Taco Soup
Naz Deravian
1242 ratings with an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars
1,242
1 hour 15 minutes
Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies
Updated Dec. 22, 2023
- 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
Yield:20 to 24 cookies
- 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.
Tip
- 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
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Cooking Notes
Jess Bee
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!
Sasha
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.
Robert
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.
Melanie
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.
branchop
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.
Elise Mugabo
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.
Denis
Cookies will keep about 10 minutes unguarded.
lynnswin
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.
MMS
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.
John
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!).
mayno
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!
Wendy P
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!
Alan
When does the other half of the dough come out of the fridge? Not mentioned in the recipe!
ST
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.
re: veggie cookie swap
Does this recipe work with vegan marshmallows instead? thanks.
TiCo
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.
JlS
Agree with others that is it hard to get a consistent shape and keep those frozen marshmallows from melting to smithereens. Nice flavor though, so may try again. I think the key is to assemble them and then freeze and put them directly in the oven from the freezer. For our part, I added almost twice the cayenne, and still felt that they could use more. My kids agree! What can I say, we like things on the spicy side. And don’t underestimate the difference that high quality cinnamon can make.
Erica
My teen just made these for the second time - I am not a cookie person, not a fan of marshmallows, not the one in the family who seeks out spice. And I am in LOVE with these. I wasn't paying attention to the preparation, so I don't even know if they followed the recipe exactly. But what I am eating is so lovely! Definitely going to be asking for these for my birthday. Yum!
cuke pomegranate salad
Omg! So delicious!
Foofy
As another baker said, these are fussy! I ended up oiling my hands to flatten the dough. I had no problem putting five marshmallows inside each ball. I constructed them completely, and then put them in the fridge for a couple hours. They baked up fine and tasted really good, however, in most of them, the marshmallow completely disappeared. Maybe that’s the point of putting them in the freezer?
Charlotte
Made these as directed, but without the marshmallows and they were delicious!
Kaja
These were a hit at holiday gatherings and with friends and family. (I dropped some off for friends who were recovering from COVID, and they loved them so much that they were eating a quarter of a cookie at a time to make them last.) I read the comments and formed the cookies with room temperature dough wrapped around frozen marshmallows. I used the vegan marshmallows from Whole Foods but could find only the regular size, so cut them in half with kitchen shears.
Maureen
I had a yield of 18 cookies. I froze the marshmallows but did not freeze the dough before scooping and shaping the balls with marshmallows inside. Froze cookies for about 1 hour before baking for 10 minutes. I would reduce the cayenne pepper by half next time and add a bit of sea salt or flake salt to the top of each cookie before it goes in the oven. We're a Morton Kosher Salt household so I cut the kosher salt by half which was fine.
Susigaj
I thought this was a fussy recipe for the taste it yields. I had leftover regular marshmallows so I cut them in 8ths and froze them. I used 4 pieces per cookie in the first half of the batch. Some came out pretty messy. So in the 2nd half I only used 3 pieces per cookie and after each ball was made I put it in the fridge until all were ready. The 2nd batch came out better. I won't make them again.
Sarah
These were delicious--however, the stated baking time was far too long. I made 24 cookies (the high end of the suggestion) and froze the unbaked cookies. The low end of the suggested time for baking from frozen of 13 minutes resulted in absolutely hammered cookies, with the marshmallows completely melted and unseen. Even baking directly from frozen, 10 minutes (or even less) was the correct baking time to get those bits of marshmallow peeking through and visible.
Denise
I have now made these quite a few times with several variations. 1/4 tsp of cayenne seems perfect. King Arthur Measure For Measure gluten free flour subs in perfectly. I've found vegan marshmallows don't melt even without freezing but are a little less gooey. I do refrigerate the dough balls to "hydrate" per the video instructions, but use half vegan and half frozen regular marshmallows, four mini mallows total. I put the former dough balls in the fridge for ten minutes before baking.
Coffee grinder
Best cookies I've ever made. I followed the advice of most comments & rolled the cookies into balls w/unfrozen marshmallows then refrigerated for 2 hours & baked.
PatR
I cut the cayenne in half because I am sensitive to it. I still get the heat. Cooked perfectly in 10 min. Turned the tray at 5 min.
GrammieK
Chilled dough is difficult to work with. Stuff them, shape them, then freeze. If I’m baking a casserole, I pop 6 cookies on a qtr sheet pan at the end. Delicious. For the cayenne, 1/8 tsp was perfect for our taste.
Kyra
Really delicious cookies, absolutely recommend making these! I followed user comments and didn't chill the dough or freeze the marshmallows which worked really well. If the dough gets too sticky, just pop it in the fridge for a couple of minutes
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