These Mexican hot chocolate cookies are soft and chewy with crisp, crackly tops and a subtle kick of heat – no mixer needed! Try one of these other chocolate or cookie recipes next.
I have a question for you: Are you Team Soft Cookies or Team Crispy Cookies?
I’ve never been a big fan of crispy cookies. Don’t get me wrong, they have their place in the universe – it’s just not really my thing.
When I bite into a cookie, I want it to be a soft, chewy, pillowy bite of heaven and I don’t want to have to worry about it crumbling all over me.
And when I say soft and chewy, we’re talking about opening a container of cookies a week after you baked them, and they’re still so soft.
Not that these Mexican hot chocolate cookies will last that long, though.
I don’t want to sound arrogant, but I can’t overstate how good these are. My husband brought a bunch of these into work and a couple of the responses were:
- A Slack message with this Cookie Monster meme and the caption, “Oh my goodness that’s a good cookie”.
- An email with the subject line, “THESE COOKIES ARE SO GOOD”
These cookies bring people together, my friends. Some coworkers who normally don’t interact bonded over their shared love of these cookies.
And while I never post recipes I’m not proud of, but I have to admit – this might be one of my all time favorites.
I don’t know why, but I’ve always had an obsession with crinkly cookies. Somehow, they taste better when they have crinkles, don’t you think?
Yeah… yeah, they definitely do.
Plus, the crinkles create a more visually interesting cookie, and that’s a nice added bonus. Pretty cookie are more fun to show off anyway.
Tips for making these chewy Mexican hot chocolate cookies
Use a 1 ½ tablespoon cookie scoop (aff link) to portion out the dough. It makes the perfect size cookie that’s not too big, but big enough that it’ll take more than two bites to eat it.
Scoop all the balls of dough at once (then gently roll between your hands and roll in sugar), and store them on a plate in the fridge. Each time you’re ready to bake a batch, just grab them off the plate, plop them on your prepared baking sheet, and you’re done!
This way, your dough won’t get too warm as you’re working with it and your batches will all be consistent.
Don’t bake more than six at a time in each batch. This gives them plenty of room to spread as they bake, and I find that it’s the perfect number to have them all bake evenly every time.
Tweak the amount of cayenne and chili powder to your liking. The amount I list in the recipe below gives them a subtle heat that slowly creeps in after you swallow each bite. You don’t notice it at first, but after a few bites you have a moment of, “Oh, there it is!”
These are by no means spicy to a point that you’re going to be running for a glass of milk, it’s just a mild heat that adds a little somethin’ somethin’ to the chocolate and cinnamon flavors.
And if you don’t like spice or heat at all, you can just leave it out. You’ll just have delicious chewy chocolate crinkle cookies instead of Mexican hot chocolate cookies!
More chewy cookies!
- Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chewy Margarita Cookies
- Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies
- Soft & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Fluffernutter Cookies
- Grinch Crinkle Cookies
After you’ve made this recipe, please consider coming back to share your experience with others by leaving a comment below with a star rating!
Chewy Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies
Checklist For Success
Recommended Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Pinch of chili powder
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, melted
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- ¼ cup Karo® Corn Syrup
- ¾ cup light brown sugar
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¼ to ⅓ cup granulated sugar, for rolling
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk to combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, cayenne pepper and chili powder. Set aside.1 ½ cups all purpose flour | 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon | 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda | ½ teaspoon salt | ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper | Pinch of chili powder
- In a large bowl combine melted butter, cocoa powder, and corn syrup and stir to combine.¾ cup unsalted butter | ½ cup cocoa powder | ¼ cup Karo® Corn Syrup
- Add brown sugar, egg and vanilla and stir until well combined.¾ cup light brown sugar | 1 egg | 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Add dry ingredients into bowl of wet ingredients and stir until just combined and no pockets of flour mixture remain.
- Cover and chill dough in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line two baking sheets with nonstick silicone mats or parchment paper. Set aside.
- Pour granulated sugar into a small bowl. Set aside.¼ to ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- Use a 1 ½ tablespoon cookie scoop to portion out cookie dough, and roll lightly between hands to form a ball. Roll in your bowl of granulated sugar to coat, then place 6 cookie dough balls on first prepared baking sheet with a couple inches of space between each.
- Bake for 10 minutes – cookies should be puffy and starting to crack on top. Remove and let cool on pan for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy!
Jeff Grabowski
Highly recommend this recipe. Just the right balance of chocolatey goodness, warm cinnamon, and a spicy kick. Plenty of room to adjust the heat to your taste without interfering with the other flavors. Straightforward directions. The cookies were pretty and satisfying to handle.
Leslie Kiszka
Thank you so much for sharing your experience, Jeff!
Erika
They sound delicious but I have I question. Can I substitute corn syrup?
Leslie Kiszka
I haven’t tried it myself so results may vary, but in theory you should be able to swap the corn syrup for honey, agave nectar, or golden syrup.
Bill K
I brought some of these into work and gave some to my boss. He gave me a promotion.
Leslie Kiszka
Sounds about right! ;)