These Mexican hot chocolate cookies are soft and chewy with crisp, crackly tops and a subtle kick of heat – no mixer needed!

Stack of Chewy Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

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.

Chewy Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookie being lifted off a wire rack

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:

1. 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.

2. Use a 1 1/2 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

More chewy cookies!

Chewy Margarita Cookies
Soft and Chewy Salted Caramel Cookies from Hunger Thirst Play
Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies
Cashew Cookies with Brown Butter Frosting from Tara Teaspoon
Soft & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chewy Cherry Chocolate Chunk Cookies (and they’re vegan!) from Foodal
Fluffernutter Cookies
Frosted Lemon Cookies from Modern Honey
Grinch Crinkle Cookies
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Butterscotch Cookies from Taste and See

Chewy Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

Author: Leslie Kiszka
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes (for each batch)
Total Time: 45 minutes
Yield: 18-20 cookies 1x

Print Recipe

Description

These Mexican hot chocolate cookies are soft and chewy with crisp, crackly tops and a subtle kick of heat – no mixer needed!

Scale

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Pinch of chili powder
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup Karo® Corn Syrup
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 to 1/3 cup granulated sugar, for rolling

Instructions

In a medium bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, cayenne pepper and chili powder and whisk to combine. Set aside.
In a large bowl combine melted butter, cocoa powder, and corn syrup and stir to combine.
Add brown sugar, egg and vanilla and stir until well combined.
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 silicon mats (aff link) or parchment paper. Set aside.
Pour granulated sugar into a small bowl. Set aside.
Use a 1 1/2 tablespoon cookie scoop (aff link) 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 (aff link) to cool completely. Enjoy!

Equipment

cookie scoop

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nonstick silicon mat

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Notes

Tip:

Prep all your cookie dough balls at once, then place them on a plate and stick it in the fridge as each batch bakes. This will keep the dough firm and prevent it from spreading too much, and you don’t have to deal with taking the bowl of dough in and out of the fridge as you make each batch. Now you can just pluck six balls off the plate to put on the prepared baking sheet right before they go in the oven!

Category: Dessert
Method: Bake

Keywords: chewy mexican hot chocolate cookies, chewy chocolate cookies, chocolate snickerdoodles

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