M&M Cookies to Celebrate Valentine’s Day
Hubby and I don’t usually celebrate Valentine’s Day. I’m not sure how that happened, but we’re both ok with it. We usually just have a nice dinner at home and some wine. No gifts, no fancy restaurants, just chillin. Even though we don’t get all romantic and mushy on Valentine’s day, I do love to bake for this holiday.
You see, my three favorite colors are red, pink, and purple. I love them all almost equally, but if I had to rank them, it’d be red first, then purple, then pink. Not pastel pink, a good hearty dark-hot-pink – like the dark pink M&Ms in the Valentine’s Day color combo. One of the reasons I love baking for Valentine’s day is that I’ll most likely be making something with one of my favorite colors. Last year I made red velvet cupcakes that I took to work. This year, I happened to grab a bag of Valentine’s Day M&Ms while I was at the store the other day.
I have a soft spot for holiday colored M&Ms. Not sure why, but I just love them. So I set out to make some M&M cookies. Now I’ve already made two versions – regular M&M cookies and chocolate M&M cookies. Both were great, but I always prefer to try new recipes.
I whipped up this batch of cookies last weekend, but didn’t want to have cookies in the house, so I baked up a dozen and froze the rest. The dozen that I baked went with me to a food photography seminar – which I still need to blog about (check out Elina’s or Kerstin’s recap).
To freeze the cookies, I just rolled them out as if I was going to bake them. Then I put them on a cake pan lined with waxed paper and threw them into the freezer. Once they were frozen, I put them all into a ziplock bag. These frozen cookies are going to some friends who just had a baby. That way the new parents can bake a couple cookies at a time for some instant comfort.

M&M Cookies
Yield: ~3 dozen
Ingredients:
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c sugar
1 c shortening
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 c M&Ms
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, mix sugar, eggs, shortening, and vanilla thoroughly. Add flour, salt, and baking soda to creamed mixture. Blend well. Add 3/4 cup of M&M candies.
Portion out some dough using a cookie scoop. Using your hands, roll into a small ball and place on cookie sheet. Slightly push a few candies on top of each dough ball with remaining candies.
Bake for 9 to 11 minutes. (13-15 if taking straight out of the freezer).
Recipe from Allrecipes.com
I have my tried and true ATK version but I always love discovering new chocolate chip cookie recipes!
Brown butter makes everything better!
I am pretty boring with chocolate chip cookies and stick with the recipe on the back of the bag, but the size of these and the twist on ingredients makes me want to give these a go!
I use half the bag of chips too – I like them that way! 🙂 I might have to give this one a shot – I really liked the brown butter oatmeal chocolate chip I made last week.
I love trying new ccc recipes also. Â You don’t mention what the texture of the cookie is. Â I like crispy edges and chewy centers, very hard to find.
Well, I know what’s happening with the half block of cream cheese in my fridge just waiting to be used up! Cookies are in my future, score. 😉
I love adding sea salt to chocolate things! I haven’t tried it on chocolate chip cookies, but it sounds delicious.
These look awesome, I am still searching for the perfect recipe!
The cookies sound amazing!  I love the addition of cream cheese!  CC is my favorite cookie and I am terrified to make them because I have no self control.  I love the dough and I love the cookie!! Â
These sound like they take the best components of all my favorite cookies (browned butter, a sprinkling of sea salt) and merge them together.
I always stick with Tollhouse cookies. I need to open my eyes to the wide world of chocolate chip cookies varieties out there!
I made these today and they were fantastic–thanks for sharing the recipe! (*^_^*)
aahh this is recipe that i looking for to make choco chip cookies… thank you for post it 🙂
Made these but didn’t know you have to refrigerate the dough prior to baking hope they come out okay!
beantownbaker — January 5th, 2013 @ 4:31 pm
They should still turn out ok. They might spread a bit more than mine do. Let me know how they come out!
Made these with the kiddies today and WOW! They are delicious! It made a lot of dough though (I made smaller cookies than the recipe called for), can I freeze the dough in small balls?
Making these today! Can’t wait to see how it turns out. I have another great brown butter choc chip recipe but never tried with cream cheese. Thought I would share my tip for the sea salt…I love a salted cookie! I wait until the cookies have cooled 5 minutes before sprinkling, it’s not too hot that the salt sinks into the batter but not too cold that the salt just bounces off.
These look amazing! I am definitely going to make them!