Miniature Hot Chocolate Cookies

These Miniature Hot Chocolate cookies are rich, chocolatey, and adorable!

(November 2016 Update) This post has been updated with new, non-iPhone photos and edited to update some of the text and recipe notes.

If you miss the old photography, I saved one of the old photos beneath the recipe to remember the good times. 😉

How is your Christmas prep going? Mine’s going great, if by great, you mean I have bought a grand total of one present and don’t yet have a tree.

Fortunately, my family is small and mostly local so the biggest part of holiday planning is coordinating Christmas dinner and deciding what holiday-themed movies to watch this year. I can’t imagine how all of you with huge extended families who travel for the holidays handle it.

While I’ve been shirking my holiday prep duties, I have been busy in the kitchen. This week alone, I’ve made a batch of my Chai Sugar Cookies with Eggnog Glaze , Snickerdoodle Sandwich Cookies , and now these adorable little Hot Chocolate Cookies.

I’d been meaning to make these cookies since I first saw them last year, long before Baking Mischief was even a dream of an idea, but Christmas came and went and they got stashed away in my next-year file.

So as soon as it got chilly enough for a sweater, I pulled these babies out and gave them a spin. The (gorgeous) originals are huge and use jumbo marshmallows, something I just don’t keep on hand. So I miniaturized them to make them the right size to use the mini marshmallows I had in the pantry, and they turned out so cute!

These things are perfect three-bite cookies, and man, are they RICH. I would never say stop at just one baby cookie, but you totally could.

Eaten warm, they are more like the most decadent, chocolatiest brownies you have ever tasted. Cooled, the deep chocolate flavor really pops and the little bite of hard chocolate in the center is perfection. I say eat warm with milk, cool with coffee, because they are definitely best paired with something to offset that sweetness!

More Cozy Recipes

• Perfect Snickerdoodles
• Easy Hot Chocolate
• White Hot Chocolate
• Dutch Apple Pie
• Snickerdoodle Hot Chocolate

Miniature Hot Chocolate Cookies Recipe Notes

• This recipe makes 24 small cookies. If serving to people, I would recommend 3 per person.
• I generally prefer to make my cookies in a stand mixer, but this is technically a small-batch cookie recipe with about 1/3 the amount of dough you would normally produce and requires no creaming of any ingredients. I’ve made it both ways and it’s simpler just to make in a bowl with a whisk.

Ingredients

• ▢ 3 tablespoons ( 1.5 oz) unsalted butter
• ▢ 1 cup ( 6 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips divided
• ▢ 1/3 cup + 1 heaping tablespoon ( 85 g) brown sugar
• ▢ 1 large egg
• ▢ 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ 1/2 cup ( 70 g) all-purpose flour
• ▢ 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon ( 10 g) cocoa powder
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• ▢ 1/8 teaspoon salt
• ▢ 24 mini marshmallows
• ▢ Finely chopped chocolate for topping optional

Instructions

• In a small bowl, melt butter and 2/3 cup of the chocolate chips together in the microwave. Heat for 30 seconds and stir. Then continue in 15-second bursts, stirring in between until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly for about five minutes.
• Mix brown sugar, egg, and vanilla in a large bowl until just combined. Beat in the cooled chocolate mixture.
• Mix in flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt, until just combined.
• Cover and chill for 45 minutes until the dough is firm enough to handle.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees Grease or cover two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
• Scoop dough and roll into 1-inch balls. Place them on the baking trays 2-inches apart.
• Bake for 7 minutes before removing the cookies from the oven. Place 2-3 chocolate chips in the center of each cookie and top with a mini marshmallow. Press the marshmallow firmly into the chocolate and place the tray back into the oven.
• Bake cookies for an additional 4 minutes and remove pan from the oven. While the cookies are still hot, sprinkle with chopped chocolate, if so desired.

Nutritional Information Adapted from Stepable

Original Post Photography, circa 2015 (iPhone 5)

Chai sugar cookies with eggnog glaze might just be the perfect Christmas cookie.

(11/5/16 Update) Hey all, this post is one of the very earliest posts on Baking Mischief, so I gave it a little face lift. I updated the photos, cleaned up the text, and edited the recipe for clarity. I also upped the amount of eggnog glaze on the chai sugar cookies by 50 percent, because I always felt it got a little thin by the time you finished decorating. This means the calories have also been adjusted.

