Peanutty M&M Cookies

 

I am quite a zealous shopper. When I get excited about something I want to buy the jumbo size. There are perfectly acceptable reasons to do so: larger sizes tend to be cheaper, I don’t have to worry about quickly running out, and if ever I need that product, I always have it on hand. Therein lies the problem. I always have it on hand. It is always going to be in my pantry, it is always going to be taking up space. It is often going to get knocked to the floor because there’s no room for so many jumbo size products in my not so jumbo pantry.

 You’re probably wondering where I’m going with this. I’ll tell you. I bought the jumbo size package of peanut M&Ms because I love them. I love the combination of salty and sweet. The thing is, after a couple of days I got pretty tired of them, after a week, I was sick to death of them, and after two weeks, I stuffed them into the back of my pantry, physically removing them from my sight. It was that bad. No way was I going to waste the money that I spent by getting rid of them, so I decided that I needed to use them in a way that I don’t normally do, so I took out a little of my frustration with a meat mallet, and shattered quite a lot of them. I then decided to use them in a cookie along with semi-sweet chocolate chips and cocktail peanuts, to see if I could come up with something different. These are good! As someone who loves nuts and a cookie, my opinion is that you can never have too many. Next time I make these, I think I’m going to add more.

Peanutty M&M Cookies

1 c. butter (2 sticks)

¾ c. dark brown sugar

¾ c. granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 t. vanilla extract

2½ c. flour

1 t. baking soda

½ t. salt

1 c. semisweet chocolate chips

1 c. cocktail peanuts

1 c. crushed peanut M&Ms*

 Cream the butter with the brown and granulated sugars. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until fluffy.

 In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt and add to the creamed mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips, peanuts, and crushed M&Ms. Refrigerate for one hour.

 Preheat the oven to 375°F. Spray a baking sheet with PAM or top with parchment or a Silpat.

Using a cookie scoop, drop mounds of dough, 2 inches apart, onto prepared baking sheet. Bake the cookies until they're golden brown, 12 to 14 minutes.

Makes approximately 48 cookies.

*If you like, you can set some of these aside to sprinkle on top of the cookies before baking.

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M&M Sugar Cookies

 In my Easter themed Table for Two tablescape, you may have noticed the pastel M&Ms in the bunny egg cups. I had a lot of those left over, and was looking for something to do with them, rather than just eating them straight out of the bag. I’ve always enjoyed M&M cookies, and recently had one from the bakery, that, instead of being made with dough similar to that of a chocolate chip cookie, was made of sugar cookie dough. I thought that was a great idea, so I combined a favorite sugar cookie recipe and the M&Ms, and this is the result. Imagine how cute these would be stacked in a cello bag with a pastel ribbon tied around the top to take as a hostess gift, put in Easter baskets, or at each place setting at your Easter dinner.

M&M Sugar Cookies

1 c. butter, softened
1 1/2 c. sugar plus more for rolling.
2 large eggs
2 t. vanilla extract
1 t. almond extract
3 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. kosher salt
 One bag pastel M&Ms

  Preheat the oven to 375°F. Spray baking sheets with PAM, or line with a Silpat; set aside.

 In the work bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition; add vanilla and almond extracts, mix well.

 Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; add to creamed mixture, blending until combined.

 Using a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop out balls, roll in granulated sugar, flatten slightly, and place on prepared baking sheet spacing 1½” – 2” apart. Press 5 to 6 M&Ms into the top of each cookie. Bake for 9 – 12 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool five minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

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"Pick Your Holiday" Crunch

This recipe, originally called Cupid’s Crunch was all over the Internet; many of you probably saw it. Did any of you make it? Well, I decided that I was going to make it. The problem is, I didn't make it until the day after Valentine's Day...well, two days after...all right, I made it this morning, are you happy?! The important thing here is that it's good! In fact, under the right circumstances, this could be fairly addicting. That, of course, is not good, but I would encourage you to make it anyway. 

The recipe is called Cupid’s Crunch most likely because it uses Valentine M&Ms in white, pink, and red, but don't let that deter you from making it at any time of the year, hence my calling it “Pick Your Holiday” Crunch. You can call it Leprechaun Crunch and just use white and green M&Ms. You can call it Easter Bunny Crunch, and use the pastel M&Ms, or Fourth of July Crunch, well, you get the picture. Whatever you decide to use, and whatever you decide to call it, it's going to be good and people are going to lap it up. You might just want to double the recipe.

"Pick Your Holiday" Crunch

2 cups Corn Chex cereal

1 cup Honey Nut Cheerios

1 cup pretzel sticks

1 ½ cups M&M's

1 cup honey roasted peanuts

2 cups white chocolate candy melts

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat; set aside.

Combine first five ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

In a small microwave-safe bowl, combine oil and white chocolate discs and melt in the microwave in 20-second increments, stirring between each.

Pour the melted chocolate over the dry ingredients and carefully fold together.

Immediately spread mixture onto prepared baking sheet to dry. Break apart into chunks when cool.

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Not Your Momma’s M&M Cookies

This is a recipe born of necessity. Namely, my overwhelming need to rid the house of all of the leftover Halloween Candy that Mr. O-P was possessed to buy despite our history of few, if any, Trick-or-Treaters. Sigh. I have brownie ideas marinating in my head at the moment with an eye toward eliminating the mini Snickers, Milky Way, and Three Musketeers bars, but today I tackled the M&Ms.

Because I like M&Ms (and, really, who doesn't?), I also like M&M cookies. Largely, though, I've found M&M cookies to be simply clones of chocolate chip cookies with the candy in place of the chocolate chips. I wanted to give mine a little extra crunch and flavor, so added brickle bits to the recipe. Oh, yeah, these are good.

This recipe goes together easily, and has a great crumb, thanks to the combined use of both butter and margarine. Do not wander from this combination. You need both to get the perfect texture and the right cookie “chubby-ness.”

These freeze beautifully if you'd like to make them now and save them for the holidays.

Not Your Momma’s M&M Cookies

1/2 cup margarine (1 stick)

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2  tsp. salt

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

2/3 cup Bits ‘O Brickle chips

1 cup M&M candies

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Cream the margarine and butter with the brown and granulated sugars. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until fluffy.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt, and add to the creamed mixture. Stir in the semi-sweet, milk chocolate, and brickle chips. Fold in the M&Ms.

Drop rounded spoonfuls of batter 2 inches apart onto a baking sheet. Bake the cookies until they're pale golden brown, 12 to 14 minutes.

Makes 4 dozen cookies.

This post is linked to:

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What’s It Wednesday

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