Hot chocolate cookies

We put up our tree the other day.  I absolutely LOVE turning our little apartment into a space filled with Holly berries, shiny tinsel, popcorn garland, sparkly ornaments, home-sewn stockings, penguins, and the aromas of a real Christmas tree, cloves, and cookies that are baking in the oven.  Growing up, my family had always had a fake tree.  Every year we would haul it down from the attic in the 7 boxes that it took to hold all the separate branches.  It took about 2 hours or so to just put the tree together (not including ornament-hanging!).  Each branch had a tiny color on the end of it that was painted on with nail polish that matched to which spot on the pole that it corresponded to.  I did not get this matching up idea when I was real little, hence leaving us often with very uneven branches.  It was quite the experience.  We also had personalized stockings at home, which we hung on our staircase railing, for lack of a mantle.  I had a Pocahontas stocking, because it was my favorite movie.  Once I got married, I was excited to begin our own Christmas traditions and transform our house into a cozy, comforting place to be with family during the holidays.  Our first married Christmas was awesome.  We stayed at our house and cooked a turkey dinner.  Here are a few pictures from that first Christmas...
 

















We made a turkey that we were very afraid was going to turn out awful.  We had it in the oven for a few hours and it still was not cooking through hardly at all.  We were both getting very frustrated.  Our other plan for the night was to go watch the newly released movie, Benjamin Button.  After trying to figure out how we were going to get this turkey cooked, hubby said, "Let's just go to the movie, turn the oven up a bit, and hopefully it will be done when we get back."  Sounds like a horrible idea, like a house fire waiting to happen.  We went with it anyway.  Unbeknownst to us, this movie was 3 hours long!  3 hours!  We were freaking out the whole time thinking we would be coming back to charred turkey and a burnt kitchen.  We were completely wrong.  As we sped home and ran from our car back inside, the aroma of a perfectly cooked turkey filled our noses.  The turkey was the most flavorful, moist turkey ever.  Most turkeys are completely over cooked and dried out.  Not this one.  It was perfect. We ate it for weeks.  Lesson learned:  Go see a ridiculously long movie while your turkey cooks.  This Christmas is also where my pie obsession began.  I made a first-ever (for me) from scratch crust and a lattice topping atop an apple blackberry pie.  Oh so good.  I have made it multiple times since, and it has always been just as good.

Now, onto this year's Christmas happenings.  Not quite as exciting.  Jeremy went and got our tree, came home with it tied down to the roof of my tiny car.  He brought it in and it immediately smelled up the house.  We then put on the Christmas station on Pandora and began decorating.

As we were decorating our house, I also made some hot chocolate cookies. They made the house smell so good!  And they are precious.  And I love to make things that are cute.  So Hot chocolate cookies.  Sounds like cookies that you would eat alongside hot chocolate right?  Nope.  These cookies are hot chocolate.  Hot chocolate hiding inside cookie batter.

They even have little marshmallows on top!  How quaint.

You should make these.  And give them away.  That's what I've been doing.  My neighbors are happy.  If you want some, let me know!  

Hot Chocolate Cookies

from BakedBree

2 stick butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3 1/4 cups flour

4 packages hot chocolate mix (not sugar free)

1 tsp salt

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1 cup mini chocolate chips

2 cups mini marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream together sugars and butter until fluffy.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.  Mix in the eggs and vanilla to the sugar/butter bowl.  Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix well.  Add the chocolate chips.  Chill the dough for about 15 minutes in the fridge.  Drop small spoonfuls of dough onto a greased or parchment-paper-lined cookie sheet.  Bake for 9-11 minutes.  During the last 2 minutes of baking time, top the cookies with marshmallows, pushing them into the dough just a bit so that they stay.  Bake about 2 minutes more, until the mallows puff up.

Make them!  They're good!

PS.  It's snowing.  I like it.  

PSS.  Next thing on the holiday baking list:  Eggnog popcorn balls.  Get excited.