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 am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Oh my god… these look amazing! They combine two of my favorite things: cookie dough, and mint-chocolate!
I’ve been trying to find something unique to make for my coworkers (I bake something every weekend for them on Monday) and was sick of making cookies. I’ve been trying to find a yummy mint-chocolate non-cookie to make, and I think this will do the trick!
Jecka – These don’t actually have mint in them. But you could definitely add mint to the brownie layer and use mint chips in the cookie dough. It would be quite tasty!
Those look AMAZING!!! All of my favorite things, rolled into one. So creative 🙂
I did the same thing Jecka did – I totally read “mini” as “mint”! That’s what you call a yummy mistake! 🙂
These sound awesome! I was thinking of making cookie dough cupcakes for Bake for Hope, but I might make these instead.
mmmm… My boyfriend would go crazy over those! He and I love cookie dough. I just got a new KitchenAid mixer that I’m looking for recipes to make in. I think your’s will be the first. Thanks for all the great ideas
Wow, these sound amazing and are right up my alley with that edible cookie dough – yum!!
What a great idea!! Wow. I would drizzle some hot chocolate sauce on top to make it even more intense haha. Overkill!
Wow, now those look killer, I love cookie dough and am a sucker for any recipe with those words.
Oh my gosh these look amazing. LOVE cookie dough, must definitely save this recipe for an empty rainy day 🙂
I love mini cupcakes. These are super cute!
Don’t those look yummy! I think if I open my mouth wide enough I can get it all in one bite, haha. I’ll have to give these a try soon.