White Chocolate Mint M&M Cookies
You know those mint M&Ms that magically appear this time of the year? You should buy some. Really. They are a spectacular little invention with the perfect balance of mint and chocolate. Oh, and you can use them to make fun cookies.
This is the second year I've made these. They are just as good as I remembered. A little mint, a little white chocolate, a little more mint. It's a happy mix.
This is a really basic chocolate chip cookie recipe, except that I subbed in white chocolate for milk chocolate. And then I added some crushed candy canes because of course I did. I also threw in the mint M&Ms because I'm trying not to eat ten bags of them all by themselves. If they're in baked goods, the calories don't count. It says so right under the nutrition information on the bag.
One thing I want to point out about these cookies is that they aren't going to all turn out perfect and round. If a little bit of candy cane is on the edge of the cookie, it will melt weird and do something like this:
It doesn't mean you did something wrong. It just is a fact of making cookies with candy in them, in my opinion. If you carefully cut off the goopy part while the cookies are still warm, you can mostly recover. Or, you can decide that any cookies that aren't beautiful will have to be destroyed in an unselfish act of eating them. Taking one for the team is always encouraged.
One last thing -- these freeze well. I'm a big fan of all Christmas cookies that can be made well in advance.
White Chocolate Mint M&M Cookies
3 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla or peppermint extract (it depends on if you REALLY like mint or just like mint)
1 package candy canes, crushed
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 bag Holiday Mint M&Ms
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two-three cookie sheets with parchment paper. You're making approximately 4 dozen cookies, by the way.
2. To crush the candy canes, unwrap each of them and put them in a large Ziploc bag. Close it up, set the bag on top of a cutting board, and start whacking them with a garlic press or a hammer or whatever you have that works. You want to crush them into small pieces, but you don't have to turn them into dust. A happy medium of some dust and some chunks is good.
3. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking soda. Whisk them a second.
4. In a large bowl, mix the butter and sugars at low/medium speed until creamy.
5. Add the egg and mix some more.
6. Add the vanilla or mint extract and mix some more.
7. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until everything is happy and well combined.
8. Pour the white chocolate chips, crushed candy canes, and about half the bag of M&Ms in the bowl. Stir until well mixed.
9. Use a tablespoon to grab a scoop of cookie dough. Roll it into a ball (about 1") and place it on the cookie sheet. Do that until your cookie sheet is full. Smoosh the cookies with your palm so that you have flat circles.
10. Use the remaining M&Ms to pretty up the cookies. I pressed 2-3 on the top of each cookie.
11. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-11 minutes.
12. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes, and then use a spatula to transfer them to a cooling rack until you're ready to package them up.
Recipe
Reader Comments (4)
Yum! I'm planning to make your 7-layer cookies today (although I saw the same recipe online called Hello Dolly Cookies and I kinda like that name...). Anyhow, how do you freeze your cookies? I went to a cookie exchange yesterday and I'm going to freeze some of those for later use. Normally, this cookie exchange is for the baking-impaired but THIS year there was a decent haul! WOOT!
Did you see that they have white chocolate peppermint M&Ms this year? I have a bag of those and the chocolate mint ones. I may make these cookies, but I'm trying to decide which type will work better. Or maybe I'll go crazy and mix them. Or maybe I'll just eat them. So many options!
These cookies are just looking so much cute. My l'l sister will love it.....
"1 package candy canes, crushed"
Uhmm... how big of a package???