. Mini marshmallows seemedlike the obvious substitute for white chocolate chips which I didn’t have on hand.
Look at the inside of these delicious cookies. So moist and full, and I mean full of chocolate and melty marshmallows. The best part of these cookies is that they stay soft for days and they taste like hot chocolate in cookie form.
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Hot Chocolate Cookies
4.62 from 42 votes
Hot Chocolate Cookies -cookies made with hot chocolate mix, milk chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and mini marshmallows.
PrintPinRate
Prep Time: 10 minutes mins
Cook Time: 15 minutes mins
Total Time: 25 minutes mins
Servings: 30 cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2/3 cups light brown sugar, packed
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3-¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 4 (1-oz packages) hot chocolate mix (not sugar-free; a total of about 1 cup of hot chocolate mix)
- 1-¼ teaspoons salt
- 1-¼ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 cup milk chocolate chips
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows, frozen (see note)
Instructions
Cream butter and sugars until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, hot chocolate mix, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients slowly until incorporated. The dough will be thick.
Fold in the milk chocolate chips and semi-sweet chips. Chill the dough for an hour. Chilling the dough allows the ingredients to blend and also makes a thicker cookie.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line baking sheets with parchment.
Make cookie dough balls, around 1 1/2 tablespoons each, and place onto prepared baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Hand place the marshmallows in the cookies. Although I have a pic of folding them in, I've found this is the best way. Make sure to tuck the marshmallow inside the balls if you can so that you don't have marshmallows sticking to your pan. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges are golden brown. The cookies will still look soft. They will continue to cook on the cookie sheet as they cool. Let cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan. I love these warm. If your eating them after they have cooled you can warm them in the microwave for 10 seconds. Store in an airtight container.
Notes
Some readers have found that freezing the marshmallows to help keep their shape and to not let them melt out of the cookies.
Source: slightly adapted from Tasty Kitchen . Changed measurements to be more clear and added mini marshmallows instead of white chocolate chips.
Cuisine: American
Course: Dessert
Author: Christy Denney
All Desserts All Recipes Chocolate Christmas Recipes Cookies Desserts Holiday Recipes
originally published on Nov 10, 2014 (last updated May 6, 2023)
101 comments Leave a comment »
100 of my favorite recipes! This is the family-friendly cookbook for anyone looking to plan quick-and-easy meals and wants a way to bring people together, feasting on food which can only be described as scrumptious.
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101 comments on “Hot Chocolate Cookies”
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Kalyne — Reply
I’ve been following this exact recipe for years and have never had a problem. The cookies are delicious and moist and the marshmallows somehow stay “melted.” These are seriously good and I don’t understand any of the negative comments
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Jennifer Ventresca — Reply
Terrible recipe. My misfortune that I picked this one from all the recipes on the internet. Looking back it had way more flour than any other recipe. I bake a lot and thought it was strange. It was dry and just a big crumbly mess. I added water so that I did not waste my time and all these ingredients. Not sure what that will do to the cookie. Plenty of other recipes for this type of cookie. I would definitely avoid this one. I do not give bad reviews but this really annoyed me.
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Christy Denney — Reply
I’m sorry! I’ve made these with no issues.
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Melody — Reply
Good but was expecting more of the hot chocolate tatse. Also they had more of a cake consistansy after baking so I had to go in and fix it. Other than that these are really good.
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Anna — Reply
Super good! I agree with some of the others – adding marshmallows when they are just about done!! I was wondering if I bake ahead – do they freeze well? Thanks so much!!
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Christy Denney — Reply
Thank you!
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Carolyn — Reply
I made these and when I took them out of refrigerator to roll the dough was crumbly and hard to keep in tact and add marshmallows without them falling apart before they even got into the oven ? Advice?
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Christy Denney — Reply
Let it soften enough to handle and it shouldn’t be crumbly.
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Shari — Reply
Made these today and they spread out and were flat. Tried chilling the dough, still flat. The cookies were delicious but needed them for an event, unusable!
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Christy Denney — Reply
Shoot. are you at high altitude?
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Saved — Reply
Omg you saved me. I always wondered why my cookies were flat. I’ve tried everything. I’m over 3k feet up…
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Jen — Reply
Hi! When you say 3-1/4 cups flour, do you mean three quarter cups of flour OR three and a quarter cups of flour? Similarly, when you say 1 1/2 cups marshamallows, do you mean one half cup OR one and a half cup of marshmallows?
