Hot Chocolate Cookie Cups

You’ll love these adorable & festive Hot Chocolate Cookie Cups with a sugar cookie cup base, Reese’s miniature peanut butter cup inside, frosting for the ‘whipped cream’, and cute garnishes of sprinkles and mini candy canes that make the mug and stir stick. Simple to make with convenient store-bought, ready-to-use items. 

For more miniature cookie cup recipes be sure and try my Reese’s Peanut Butter Cookie Cups and S’mores Cookie Cups. 

Hot Chocolate Sugar Cookie Cups – Fun Christmas Treat!

These hot chocolate cookie cups may look difficult but they’re not! With some easy & ready-to-use ingredients like sugar cookie dough and store-bought frosting, these cute cookie cups can be ready in no time. 

It’s like drinking from a miniature hot chocolate mug but instead it’s all made of candy and yummy stuff. There are lots of ways to change up this recipe so be sure and read below for all my tips!

Ingredients Needed

• Ready to Bake Sugar Cookie Dough – This is the store-bought cookie dough that you will find in the refrigerated section, by the canned biscuits, at the grocery store. It comes in two shapes, one is a log and the other is a square shape, we want the square shaped package where the cookie dough comes already shaped into cookie dough portions. It’s the 24 count package of sugar cookies. 
• Miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups – These are the individually wrapped Reese’s in the gold foil. 
• White Chocolate Chips – Only a little bit is all we need. This is the “glue” that adheres the candy cane mug holder to the side of the cookie cup. 
• Vanilla/White Icing – This is the store bought tub that you will find by the cake mixes in the baking aisle. You won’t use all of it.
• Marshmallow Bits – These can be tricky to find. If you can’t find them, simply leave them out of the cookie cups. Just using sprinkles is plenty festive and cute for these cups. 
• Christmas Sprinkles

How To Make Mini Hot Chocolate Cookie Cups

Learn how to make these cute hot chocolate cookie mugs with the steps below. Be sure and read to the bottom of the post where there is a printable recipe card with all the details and a pin it button so you can save it for later. 

• Prep : Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 24-cup miniature muffin pan with cooking spray. 
• Cookie Cups : Take one portion of the cookie dough pieces and press it into each mini muffin holder on the pan. There are 24 pieces in the cookie dough and 24 miniature muffin holes. Take a small piece of wax paper and place it on top of the cookie dough and use your finger to press down and make an indent, inside each one. Bake for 11-14 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. 
• While The Cookie Cups Are Baking : Unwrap 24 miniature Reese’s peanut butter cups and set them aside. Take 24 mini candy canes and carefully cut the hook part off so you are left with the straight part of the candy cane and then the rounded ‘hook’ part of the candy cane. It’s easiest to use a serrated knife for this or carefully break them apart with your hands at the point you want them broken at. Place the icing/frosting inside a piping bag or a Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off. 
• Hot Chocolate : Once the cookie cups are done baking, immediately push a miniature Reese’s inside each one. Take the straight piece from the mini candy canes and insert one at an angle into each Reese’s cup. You may need to wait a few minutes in order for the chocolate to melt enough so you can easily push in the candy cane piece. This makes the ‘peppermint stir stick’ for the hot chocolate cups. Let the mugs cool (inside the pan) for 20 minutes before removing them and continuing on with the recipe. 
• Mug Handles : Use melted white chocolate chips to ‘glue’ the curved part of the candy canes onto the side of each cookie cup. Let it set for 10 minutes once you have done them all. 
• Toppings : Pipe on some ‘whipped cream’ onto the center of each cookie cup and garnish with some sprinkles and marshmallow bits. 

Variation & Substitution Ideas

There are lots of ways to change up these Christmas cookie cups. Here are some ideas!

• Miniature Reese’s Cup – Use a white chocolate miniature Reese’s cup for a ‘white hot chocolate cookie cup’. You can also use the dark chocolate miniature Reese’s cups or try using the pretzel variation or the Reese’s Pieces variation. Any miniature Reese’s peanut butter cup will work awesome in this recipe. Just make sure they are the ones that are individually wrapped in the foil. 
• ‘Whipped Cream’ – The vanilla frosting is used as the ‘whipped cream’ for the hot chocolate mugs. Instead, you can use a spray can of whipped cream for the same effect. 
• Mini Marshmallow Bits – These can be hard to find sometimes. If you can’t find them, simply omit them entirely, and instead just use the sprinkles to decorate the hot cocoa ‘mugs’. 
• Cookie Dough – Try using any variety of store-bought, refrigerated cookie dough that you want. Chocolate chip, Christmas funfetti, Buddy the Elf cookie dough, peanut butter cookie dough, etc. Just make sure that you are using the flat, square-shaped package that comes with the 24 pre-portioned and ready to use cookie dough squares. 
• Candy Cane – Use any mini candy cane that you want. If you are having trouble getting the mug handle part to adhere to the cookie cup, just leave it off. Instead, just use the straight part of the candy cane as the stir stick. You will still be able to tell that it’s a hot chocolate cookie mug even without that handle. 

How To Store Leftovers

Store any leftover hot chocolate sugar cookie cups inside an airtight container at room temperature. They are best eaten within 3 days of making them. 

Recipe Tips

Here are a few of my helpful tips so that you can have success recreating this recipe in your own kitchen ♥

• Wax Paper : Be sure and use the wax paper to press an indent into each miniature cookie cup before baking. The dough is really sticky and the wax paper makes it so much easier to create that hole or deep indent that we need. 
• Candy Cane Mug Handles : These are very fragile and can break easily so make sure that you allow them to completely dry before handling the hot chocolate cups. Also, if you’re having trouble with the mug handle part, simply leave it off the cookie cups. It will still be an adorable hot chocolate cookie cup even without that extra mug handle. 
• Whipped Cream Garnish – The frosting acts as the whipped cream for these hot chocolate cookie mugs and you can decorate it with anything you want! You can even use some crushed up candy canes to sprinkle on over the frosting along with the sprinkles. Or try using two different kinds of Christmas sprinkles for a fun look. For another variation on the whipped cream try using a spray can of whipped cream to make the ‘whipped cream’ topping for these cookie cups.  

More Festive Christmas Treats You’ll Love

• Peppermint Bark Graham Crackers – Easy to make with graham cracker sheets dipped in white and milk chocolate and garnished with candy cane pieces. 
• Pistachio Pudding Dessert – Such a pretty, bright, & festive green color!
• White Hot Chocolate – Make this on the stove top in just a few minutes. 
• Andes Mint Hot Chocolate – This recipe uses Andes mint chocolate to flavor this hot chocolate. 
• Buddy The Elf Christmas Snack Mix – We make this every year and watch the movie Elf!
• Candy Cane Kiss Brownie Bites – Brownie mix made in a mini muffin pan and topped with a candy cane kiss. 
• Eggnog Muffins – Soft eggnog muffins topped with a brown sugar streusel topping and eggnog glaze.