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This easy recipe for Chocolate Eggnog Cookies combines the wonderful holiday flavours of creamy eggnog with the rich sweetness of chocolate in one pillowy soft bite!
A drizzle of eggnog icing makes them look extra pretty on a Christmas dessert tray but is totally optional.
Why You’ll Love These Eggnog Christmas Cookies
This eggnog cookie recipe will make a wonderful addition to your holiday cookie line-up this year. Here’s why!
- Irresistible chocolatey eggnog flavour with hint of holiday spice.
- Soft, thick centres with slightly crisp outer layer.
- There’s no fussing with rolling pins or cookie cutters. It’s just chill and drop the rounds of dough onto a baking sheet.
- This recipe is virtually fool-proof which makes it a fun activity to do with kids during the holidays.
- The eggnog glaze is very easy and adds an extra touch of sweetness but is optional.
- The rum version will be popular with adults.
- Stays soft for days.
- Freezes very well.
Eggnog vs Rompope and Rompopo
This easy drop cookie recipe calls for fresh eggnog or rompope/rompopo, which is the Latin egg-based beverage popular throughout Mexico, Guatemala and beyond.
You can use a store-bought classic eggnog or make your own at home. Both work well!
Both Rompopo and Rompope de Santa Clara (the Mexican eggnog liqueur) are based on the Spanish egg punch called ponche de huevo.
This rich holiday punch is made of milk, egg yolks, sugar, spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla. It often has rum, brandy or an alcohol such as aguardiente.
In Guatemala, it’s produced in Salcajá, a town in the highlands of Quetzaltenango and is especially popular during the Christmas holiday season.
I first tried it at the Quema del Diablo (Burning of the Devil), a ritual celebrated on December 7th, eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
This recipe calls for fresh eggnog or rompope without alcohol.
But if you’d like a rum eggnog cookies, you can add swap in some rum for the vanilla. Or, use Rompope de Santa Clara traditional liqueur (or other commercial brand). Substitute it for up to half of the eggnog. But bear in mind it’s 13% abv.
How Make These Eggnog Drop Cookies
This is a really easy cookie recipe to make and doesn’t require any complicated ingredients or techniques.
1. Begin by melting the chocolate in the microwave or over boiling water in a double boiler pot. Stir and allow it to cool to room temperature.
2. Sift the flour, soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon together. Beat the butter until fluffy, gradually add the sugar, then the egg, the chocolate, eggnog and rum or vanilla extract.
3. Combine the flour mixture with the butter chocolate mixture. Mix well with an electric mixer.
4. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for one hour. Once it is chilled take spoonfuls of dough and dropping them onto a baking sheet that’s ungreased or lined with parchment paper.
5. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Drop the cookie dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased or parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving a 2 inch space between each cookie.
6. Bake for 8 minutes or until almost slightly firm. Oven temperatures vary so watch that they don’t burn
7. Remove the cookies from the baking sheet and cool on a wire rack.
8. Once they’ve cooled completely, frost with eggnog icing.
How To Make the Eggnog Glaze for Cookies
Beat the softened butter with an electric mixer in a medium-sized bowl until smooth.
Gradually add sifted icing sugar, slowly adding eggnog until desired consistency is reached.
Using a piping bag, drizzle the icing in a pattern over cookies.
Tips on Making, Serving and Storing Soft Eggnog Cookies
- Drop cookies should be slightly mounded and uniform in shape so they bake evenly. I use a teaspoon and round the dough on the spoon by hand before placing it onto the pan.
- When dropping the dough onto the baking sheet be sure the pan is not hot. If it’s too warm, the cookies will spread and turn out flat. I use two cookie sheets which lets me cook one batch of cookies on a baking sheet while the other batch is cooling.
- Check on the cookies while they’re baking as oven temperatures vary. If you bake the cookies too long, they’ll be dark around the edges and dry. Too little and they’ll be doughy in the middle.
- Freeze these cookies in a plastic freezer bag (remove the air with a straw) for up to three months.
- Serve these cookies alongside crispy Guatemalan champurradas and hot cocoa. Or try them with our Hot Spiced Christmas Tea or Guatemalan ponche de frutas (hot fruit punch).
If you make this recipe, please rate it and tag us on Pinterest @atastefortravel with #atastefortravel. We’d love to see them!
Easy Chocolate Eggnog Cookies - Rompope Drop Cookies
Equipment
- electric beater
- Large Mixing Bowl
- Baking Sheets
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 egg room temperature
- 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate melted and cooled to room temperature
- 1/3 cup eggnog
- 1 Tablespoon rum extract or vanilla extract
- 1 3/4 cup all-purpose white flour sifted
- 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg freshly grated if possible
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
Eggnog Glaze
- ¼ cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 3 cups icing sugar
- 1/3 cup eggnog
Instructions
- Melt the chocolate in the microwave or over boiling water in a double boiler. Stir and allow it to cool to room temperature.
- Beat butter until fluffy, add sugar, egg, melted chocolate, eggnog and rum (or vanilla extract).
- Sift flour, soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon together.
- Combine the flour mixture with the butter chocolate mixture. Mix well with an electric mixer.
- Form the cookie dough into a ball, cover and chill in the refrigerator for one hour.
- Heat the oven to 400 F. Drop the cookie dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheet, leaving 2 inches space between each cookie.
- Bake for 8 minutes.
- Remove the cookies from the baking sheet and cool on a wire rack.
- Allow to cool completely, then frost with eggnog icing.
Notes
- Drop cookies should be slightly mounded and uniform in shape so they bake evenly. I use a teaspoon and round the dough on the spoon by hand before placing it onto the pan.
- When dropping the dough onto the baking sheet be sure the pan is not hot. If it's too warm, the cookies will spread and turn out flat. I use two cookie sheets which lets me cook one batch of cookies on a baking sheet while the other batch is cooling.
- Check on the cookies while they're baking as oven temperatures vary. If you bake the cookies too long, they'll be dark around the edges and dry. Too little and they'll be doughy in the middle.
- Freeze them in a plastic freezer bag (remove the air with a straw after filling) for up to three months.
Nutrition
Other Holiday and Christmas Dessert Recipes You’ll Love:
- 25 Globally-inspired Holiday Appetizers
- Ensalada de Nochebuena – Christmas Eve Fruit Salad
- Crispy Coconut Lime Sugar Cookies
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Dividing her time between Canada, Guatemala and Mexico (or the nearest tropical beach), Michele Peterson is the founder of A Taste for Travel. Her award-winning travel and food writing has appeared in Lonely Planet’s cookbook Mexico: From the Source, National Geographic Traveler, Fodor’s and 100+ other publications.
Read more about Michele Peterson.
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Britt K
My husband adores eggnog and gets so excited for it each year as the holidays approach. I’m going to have to try making these for him! Thank you for sharing
Katherine
These look delicious! I’ll have to try them! Thanks for sharing!
Sara
The Rompope must make these so rich; yum!
Mama Maggie's Kitchen
This looks Incredibly delicious. I have to make this soon for my family!
Chef Dennis
This Chocolate Eggnog Cookies is making me drool! Looks so delicious.
Kay
Perfect was looking for something different for Christmas nibbles this year, I have just found it!
Emily Flint
You had me at eggnog! I can’t wait to make these cookies for Christmas…if I can wait that long!
Sunrita
These look divine and yet so easy to make. It’s on my baking list
FOODHEAL
These are kind of cookies I’d wish a neighbor to knock on my door with a full packet on a Xmas morning. They look so awesome, and you know, no guilty of finishing them on a Xmas day, lol.
Emily Woodward
Can’t wait to make these this holiday season