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Christy Denney — Reply
3 cups and 1/4 cup flour. 1 and 1/2 cup marshmallows.
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Lorna — Reply
These were delicious! The flavor was addicting and the 3 dozen or so it made was gone the next day thanks to my fam. Def will be making them again! 💗
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Christy Denney — Reply
Ahh thank you Lorna.
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Paige — Reply
This recipe sounds delicious! I’m very excited to try it but I was wondering if there is any way to replace the eggs because my mom is allergic. I was thinking a flax egg would be best but I’m not sure. If you know a good substitute please let me know!
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Christy Denney — Reply
I would try a flax egg but I haven’t tried it.
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Ali — Reply
I was just wondering how many cookies this recipe makes? I couldn’t find it anywhere.
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Christy Denney — Reply
It is listed at the top of the recipe card. 30 cookies.
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Ami — Reply
So excited to try to make these! Do you know how many cookies this makes?
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Christy Denney — Reply
30 cookies!
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Arlene — Reply
I made this recipe and I’m tellin’ yah, It is SOOOO good!!!
I love it!!! ❤️-
Christy Denney — Reply
So happy to hear that!
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Coley — Reply
I made these today and meant to make some with crushed candy cane because we love that combo but I forgot! And they are fabulous like they are anyway. Personally I don’t usually care for chocolate based cookies but even I really liked these. I made some tablespoon sized ones and some teaspoon sized ones so we could give them to my daughter’s friends and I put two marshmallows in the bigger ones and one marshmallow in the smaller ones. I also pressed some leftover marshmallows on top after they came out of the oven. I also didn’t have semi-sweet chocolate chips (gasp) so I chopped up semi-sweet chunks. But the family said they are wonderful!
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Christy Denney — Reply
Sounds delicious! Thank you for making them.
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curlybear23 — Reply
I just made these with my son and WOW! They are soooooo good. We added crushed candy cane to the dough (because he loves peppermint and chocolate).
When done baking I took them out and pushed a 1/2 marshmallow on top and popped them back in for a minute to melt and puff up and finished with the crushed candy cane on top. I LOVE how they ended up – beautiful and soooo yummy.-
Christy Denney — Reply
Ooh I like your version! Sounds amazing!
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Kelly — Reply
These were delicious & amazing, but they spread a lot and the marshmallows turned into caramel. I’m not sure if this was my error (not giving the butter long enough to get to room temperature) or if the batter isn’t acidic enough for the baking soda to work. (I could also have old baking soda.) Placing the marshmallows on top of the cookies seemed to work better than wrapping a ball of cookie dough around a marshmallow.
I’d recommend making the cookies small and leaving more space between them than you think you need.
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Christy Denney — Reply
Thank you for your feedback.
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Caitlin — Reply
I found out that baking the cookies without the marshmallows for 8 minutes, and then taking them out of the oven and adding the marshmallows on top of the cookies, and baking it for the remaining two minutes help keep the marshmallows intact.
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Amanda — Reply
This recipe was amazing! It was very easy for my daughter to assist me in making and also a marvelous holiday treat!
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Christy Denney — Reply
Awesome to hear!
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Katie — Reply
I didn’t want to use the dehydrated marshmallows in my cookies like are in so many other recipes and I knew there had to be a way to still get the gooey goodness of mini marshmallows- then I found this recipe. These cookies turned out PERFECT! They are very gooey when you take them out and solidify into a soft and sweet cookie. Tastes just like a warm cup of hot cocoa! I used a rich chocolate flavor of hot cocoa and might play around with different flavors next time. My husband was upset when he found out I was making them for work gifts and he couldn’t eat them all. I will definitely be making them again soon! Thank you!
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Christy Denney — Reply
Such a compliment. Thank you!
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Tori-Kate Davis — Reply
My teenage daughter made these for a cookie exchange and they have become everyone’s favorite! They are absolutely delish!!
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Christy Denney — Reply
So happy to hear that!
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Violet — Reply
Dumb question. But when you say 1 cup 2 sticks of butter does that mean 1 cup plus 2 sticks or that one cup is 2 sticks?
