Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

RECIPE: Reprinted with permission from Cookies: The Best Recipes for the Perfect Anytime Treat by Vaughn Vreeland and The New York Times Cooking. © 2025 by The New York Times Company. Photographs copyright © 2025 by The New York Times Company. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Photo: Johnny Miller

October 22, 2025

The perfect chocolaty and spiced treat for those colder months.

What’s better than a warm, freshly baked chocolate chip cookie on a cold day? These Mexican hot chocolate cookies by Vaughn Vreeland, author of Cookies: The Best Recipes for the Perfect Anytime Treat. “These spiced and spicy cookies, chocolaty and brimming with molten marshmallow, are a terrific treat to keep you warm in the colder months,” Vreeland writes.

Ingredients

Yield:20-24 cookies

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-process
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
1/2 tsp. ground cayenne
3 tsp. ground cinnamon
8 Tbsp. unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
Mini marshmallows, frozen solid
1/4 cup granulated sugar

Tools:medium bowl, whisk, stand mixer with paddle or large bowl with hand mixer, 2 baking sheets

Preparation

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, cayenne and 2 tsp. of the cinnamon.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (or in a large bowl with a hand mixer), beat the butter and brown sugar on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla. Beat until creamy, about 2 more minutes. Add the flour mixture. Beat on low until no dry spots remain, about 1 minute.

With a 2-Tbsp. (1-oz.) 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.

When ready to bake, position racks in the lower and upper thirds of the oven and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Add the granulated sugar and remaining 1 tsp. cinnamon to a small bowl.

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 nto a ball and then roll in the cinnamon sugar to coat. Place on the baking sheet, 3 inches apart.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, switching racks and rotating the pans front to back halfway through, until the 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. Cookies will keep for about 3 days in an airtight container at room temperature.
TIPSBalls 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. Make sure to freeze the marshmallows fully to give the cookies their hallmark ripple of white peeking through their sparkly chocolate exterior. Otherwise, the marshmallows will dissolve into the cookies as they bake.