Mint Hot Cocoa Cookies

Welcome to the Secret Recipe Club 2014 Cookie Carnival!

Members of the Secret Recipe Club are assigned a blogger each month to make a recipe from their site.  During the holidays, we skip a month of posting and many of us wanted to do something fun and festive! When the idea of a cookie carnival came about I thought it sounded like a blast! I do not have a ton of cookie recipes on my blog, but I thought it would a great opportunity to try something new.  I was assigned the blog PaleYellow. I was very pleased to be able to choose one of her recipes because she is not part of my normal Secret Recipe Club group (we are divided into 4 posting groups), and it was fun to check out all the new recipes. Pale Yellow has a large assortment of beautiful baked goods and it was so hard to pick just one for the carnival!  I finally decided on Mint Hot Cocoa Cookies- perfect for the holidays (however her recipe for Shortbread Dipped in Chocolate and Peanut Butter sound to die for!). 

The cookies were absolutely delicious and as noted by the original post they are not the prettiest cookies, but they sure are delicious! I am doing a cookie exchange with a few girlfriends on Wednesday, and am bringing these babies with me- I know my friends will love them. 

Holiday baking and candy making are one of my favorite things to do this time of year and this was such a fun round-up with fellow bloggers to get into the holiday season. Also, what a more perfect way to get a ton of great recipes all in one place!? 

Ingredients

10 Tbl unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup flour

1/4 cup + 2 Tbl cocoa powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 

3/4 cup mini dried marshmallows + extra for topping

1 cup peppermint bits (I used the red and white peppermint morsels)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 and line three cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Sift together the flour, cocoa, soda, and salt. Set aside. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar.  Next, beat in the vanilla and egg.

 Add flour mixture to the creamed butter on low speed, and mix until just combined.  Beat in the chocolate chips, dried marshmallows, and peppermint bits.

Spoon a 2-tablespoon scoop to portion the dough on to the cookie sheet.  Add dried marshmallows on top.

Bake for 10 minutes until just done.  Let cool completely on a wire rack.

Yields 30 cookies. 

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