I did leave one older photo for posterity, so if you’d like a little blast from iPhone Christmas past, scroll all the way to the bottom of the post. 🙂

Do you have a favorite Christmas cookie, like Hot Chocolate Cookies maybe or Butterscotch Shortbread Thumbprints perhaps? To be honest, growing up, I never did. Then last year I was made aware of these chai sugar cookies by a certain someone, maybe you’ve heard of her, just my imaginary BFF, Taylor Swift.

T-Swifty (in my imagination, we have affectionate nicknames for each other) has given me many things over the years: some great music, a few really entertaining memes, the disturbingly strong desire to wear adorable, retro, belly-button-covering bikinis–some of those gifts were better than others.

But last year, with a single Tumblr post , Taylor gave me the greatest gift one could ever hope to receive from a pop star: the recipe for the perfect Christmas cookie.

Guys, snickerdoodles are a classic (even better if you make them snickerdoodle sandwich cookies and throw in some eggnog buttercream), the store-bought sugar cookies we all decorated as kids are evergreen, but chai sugar cookies with eggnog icing? These things are a Christmas party in your mouth.

The cookies themselves are just a little bit crunchy and the chai is the perfect complement to the eggnog glaze that’s just waiting there to remind you, hey, it’s Christmas .

So thank you, Taylor. I may hate the way the lob you helped inspire me to cut my hair into this summer is growing out, but we will always have our perfect Christmas cookie.

Chai Sugar Cookie Recipe Notes

• This recipe calls for a chai tea packet to be added directly to your cookie batter. Make sure you are using one with fairly finely chopped fragments (you don’t want giant crunchy bits in your cookies!). I’ve used both Tazo * and Twinings (their decaff is my chai of choice) brands with great success.
• These cookies SPREAD when baked. You can fit them on two cookie sheets, but the edges will end up touching. If you want perfectly round cookies for gifting or serving to guests, bake them in 3 batches.

Ingredients

Cookies

• ▢ 1/2 cup ( 4 oz) unsalted butter room temperature
• ▢ 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• ▢ 1/2 cup ( 100 g) granulated sugar
• ▢ 1/2 cup ( 60 g) powdered sugar
• ▢ 1 large egg
• ▢ 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ▢ 1 chai tea packet cut open*
• ▢ 2 cups ( 280 g) all-purpose flour
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon salt

Glaze

• ▢ 1 1/2 cup ( 180 g) powdered sugar sifted
• ▢ 1/4 heaping teaspoon nutmeg
• ▢ 1/4 heaping teaspoon cinnamon
• ▢ 3 tablespoons eggnog or milk

Instructions

Cookies

• Using a stand mixer, beat butter until creamed. Add the oil and mix on medium for about thirty seconds. Scrape sides and bottom of the bowl and add the granulated sugar, powdered sugar, egg, vanilla, and the contents of the chai tea packet. Mix on medium until everything is incorporated.
• On low, mix in flour, baking soda, and salt until just combined.
• Refrigerate dough for about 1 hour until firm enough to handle.
• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper or grease well.
• Scoop heaping tablespoons of dough (just over 1 ounce) onto your cookie sheet, 8 to a sheet (these cookies spread!). With the palm of your hand, flatten dough until it is 1/4-inch thick. For more uniform-looking cookies, roll your dough into balls before you flatten them.
• Bake for 8-10 minutes until the edges are just lightly golden. Cool completely before adding the glaze.

Glaze

• In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon and eggnog, whisk together until well-combined. If glaze is too thick, continue to add liquid 1/4 teaspoon at a time until it reaches your desired consistency.
• Spread 1 heaping teaspoon of glaze on each cooled cookie.

Chai Sugar Cookies Nutritional Information Adapted from Taylor Swift , and The Pastry Queen * via Joy the Baker

Original Post Photo, circa 2015 (iPhone 5)

A few simple gingerbread house tips and tricks.

In college, my sister and I started a gingerbread house tradition. While home for Christmas breaks, when the novelty of no homework began to wear off, just before the boredom of being home really started to drive everyone crazy, we’d put on a day-long marathon of movies, tear our parents’ kitchen and dining room apart, and make a gingerbread house.

