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Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies
Updated Dec. 22, 2023
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- Total Time
- 1½ hours, plus 2 hours chilling
- Prep Time
- 30 minutes
- Cook Time
- 1 hour, plus 2 hours chilling
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 1½cups/192 grams all-purpose flour
- ½cup/51 grams cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-processed
- 1teaspoon baking soda
- 1teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
- ½teaspoon ground cayenne
- 3teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½cup/113 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1½cups/305 grams light brown sugar
- 1large egg, at room temperature
- 2teaspoons vanilla extract
- Mini marshmallows, frozen solid
- ¼cup/50 grams granulated sugar
Preparation
- Step 1
In a medium bowl, whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, cayenne and 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon.
- Step 2
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, or a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat butter and brown sugar on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg and vanilla. Beat until creamy, 2 more minutes. Add flour mixture. Beat on low until no dry spots remain, about 1 minute.
- Step 3
With a 2-tablespoon (1-ounce) cookie scoop or tablespoon measure, scoop dough into mounds on a baking sheet. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to overnight. Freeze marshmallows, if you haven’t already.
- Step 4
When ready to bake, heat oven to 350 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Add granulated sugar and remaining teaspoon cinnamon to a small bowl.
- Step 5
Remove half of the dough from the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for 5 minutes if the dough is very stiff. Take a mound of dough and flatten slightly in the palm of your hand. Pile 5 frozen mini marshmallows on top of the flattened dough, then bring the outer edges over the marshmallows to envelop them. Roll into a ball and then roll in the cinnamon sugar to coat. Place on the baking sheet, 3 inches apart.
- Step 6
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating halfway through, until cookies puff slightly and bits of molten marshmallow peek through the surface. Cool on the sheet for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough and marshmallows. Cookies will keep for about 3 days in an airtight container at room temperature.
- Balls of dough (not coated in cinnamon sugar) can be frozen for up to 3 months in an airtight container. To bake, thaw for 5 minutes at room temperature, roll in cinnamon sugar and bake for 13 to 15 minutes.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Holiday cookie baking pals, please note the 3 teaspoons of cinnamon in the recipe are *divided* - 2 teaspoons for the cookie dough, and 1 teaspoon for the cinnamon sugar rolling mixture. I’m not sure why the NYT Cooking house style doesn’t always indicate dividing within their lists of ingredients, but I wouldn’t want anyone feeling Scrooge-y over cinnamon confusion!
Better assembly approach: portion out the just-mixed dough and form it around the frozen marshmallows. Bake directly from the freezer, adding 1-2 minutes to the baking time. Easier, simpler, & better shaped cookie. As others said, the cold dough is frustrating to work. It cracks, and if you don't seal the cracks over the marshmallows, the cookie unravels and becomes a blob shape (instead of roughly circular) and the marshmallows end up on top as they bake.
I've made this recipe twice now and the dough always gets too hard when I put it in the fridge. Then it just gets crumbly and breaks apart when I try to put the marshmellows in. Tried a third time, skipped the fridge step and voila.
I divided the room-temperature dough into 35-gram round portions, flattened them to fill with the room temperature marshmallows, then chilled them in the fridge, before rolling them in the cinnamon sugar and putting them into the oven. They came out looking identical to the recipe photo. I just didn’t want to frustrate myself with attempting to wrap cold dough around quick thawing mini marshmallows. I’m loving all of these unique cookie recipes that add some variety to the usual cookie lineup.
I prepped the whole cookie - with room temp dough, and room temp marshmallows, and then froze overnight. They were easy to assemble. Pulled them out first thing in AM, left them out for about 15 rolled in sugar and baked. They turned out beautifully. I decided to go for 1/4 tsp cayenne since I was giving them to a family with small children. The first bite - I was “not too much heat”, second bite I realized it was there. I was happy with the 1/4 tsp, it was just enough.
Super delicious, but way to spicy for my weak children! Next time, I'd do it with half (or less) of the pepper. Otherwise, a huge hit.
Cookies will keep about 10 minutes unguarded.
These are fairly fiddly to make. Frozen marshmallows thaw way before tray of cookies are filled. I'd try standard-sized marshmallows cut in half next time instead of minis; would be easier to insert. Flatten dough balls before refrigerating and only take out 2-3 at a time. The heat of your hand will allow them to form a cup to deposit marshmallows (5 was 1 too many to envelop). I'd also mix in a little sea salt into cinnamon sugar before rolling and stick in fridge for 20 mins before baking.
Made as directed minus cayenne. Cinnamon adds nice enough kick. Used Vegan frozen mini marshmallows from Whole Foods. Cookies look like picture and taste great. I portioned dough into scoops night before, refrigerated and took out 6 at a time. Smushed flat with palm of hand. Pressed 4 marshmallows in middle and then rounded into ball with the MMLows inside.
Mexican hot chocolate, like Abuelita, has its own sugar content not to mention cinnamon. You'd be altering the balance of ingredients. If you're just experimenting have at. When I bake I try to follow what's written the first go at a recipe (though there is no way I'm putting a half teaspoon of cayenne into a cookie dough!).
