mini m&m cookies

Let this entry begin with me saying I had to search high and low to find mini m&m's. Who the heck would've thought?! They use to be everywhere, candy isles, baking isles, that devilish marketing section that makes you buy crap you don't really need at the end of the check out lane, everywhere!! Well, last night Gabe texted me asking if I needed anything from the store, and I told him to pick up some mini m&m's. He couldn't find them at Wal Mart, which was a shock to me. So today after class got out I set out on a quest to find these little gems. Let me tell you, it was looking grim after guy at grocery store #2 insisted they were discontinued, but I pressed on. Finally, I found them! Sitting eye level (I'm 5'10 so they were pretty high!) in the candy isle of Hyvee like a little pot of gold, I was PUMPED!

I had been planning on making m&m sugar cookies. You know those melt in your mouth, soft, chewy, painfully sweet sugar cookies loaded with m&m's that random cookie carts have at the mall? I specifically didn't want chocolate chip cookies, with m&m's in place of chocolate chips, I wanted sugar cookies. After searching the nifty interwebz for hours, and comparing recipes to sugar cookies, to chocolate chip cookies, to m&m cookies, I finally decided to use this recipe from sophistimom. It's is absolutely fantastic, but not what I wanted. I say these are a mix between a chocolate chip cookie and a sugar cookie, which was not my plan. So I will have to bake on. Nonetheless, these are DELICIOUS! They baked beautifully and they tasted phenomenally. I followed her recipe exactly, with the exception of this: she calls for 2 ounces of m&ms and advises placing a few m&ms on top of each cookie. Bless her heart, 2 ounces? Bah! I threw in the whole dang bag, all 12 ounces.

Delicious mini m&m cookies (adapted from Sophistimom):

-2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

-1/2 tsp baking powder

-3/4 tsp salt (I used Kosher)

-2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

-1 3/4 cups sugar

-2 eggs

-1 tablespoon vanilla

-1 12 ounce bag M&M minis

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2. Add flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl. Set aside for later.

3. With an electric mixer and paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar on high until light and fluffy.

4. Lower the speed and eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla.

5. Beat until smooth. Turn off mixer and scrape down sides of bowl.

6. Turn mixer back on and add dry ingredients slowly. Mix until fully incorporated.

7. Portion dough onto baking sheet and slightly flatten dough rounds.

8. Bake for 10 minuets, or until edges are barely golden.

9. Allow to cool completely. Devour with milk, lots and lots of milk.

bake and enjoy.