Chocolate Peanut Butter M&M Cookies

Submitted by: Lisa

There is a story with this one. I had a bag of Peanut Butter M&M's and I thought it would be delicious to make a chocolate cookie and put them in it. Well all the recipes I could find online called for cocoa. Well, I didn't have any cocoa but I have tubs, literally, of high quality chocolate pieces.

I decided to "adjust" one of the recipes to use melted chocolate instead of the dry cocoa. A little unsure of how to do that, I just treated the chocolate as if it was an unsweetened chocolate square. So I removed some of the butter that the recipe called for and followed the conversion instructions on the (empty) cocoa container for using chocolate squares and walla...we have a cookie! They are really pretty good. The texture was nice an chewy, and the flavor of the chocolate is mild. But I consider it a hit and will probably do a bit more experimenting with other recipes now that this was a success.

1 stick plus 5 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups white sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

3 1/2 oz (weight) of good quality milk chocolate, melted

1 bag (11.4 oz) of Peanut Butter M & M's

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix to incorporate. Add the vanilla and mix thoroughly. Melt the chocolate. Add to the Butter mixture and mix thoroughly.

Add the all-purpose flour, baking soda, kosher salt

Mix together until the dough appears completely combined. Add the M & M's and stir them into the dough. Drop by two teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Or roll into balls, place about two inches apart on the sheet.

Bake for 11 minutes at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Allow to cool on the sheet for about one minute before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely. Store in airtight containers.