Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies Recipe (2024)

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.

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.

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.

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!

Omg! So delicious!

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?

Made these as directed, but without the marshmallows and they were delicious!

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.

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.

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.