Hot Cocoa Cookies

I’m sharing one of my all time favorite cookies with you today, my hot cocoa cookies. When I first made these hot cocoa cookies, adding hot cocoa mix to a cookie seemed like it would taste good. But I didn’t quite expect for them to be so delicious. These Hot Cocoa Cookies have since become one of the most popular cookie recipes on Bliss Bites. Hot Cocoa Cookies are perfect Christmas cookies and are great cookie for cookie exchanges.

Ingredients:
1 cup butter softened
1 cup sugar
⅔ cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3¼ cups all purpose flour*
4 packages hot cocoa mix** or ¾ cups hot cocoa mix – NOT SUGAR FREE VERSIONS
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup Mallow Bits*** mini marshmallows do not work the same and can be a bit of a sticky mess

Instructions:
Beat butter and sugars in large bowl with standing mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well.
In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients. Gradually beat dry ingredients into butter mixture until blended. Stir in chocolate chips and Mallow Bits*. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drop 2 tablespoons dough, 2 inches apart, onto baking sheets lined with silicone baking mats or parchment paper. Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets 5 minutes; remove to wire racks and cool.

Notes
– This is a somewhat dry cookie dough. Don’t freak out if your dough is thick and dry, and don’t add additional liquid to it! It’s a dry dough! Dry dough does not equal a dry cookie, have faith!
*For a flatter cookie, use 3 cups flour. For a more compact and taller cookie, use 3¼ cups flour, and chill your dough for longer than 30 minutes. For almost all cookies, the longer you chill the dough, the better flavor and appearance you’ll end up with.
Either way make sure when you measure flour you stir it then spoon it into your measuring cup, then level off. Never scoop your flour with the measuring cup and remember to level off!
**A simple hot cocoa mix works best with these. Flavored hot cocoa’s can have other ingredients that impact the recipe. I typically make this recipe with Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate. The Dark Chocolate Swiss Miss is actually my favorite for these. I have not tested it with other flavors or brands. DO NOT USE SUGAR FREE HOT COCOA!
**It appears over the years, Swiss Miss has somewhat changed their hot cocoa formula, most likely to remove artificial colors or dyes. As such, the cookies don’t seem as dark brown as they previously have. If this bothers you, stir in a tablespoon of cocoa powder (even better if you have DARK cocoa powder).
***Mallow Bits hard to find? Buy hot cocoa mixes with marshmallows already in the mix. The “Marshmallow Lovers” versions even come with extra marshmallow packets, perfect for this recipe.
***I’ve found that when chilling the dough for 30 minutes, sometimes it can cause the Mallow Bits to melt when baking. It’s not consistent, and I think it’s dependent on how fresh/dry the Mallow Bits are. One way to completely avoid this problem is to mix the Mallow Bits in AFTER you chill the dough. You can just press them into the dough, since it’s a stiff, thick dough. We like to press them into the tops of the dough once we’ve scooped it.

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