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sophia — Reply
I was wondering the same thing
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Christy Denney — Reply
That’s just one cup total.
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Steph — Reply
Could you please edit the recipe so it reads as the butter volume is listed as “1 cup (two sticks of butter)”? Really confusing for newer bakers. And not everyone reads the comments.
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Christy Denney — Reply
Of course! I think there is a bug in the recipe card.
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Savanna — Reply
My fiancé ALWAYS requests these cookies no matter the time of year! One of our all time favorite recipes!
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Bee — Reply
Wow, these look amazing. Total comfort food!
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Bee
Bitesnpieces.co-
Christy Denney — Reply
They are!
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Amy — Reply
These were really good. The first batch I played around with it a bit so half of the first batch I mixed the marshmallows in the cookie. The marshmallows were frozen but by the time I got them all done they started to kind of soften up and the other half of the cookies I didn’t put any marshmallows in until they came out of the oven when the cookies were still warm I pressed about 3 to 4 marshmallows per cookie. The marshmallows that were in the cookie some did spread out of the cookie while baking, some did not. The marshmallows I put in after the cookies came out of the oven of course stayed intact and very pretty on top of the cookie I think that I’m going to put the marshmallows on the cookies after they come out of the oven the only thing that’s missing is the nice Brown tops of the marshmallows. Thanks!!
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Vicky — Reply
Love these cookies, my 17 year old niece entered these into a cookie contest and came in third!
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Christy Denney — Reply
Awesome! I love hearing that.
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dianne — Reply
Hi,
I’ve been making these cookies since 2014. This year I had my best success with no exploding marshmallows, no excessively flattened cookies. I used a cookie scoop –I think it was a teaspoon but I filled it heaping with dough and made round balls. I got 65 two and one half inch cookies. These cookies are very rich so I like this size better than a big cookie. The tricks I used this time were the new marshmallow bits which I froze then added to the dough in the refrigerator. I left the dough in the refrigerator for about 1 1/2 hours. I scooped the cookies as fast as I could and put the finished cookie sheet in the refrigerator while I worked on the next one. I really think the colder the dough is the better. Anyway, this is a favorite cookie in my family and today’s batch was the best ever. Than you again for the great recipe!-
Christy Denney — Reply
Ooh thanks for the tips!
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Rebecca Blackwell — Reply
Drooling. I am seriously trying to figure out how to rearrange my afternoon so that I can spend some time in my kitchen baking these. I love that you used marshmallows instead of white chocolate chips – I’d imagine they add a nice texture component. Whether I make these today or not, I AM going to make these. Thank you for the recipe!
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Christy Denney — Reply
You’re welcome! I hope you love them.
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Terry — Reply
These look delicious! I can’t wait to bake them! I’ve gotten a lot of good ideas on what to do, such as freezing the marshmallows. My question is, is there a “print recipe”? Or am I simply blind? Thanks in advance!
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Christy Denney — Reply
It’s right under the thumbnail picture in recipe. Hope that helps!
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Jessica Rice — Reply
I just made these this past weekend and they taste delicious. My only comment would be the cookies didn’t cook all the way through for me. Do you have a picture of how large you make the dough balls and how you place the marshmallows into them?
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Christy Denney — Reply
I made 1.5 tablespoon balls as stated in the directions. Hope that helps for next time!
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Mehndi Design Videos — Reply
OMGoodness! They look 👀 sooo good.
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Christy Denney — Reply
Thank you!
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Rachel — Reply
Has anyone mentioned trying to make these using the mini freeze-dried marshmallows like what typically comes in the hot chocolate packets? I’m wondering what would happen if I were to freeze them and use them in place of the mini marshmallows you used…
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Christy Denney — Reply
You could definitely do that!
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Lisa — Reply
Awesome recipe! This was my second attempt at cocoa mix cookies. The first recipe I found only had 2 cups flour and the cookies came out like flat hockey pucks, yuck! Your recipe made perfect moist and fluffy cookies. The dough was weird, I’d never worked with such dry crumbly dough, but it held together when formed into flattened balls so no problem. Thanks!!
p.s. I used chocolate milk mix instead of hot chocolate.-
Christy {The Girl Who Ate Everything} — Reply
Good to hear!