Would it be possible to freeze globs of marshmallow fluff instead of using marshmallows in this recipe? I'm vegetarian and veg marshmallows are hard to come by/expensive. Fluffernutter is vegetarian!
I accidentally added all the cinnamon into the recipe. They still tasted delicious! I appreciate a recipe where it still is fabulous even if you read the recipe wrong. Haha!
When does the other half of the dough come out of the fridge? Not mentioned in the recipe!
These are outstanding. I agree with an earlier poster. Assemble the cookies at room temp and then freeze. When I made a couple using the method in the recipe everything warmed up to quickly, so had to pop into the freezer for an hour or so. The other thing discovered is to not roll the entire ball in the cinnamon sugar. The cinnamon sugar on the bottom caramelized, which made it difficult to off the baking sheet even with using a silicone.
Does this recipe work with vegan marshmallows instead? thanks.
I only chilled the dough for an hour and a half, so the assembly process was much easier for me!
I gave these to my 4 and 7 year old. I followed the recipe as is. Way too spicy for my 4 year old but my 7 year didn’t mind it. Overall, I would not make these again mostly because I strangely found them to be slightly dry vs sweet and chew.
I have now made these cookies three times. The last time was by far the best. As many people have noted, chilling the cookie dough first is a mistake. Don’t bother freezing the marshmallows. After making the dough mold it around the marshmallows and chill the “dumplings.” Use all the cinnamon in the dough and don’t bother with rolling them in cinnamon and sugar. Make larger cookies. I use a regular ice cream scoop. They are fantastic.
Adult cookies FTW! added a handful of chocolate chips as I didn't have marshmallows and scaled brown sugar down to 240g. Amazing!
Great tasting cookie, however the dough was incredibly crumbly and difficult to work with. My recommendation…find your favorite chocolate sugar cookie recipe, add cinnamon and cayenne to the dough, top with half of a large marshmallow.
Ok Xmas in July after a weather power loss event in my chest freezer-frozen dough and marshmallows fine like in May but texture changed in July-freezer had heavy ice buildup- and I couldn’t get it to hold around marshmallows that were cut up -plopped dough on top of marshmallow on parchment and baked 350 12 minutes flavor fine and used crumbled up with strawberries-so dough freezes ok use mini marshmallow i don’t think it has to be frozen if dough is cold partially defrosted
There is a middle way. The freshly mixed dough is ridiculously sticky. I was unable to get it into mounds and absolutely unable to shape it around the marshmallows per other suggestions. I refrigerated the dough for a shorter time -- 15-20 minutes -- and then easily portioned out 4-5 cookies around the marshmallows, keeping the unused dough in the refrigerated and the rest of the marshmallows in the freezer. It was a lot of opening fridge/freezer doors, but worth it in the end.
I formed room temperature dough in 35 gram portions with room temperature marshmallows, froze overnight, and baked the next day. Let them thaw while the oven preheated and then rolled in the sugar. Perfect!
Temperatures solved! Use a cold-pack from the freezer. Refrigerate dough in metal bowl with scoop for 20-30 minutes. Marshmallows at room temp. Before scooping dough rest fingers on cold-pack for 10 seconds (each cookie). With cold fingers, place dough on fingertips, not in the palm, flatten, add marshmallows, pinch closed and roll into a ball. Easy peasy!
Definitely give the balls a lot of room. I made the mistake of crowding on first batch, corrected by only baking 6 per sheet. Makes it super easy to shape cookies out of the oven. Next time will use a 1.5 scoop instead of 2.0 and use 3 marshmallows per cookie. Delish and a huge hit.
I think I have a larger dough scoop, and it turned out to make only 16 large cookies. I was making them to take to the office, and my family was BITTER that I didn't have enough for them. Making them again and will shoot for a smaller size with only three encased marshmallows. They certainly are delicious! I used Ghirardelli 100% Dutch processed cocoa powder, and the chocolatey chewiness was rapturous!
These are excellent! Next time I will make sure the mini marshmallows are totally frozen, because some of them did melt into the cookie, They still give the center a great chewy texture. The roll in cinnamon sugar adds great texture to the outer cookie. I didn't refrigerate the dough and it was just the right consistency to wrap around the marshmallows. I will definitely make these again!
Vegan marshmallows worked perfectly for by batch. Like others, I also assembled the cookies and frozen marshmallows before refrigerating for two hours (instead of refrigerating the dough before assembly). They turned out great!
These were a hit however I was afraid of too much cayenne so I reduced the amount by half…and people wanted more heat! I did not freeze the marshmallows first either. Like others, after making the dough, i formed the balls and stuffed with marshmallows. I refrigerated until set overnight and froze the balls to bake as needed. They came out perfect. I’m making these again the same way but with the full amount of cayenne.
Next time I will freeze the balls before baking, like it suggests in the "tip". I went as fast as I could and put them in the fridge, but they spread out way too much as they baked. I even put the marshmallows in the deep freeze to freeze them, but they thawed so quickly. They tasted good, but I was missing the gooey marshmallow middle. I also think the suggestion someone made about leaving the bottom without the sugar/cinnamon mix would help with sticking. I will use my silpat next time, too.
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