If your family loves hot cocoa, they will love these Hot Chocolate Cookies!

Sure, this simple cookie recipe would be delicious any time of year, but these extra special treats are especially festive throughout the Christmas season.

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Hot Chocolate Cookie Being Picked Up Off of Wire Cooling Rack

Why You’ll Love These Hot Chocolate Cookies!

They’re just plain delicious! – These cookies are the perfect recreation of cup of hot cocoa. The chocolaty cookies are chewy. The marshmallows on the top of each cookie melt to gooey perfection with the melted chocolate running on top bringing to mind the flavors of a creamy mug of hot chocolate.
They’re perfect for exchanges! – These easy hot cocoa cookies are perfect for making up ahead of time. This makes them a great option for holiday cookie exchanges and gift swaps.

Tips for a casual cookie exchange

Be sure to make out a recipe card or two to swap along with the chewy cookies themselves, because people are sure to want to the recipe!

They are easy to make! – Gooey hot chocolate cookies have a great “wow factor”, but they aren’t fussy to make at all. This is great news during that busy holiday season! The dough isn’t tricky to mix together, and the toppings themselves are much less involved than, say, frosting sugar cookies.

Chocolate Cookie Sitting on Wire Cooling Rack

Ingredients Needed For These Hot Chocolate Cookie Recipe

1 Cup of Butter – This is two sticks worth! Use unsalted butter, and be sure that it is softened and brought up to room temperature before starting in on this recipe. If all you have on hand is salted butter, that’s no big deal! Just skip adding salt as a separate ingredient later.
2 Cups of Sugar – Use white granulated sugar for this recipe. If you’d like a rich, molasses flavor, then feel free to swap as much as 1/2 a cup of white sugar for packed brown sugar.
2 Eggs – Here’s a tip! If you let your large eggs sit out on the counter and come up to room temperature, they’ll incorporate much more evenly with the creamed butter and sugar. If you forget, just place the eggs in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes.
2 Teaspoons of Vanilla Extract – Is it even a baked good if it doesn’t contain a splash of vanilla extract?
2 Cups of Flour – All-purpose flour works great for these chewy chocolate cookies! If you need to avoid gluten, you can swap for almond flour. Because almond flour soaks up more moisture than all-purpose flour, you’ll need to reduce the amount of flour you use by about 1/4 of a cup.
3/4 Cup of Cocoa Powder – Reach for the unsweetened cocoa powder! There’s plenty of sweetness already in the recipe!
1 1/2 Teaspoon of Baking Soda – Be sure that your baking soda isn’t expired! You’d be amazed at how quickly baking soda loses it’s “oomph” once the box is opened.
1 1/2 Teaspoon of Baking Powder – Ditto for the baking powder.
1 Teaspoon of Salt – Sea salt tastes particularly delicious in this recipe! A full teaspoon of coarse sea salt balances out the sweetness of the other ingredients.
1/2 Cup of Chocolate Chips – In my opinion, semi-sweet chocolate chips are the best option for this cookie recipe! It has just the right amount of chocolatey sweetness without creating too rich of a flavor. Of course, you can use milk chocolate chips if you prefer.
Mini Marshmallows – You’ll use these fluffy marshmallows in two ways. A few will be baked with the cookie, creating a melty marshmallow texture. After the cookies come out of the oven, you’ll top them with a few more marshmallow bits!
Extra Chocolate Chips – Just as you’ll add a few extra marshmallows to the tops of the cookies after baking, you’ll sprinkle on a few extra chocolate morsels as well.

Hot Chocolate Cookie Ingredients Sitting on Kitchen Counter Top

How To Make My Hot Chocolate Cookies Recipe

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees, and get a baking sheet ready with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar on medium-high speed. You want to mix them long enough that they become light and fluffy, but not so long that it starts to reform into lumps.
Add in the eggs to the creamed butter and sugar. Mix until these wet ingredients are smooth.
While your eggs are getting incorporated, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a separate large bowl.
Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Don’t dump it in all at once, or you’re guaranteed to have lumps in your cookie dough.
Use a cookie scoop to drop evenly-sized cookie dough balls on the prepared cookie sheet.
It’s time to add some hot cocoa ingredients! Gently press your thumb into the center of each cookie to create a well. This is easiest if you dip your thumb in water first, or give it a quick spritz with nonstick cooking spray.
In each well, place a few mini marshmallows. This will melt into gooey marshmallow perfection!
Bake the cookie for 8 to 10 minutes. Move the cookies to a cooling rack, and then quickly top them with extra marshmallows and chocolate chips while they are still warm. Now it’s time to enjoy!

Chocolate Cookie Ingredients Being Mixed Together in Glass Mixing Bowl

Twists To Try For Delicious Chocolate Cookies

Change up your chocolate chips! Try white chocolate chips, or use chocolate chunks for a more toothsome bite.
Have you ever tried Mexican hot chocolate? You can make Mexican hot chocolate cookies as well! Just add a sprinkle of cinnamon and chili powder to the flour mixture.

Do you want to boost the marshmallow content on these rich chocolate cookies? Keep the mini marshmallows for the garnish after baking, but use full-sized marshmallows for the gooey center! Cut them in half, and place a full marshmallow half inside of your thumbprint well.

How To Store Leftover Hot Chocolate Cookies

It’s unlikely you’ll have many leftover hot chocolate cookies, but you might have a couple.

To store them for later, place them in an airtight container.

If you have enough, you’ll want to stack them in layers, keeping in mind that the marshmallowy top of the cookies are going to be sticky.

Add parchment paper between each layer.

These fudgy chocolate cookies will stay fresh on the countertop for five days.