Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies
Updated Oct. 17, 2025
- Total Time
- 1½ hours, plus 2 hours chilling
- Prep Time
- 30 minutes
- Cook Time
- 1 hour, plus 2 hours chilling
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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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
Comments
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 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 accidentally added all 3 tsp of cinnamon in my dough. But it still turned out delicious! So I used a total of 4 tsps (that includes the cinnamon for the rolling sugar). What I did: - I used a 2 tbsp cookie scoop - Left them inside the fridge (not freezer) overnight - Let it thaw for a few minutes (3-5 minutes) - Flattened and placed the mini marshmallows that were left in the freezer in the middle of the dough - Folded the dough to envelope the mini marshmallows - First batch of cookies were baked for 10.5 minutes, second batch for 12 minutes. First batch: Less cracks Second batch: More cracks and marshmallows (some) seeped out I like the texture of the second batch. But both iterations were equally good. 10/10 would make again
These are so amazing and the video is helpful. The spices are perfect. I only wish the chocolate was slightly more forward and richer but I'm not sure what could be change to help that. I had no trouble with the cold dough because as was suggested, I let it warm up a little. A really wonderful cookie recipe!
These cookies are delicious! I halved the amount of cayenne and slightly increased the cinnamon (maybe 1/2 tsp more) and the spice level was perfect. My butter wasn’t soft enough so the dough was a little dry when mixing, so I added approx 1.5 tbsp vegetable oil which didn’t seem to affect the flavor or quality (could have used milk too). I formed the dough into balls at room temp with room temp marshmallows before freezing overnight. When baking the next day, I rolled some in cinnamon sugar and tried some without — both were delicious! The ones rolled in cinnamon sugar had more of a cinnamon flavor of course. The marshmallow mostly melted into the cookie but a small amount was visible which made the cookies visually pleasing and it added an awesome texture to the cookie regardless. Excellent with a cup of coffee or milk! Definitely adding these to my cookie baking rotation!