Hot cocoa & marshmallow cookies

Our favorite holiday drink, hot cocoa, turned into a chocolatey and marshmallow filled cookie perfect for the winter season.

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I originally published this recipe in my 2024 holiday eBook and I'm so excited to bring it to you now on my website. The cookie dough comes together easily, and then after a quick chill you'll shape the dough into little cups and fill each cookie dough cup with half of a marshmallow. After a second chill, you'll bake and then enjoy hot chocolate in cookie form!

In the original recipe I added a chocolate ganache layer underneath the marshmallow to mimic melty hot chocolate. While I loved how it tasted, it made the cookie less stable and more difficult to transfer especially if you wanted to bake and then gift them. This updated version is simpler, tastes just as delicious and is much easier to transfer after baking.

For your marshmallows, you'll want to buy large marshmallows - I bought the Jet Puffed brand marshmallows but any brand will work great. Just rip the marshmallows in half and place the open side down into the cookie dough cup. You'll want to shape the cookie dough up and around the top edges of the marshmallow so that it's secured into the cookie dough but there is still lots of marshmallow showing.

Since the chocolate in this recipe comes from cocoa powder, rather than melted chocolate, your choice of cocoa powder will make a big difference in the end chocolate taste. I love using Valrhona dutch process cocoa powder, but any dutch process cocoa powder will work great to bring you a deeply chocolate flavor.

For the best results, I highly recommend using the gram measurements provided

Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons (113g) unsalted butter at room temperature

• 1/2 cup (96g) light brown sugar

• 1/4 cup (48g) granulated sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 large egg

• 1/3 cup (35g) cocoa powder

• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons (135g) all purpose flour

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 4 1/2 large marshmallows

Prep time: About 30 minutes

Chill time: About an hour

Bake time: 10-13 minutes

Servings: 9 cookies

Equipment

• Cookie sheets

• Parchment paper

• Hand mixer (or stand mixer)

• Spatula (or large spoon)

• Cookie scoop (3 tablespoons, # 20)

• Additional equipment: large bowl, large round cookie cutter or small bowl (for shaping your cookie)

Cooking instructions

Into a large bowl, add your butter and both sugars. Use a hand mixer (or you can use a stand mixer with the paddle attachment) to mix your ingredients together at a high speed until fluffy and lightened in color.

Add in your vanilla and egg, and continue to mix. Pause part way through to scrape down the sides of your bowl and mixer attachment and continue to mix until fully combined.

Sprinkle in your cocoa powder, continuing to mix until completely incorporated. Then add in the rest of your dry ingredients - flour, baking soda and salt. Mix at a low speed until your dough just forms, I recommend switching to your spatula for this step to avoid overmixing.

Onto a parchment lined cookie sheet, use a cookie scoop or spoon to portion out your dough. It should make about 9 cookies, 3 tablespoons per cookie (50g each). Place your cookie sheet into the fridge to chill for an hour, uncovered.

Once your scoops have chilled, flatten each dough scoop using your palms and create a small bowl shape with each portion of dough. Then, split your large marshmallows in half and top each cookie dough portion with half a marshmallow, ripped side down. Lightly shape the dough around the top edges of the marshmallows to seal it in. Place your cookie dough back into the fridge to chill - preferably for one hour uncovered, and at least two if covered. If you will be chilling your dough overnight, you can cover right away and chill up to 12 hours.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. When you’re ready, bake your cookies for about 10-13 minutes. Once done, your marshmallows should be just lightly golden. Right when your cookies come out of the oven, you can use a large cookie cutter or bowl slightly larger than your cookies to nudge the sides of your cookies in to form perfectly circular cookies. Allow to cool and then enjoy!

Your baked cookies will stay fresh in an airtight container for a few days in the fridge, but they will taste best fresh baked and enjoyed the same day you made them. You can also freeze the fully baked cookies and then enjoy at a later time by allowing it to come to room temperature, or popping in the microwave for about 10 seconds from frozen which is my personal preference.

Carb and serving info:  

Carbs for full recipe: 297

Carbs per serving (1 of 9): 33

Carbs from marshmallows: 27

Carbs from cookies only: 270

Note: Carb information is calculated based on the specific ingredients I used to cook with to help guide my own insulin to carb ratio when dosing before I eat my home cooked recipes.