Gluten Free Hot Chocolate Cookies

These gluten free hot chocolate cookies are the treat you didn’t know you needed! You might call these a Crumbl copycat, catered to the dietary needs of those with Celiac disease, or you might just call them soft, chocolatey deliciousness, topped with rich, frozen hot chocolate mousse for even more deliciousness. 

Our gluten free pumpkin cake cookie recipe is also a Crumble copycat, but one geared more toward fall. This one, however, is your essential winter/Christmas cookie.

The truth is, as fancy as these sound, they’re actually really easy to make. 

Hot chocolate mousse? Yeah, that’s just cocoa, hot chocolate mix, and cream whipped together. And I’ll be honest, I could eat it with a spoon all day long. 

Thanks to Judee’s Ingredients for sponsoring this post, and providing high quality gluten free flour for nearly all of my baking. It’s a joy to be able to partner with such an essential brand to the gluten free community. 

If you’re looking for a Christmas cookie that’s a stunner but takes zero decorating skill, is easy, and tastes amazing, this is for you. We love soft gluten free sugar cookies, but sometimes, you just need chocolate. And this recipe delivers!

Let’s start with the obvious…

What differentiates between chocolate cookies and hot chocolate cookies? 

Simply put? The hot chocolate mix. Because we have all the milk solids and coffee creamer elements that hot chocolate mix provides, we have that rich, hot chocolate flavor, rather than the more dark chocolate flavor we would have from using an equal amount of cocoa powder. 

We also use cocoa powder, but we add hot chocolate mix. 

How do you make gluten free cookies? 

Gluten free cookies are notoriously finicky. They’re not always as straightforward, and sometimes you have to do things to make them start soft and moist without falling apart and crumbling, which we never think about with traditional cookies. 

In this case, we make a fairly stiff cookie dough and flatten it into discs rather than a softer dough that would spread on its own as it bakes. 

That way, our cookie has body, but looks like a cookie. And yet, it stays moist rather than being hard, crunchy, or crumbly. 

The main factors in the texture of our cookies is moisture content, fat, and flour types and quality. 

What kind of flours do we use? 

This is where Judee’s Ingredients comes in. I love using their flours because they’re finely ground, which gives you the best possible texture. 

I also like custom mixing my flours, rather than buying a gluten free baking mix. It’s not that there aren’t high-quality baking mixes out there, but the best result will always come from custom combining flour types for each recipe you’re making, and this gluten free hot chocolate cookie recipe is no different. 

In this case, I used a mix of quinoa, ivory teff, and arrowroot powder. 

I found that those three flours, in the ratios specified in the recipe below, yielded a soft, pliable, somewhat fudgy, and – dare I say it? – addictive cookie. 

Other than that, this is a pretty straightforward cookie recipe. 

How to make the hot chocolate mousse

This is a cookie topping, so not a traditional mousse. 

All you’re really doing is making hot chocolate-flavored whipped cream. 

The mix is thick to start with and takes less than a minute to whip to stiffness. 

It’s creamy, rich, and tastes, as you would expect – like hot chocolate. So good! I can’t say enough good things about it. Every time I make these cookies, it’s all I can do not to eat the mousse with a spoon before the cookies are cool enough to ice. 

And to top it all off? Marshmallows. Because what’s hot chocolate without marshmallows? I used mini marshmallows cut in half to top mine. You could use them whole or use the type of tiny marshmallows that come in the hot chocolate mix itself. Whatever you like best! 

Gluten Free Frozen Hot Chocolate Cookies

To make this simple recipe, the first step is grabbing your ingredients. 

Judees’ quinoa flour, ivory teff flour, arrowroot powder, xanthan gum, and cocoa powder are key. Then butter, white sugar, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, hot cocoa mix, and chocolate chips. 

Don’t worry about getting your mousse ingredients out until the cookies are baked and cooled. 

Cream butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy. 

Add egg and beat until fully incorporated. 

Mix all your dry ingredients together, then stir into the butter and sugar mixture.

Lastly, add chocolate chips.

Roll cookie dough into walnut-sized balls, and arrange them on a cookie sheet with 2-3 inches of space between each. 

Flatten cookies with the palm of your hand to about 1/3 inch thick.

Bake in a preheated oven for about 12 minutes. 

Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet. 

When they’re completely cool, whisk heavy cream, hot chocolate mix, and cocoa powder together until stiff, and drop a spoonful onto each cookie. Spread the mousse out, and top with a few marshmallows. 

That’s it! 

Scroll below for the video tutorial and printable recipe card. 

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