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lynn — Reply
I know that the last post here was a while ago, but I just wanted to say that I made the last night to rave reviews. They are so yummy! My marshmallows melted into the cookies even though i froze them, but they still tasted great and I will be making them again. I love your blog and have enjoyed all the recipes I have tried. Thank you for all the yummy ideas! 🙂
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Christy Denney — Reply
Ooh! Thank you! Thank you!
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Heidi Lynch — Reply
I followed the recipe to a t but my cookies came out very flat for the most part. I took out the last batch at 8 minutes exactly even though they looked underdone and they were perfect. I think I left the others in for 10 minutes. They are very good though. Will try again.
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Christy {The Girl Who Ate Everything} — Reply
Shoot. I’m wondering if different Hot Cocoa mixes are making the difference. What brand did you use? I used Swiss Miss.
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Jane — Reply
The instructions mention adding milk, but milk is not mentioned in the ingredients, so how much milk needs to be added? Thanks.
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Christy {The Girl Who Ate Everything} — Reply
Jane,
Sorry if that was confusing. I said to add the milk and semi-sweet chocolate chips meaning the milk chocolate chips not milk that you drink. Hope that helps.
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Soozcat — Reply
Try freezing the mini-marshmallows. They won’t melt away into nothing.
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Christy {The Girl Who Ate Everything} — Reply
True! Thanks for the tip.
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Lorrie — Reply
We made these and they are amazing. BUT, we pushed the marshmallows into the chilled dough just before baking. They were sort of in a “pocket of dough”. After baking the cookies were flat and the marshmallows melted away into the baked cookie. While they taste delicious, there isn’t that toasted marshmallow look. Any recommendations??
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Christy {The Girl Who Ate Everything} — Reply
Freeze the marshmallows! I don’t know why mine didn’t completely melt but freezing them helps.
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Melissa — Reply
I made these and they were delicious!
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Jamie — Reply
Awesome cookies! I had to tell my husband to practice some self restraint, as he kept going into the kitchen to grab a handful of them. These & the chocolate eclair cake!? Christy, you are one of my new favorite people! 😉
Thanks for another great recipe. Happy Thanksgiving to you & your family.-
Christy {The Girl Who Ate Everything} — Reply
Thank you Jamie!
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Jamie — Reply
OMG!! I just put these beauties in the cookie jar and THEY ARE DELICIOUS!!! Thanks, Christy, for the awesome recipe. My MIL always gives us jars, bottles, and tins of hot chocolate mix, which sit in our pantry because we could not possibly use it all, so when I saw this recipe, I was very excited! It did not disappoint. I made the dough last night, but didn’t get to the baking until this morning. The dough was a bit hard, but nothing sitting out on the counter for about 1/2 hour couldn’t fix. I had to tell my husband to pace himself because he kept finding excuses for going into the kitchen to grab a few! 🙂 These will definitely be in the “cookie rotation!” You rock!! Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.
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Christy {The Girl Who Ate Everything} — Reply
Haha! So glad you liked them. The dough will be hard after chilling. Thank you!!!
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Dianne — Reply
Hi,
These look so awesome! I’m making them now I having some issues though. 1. If I’m going to chill the dough for an hour I shouldn’t really preheat my oven first (it’s the first item in the directions) as that would make my oven heating for about an hour and 15 minutes (way too long to preheat–waste of energy).
I followed the recipe exactly and measured carefully and my dough was extremely stiff. I couldn’t “fold” the chips in had to kind poke and knead–and there was nothing gentle about what I had to do to those poor mini marshmallow. LOL I have the dough chilling now and I’ve got my fingers crossed that these will be yummy in spite of my manhandling them. I think both the weather and the brand of certain items can affect how the dough comes together so I’m definitely not blaming you.
I do think you should change the preheating instruction to be more energy conscious though.
Thank you for posting the recipe.-
Carol — Reply
LOL! I was thinking the exact same thing while ‘folding in’ the chips and especially “gently’ folding in the marshmallows. I did chill the dough. Mine made 30 cookies, but I had to toss about a dozen because the marshmallows oozed out and the cookies were so spread out and ugly. Admittedly, about a dozen looked similar to the photo, but lesson learned….if I ever make these again, I will not even bother to ‘gently fold in the marshmallows.’ I will fold in the chocolate chips, chill the dough, shape into balls and THEN push a few marshmallows into the top of each ball before baking so they are only where I want them.