We made our first house in 2009 out of graham crackers and have made one every year since, finally graduating to actual homemade gingerbread last year. This past weekend, we made our seventh house and while we’re not exactly expert gingerbread-house craftsmen, we have learned a few things through trial and error. These are my favorite recipes, tools, and tricks we’ve discovered over the years:

Recipes

Structural Gingerbread – I love this dough. It’s easy to make, easy to work with, and dries hard and strong. In the two years we’ve used it, I’ve never had so much as a crack. Bonus: If you measure wrong (not that I would ever do this), it’s very forgiving of some last-minute trimming (I DID NOT HAVE TO DO THIS ON SATURDAY IAMNOTLYING).

Frosting Cement – The canned stuff works fine when you are just gluing four graham cracker walls together, but if you are putting together anything more complex, this is the frosting you want. They aren’t kidding when they say cement. This stuff is so strong once it dries that you could probably build a real house with it.

Marshmallow Modeling Clay – Just in case you too feel the need to sculpt a dragon/detective for your house, this edible clay is great. It contains ingredients you probably keep in your pantry and is about as easy to work with as regular clay. The most difficult part is working in the coloring, which will take you a few minutes.

*All of these things are technically edible, but we don’t eat our houses, so I can’t comment on the taste.

House Templates

Victorian Gingerbread House – There is a surprising dearth of free gingerbread templates on the web for anything more complicated than your basic four walls and a chimney, so I was absolutely DELIGHTED to find this Victorian template from Kitchen Trials last year. It’s what we used for our 2014 house and it was perfect.

Tools

Other Tips and Tricks (AKA, lessons we learned the hard way)

• If you cut your dough and then bake, check and trim it after it comes out of the oven! A good gingerbread dough shouldn’t spread too much when it cooks, but it probably will a little bit, and a little bit is all it takes to throw your angles off. Check your pieces against their stencils and re-cut while the gingerbread is still warm and pliable.
• If you get any air bubbles in your dough, very, very gently smooth them out with a light rolling pin as soon as you take it out of the oven.
• Make your gingerbread house a two or three day project. Copying and cutting and rolling and tracing and baking and cooling takes a while. For these bigger houses, I like to cut the stencils day one, cook the gingerbread on day two and assemble day three. It will make the whole project feel so much less overwhelming.
• Use cans and mugs to prop up your walls while they are drying.
• Finally, buy more ingredients than you think you need! If something goes wrong, or you need more dough, there is nothing worse than having to go back out and buy ingredients in the middle of your baking. Believe me. It’s. The. Worst.

A History of Our Houses

If you’d like, take a walk down memory lane with me…

2009 – A House for Mr. & Mrs. Claus

2010 – A Home for the “Supernatural” Boys + Santa Cas

2012 – 221 B Baker Street Got a Gingerbread Upgrade

2013 – A “Sherlock”/”Desolation of Smaug” Gingerbread Crossover

2014 – “Hannibal” House

2015 – “Hannibal” House, Year 2

Miniature Hot Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons ( 1.5 oz) unsalted butter
• 1 cup ( 6 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips divided
• 1/3 cup + 1 heaping tablespoon ( 85 g) brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup ( 70 g) all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon ( 10 g) cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 24 mini marshmallows
• Finely chopped chocolate for topping optional

Instructions

• In a small bowl, melt butter and 2/3 cup of the chocolate chips together in the microwave. Heat for 30 seconds and stir. Then continue in 15-second bursts, stirring in between until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly for about five minutes.
• Mix brown sugar, egg, and vanilla in a large bowl until just combined. Beat in the cooled chocolate mixture.
• Mix in flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt, until just combined.
• Cover and chill for 45 minutes until the dough is firm enough to handle.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees Grease or cover two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
• Scoop dough and roll into 1-inch balls. Place them on the baking trays 2-inches apart.
• Bake for 7 minutes before removing the cookies from the oven. Place 2-3 chocolate chips in the center of each cookie and top with a mini marshmallow. Press the marshmallow firmly into the chocolate and place the tray back into the oven.
• Bake cookies for an additional 4 minutes and remove pan from the oven. While the cookies are still hot, sprinkle with chopped chocolate, if so desired.

Nutrition