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Christy {The Girl Who Ate Everything} — Reply
Good thinking. Thanks for the tips.
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Christy {The Girl Who Ate Everything} — Reply
Sorry. I replied to this a while ago and it didn’t go through. You are right about the preheating. Haha. I will make a note about the marshmallows too! Thanks!
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Dianne — Reply
It’s me again. Had to come back and report these cookies got a huge positive reaction from everyone who tasted them. YAY! I think I may have figured out the reason for so much marshmallow leakage and dough spreading in spite of chilling; I bake in convection mode and that blows hot air around the cookies…I’m thinking that may have caused the marshmallows and dough to get hotter than in a reg. oven. I think the freezing of the marshmallows is a great tip. ANYWAY, no matter how these cookies end up looking they will be LOVED by all. I know I’m going to get requests to make MORE, and I will!
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Christy {The Girl Who Ate Everything} — Reply
Thank you!
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Melissa — Reply
What a perfect idea when you have tons and tons of hot chocolate packets! I totally want to make these right now!
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Marta R Price — Reply
Loved the recipe. They turned out beautiful and tasty. Got cheers from the family.
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Amy — Reply
I made these tonight and they were amazing! Mine were a little flat though? Any suggestions what I might have done wrong? But even being flat they still tasted great!
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Christy {The Girl Who Ate Everything} — Reply
Did you chill the dough? That helps with thickness.
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Malinda @countrysidecravings — Reply
Mmmmm these look so goooood! I love hot chocolate and cookies!!
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Ali — Reply
I just made these, yum! I halved the recipe, and it made 46 small cookies, using a small cookie scoop. I did not chill the dough, and used only milk chocolate chips and white chocolate chips (1/2 cup of each in half recipe.) So good!! Ill definitely make these again! Thanks for sharing!
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Carol at Wild Goose Tea — Reply
What a fun idea. I am always amazed at the ideas that I don’t think of—Ha. The thing is I bake a lot of cookies and I still didn’t think of this fun idea.
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John — Reply
they were really good, but marshmellows got pretty sticky on the pan, and the cookies really spread out, so first pan had a lot of cookies mushed together. Learned to tuck the marshmellows inside the dough. Made a lot more than 30 good sized cookies, about 4 trays of 20 each.
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Christy {The Girl Who Ate Everything} — Reply
They shouldn’t spread…mine were thick. Did you chill the dough?
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John — Reply
I put them in frig for an hour, still spread on me.
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Vedika @ Hot Chocolate Hits — Reply
I love hot chocolate. Hence the title of my blog! Christy, I can’t wait to try this 🙂 We don’t get good marshmallows in Poland so I think I may have to use those white chocolate chips instead. But other than that, I LOVE the way you make food look SO good in your photos. And I love reading your posts. Getting a notification in my email inbox is the highlight of my day!
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Christy {The Girl Who Ate Everything} — Reply
Vedika, Yes. These cookies are for you girl! You are so inspirational to me!
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capturing joy with kristen duke — Reply
I love the imagery of you sipping on hot chocolate and watching reality TV. Now I want to know your favorite shows! I’m odd, I don’t really care for hot chocolate. I love that your husband makes sure to keep you stocked up!
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Alice — Reply
These look delicious, we’ll have to try them.
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Erin @ Simple Sweet & Savory — Reply
Oh my heavens! Hot chocolate in a cookie? AND adding marshmallows?! I’m dying. I need to stop on the way home today and get everything to make these. I NEED THEM NOW!
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Medha @ Whisk & Shout — Reply
Oh my god these look amazing! I love the shot of the dough studded with the marshmallows 🙂
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Christy {The Girl Who Ate Everything} — Reply
Thanks! I almost left it out because it wasn’t quite clear.
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Jennifer @ Show Me the Yummy — Reply
I’ve always thought of adding hot chocolate to my cookies, because there are so many different flavor options, thanks for actually doing it! 😉 I’m a HUGE hot chocolate drinker, I get the Land O Lakes in bulk from Amazon, ha!
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[emailprotected] — Reply
Who doesn’t love hot chocolate? And in cookie form! Um, Yes please!
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