I am a Honey Bee

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Giant Peanut Butter and Pretzel M&M’s Cookies

Giant Peanut Butter Pretzel M&M cookies

My candy stash is getting out of control. I’m trying to use them up so I can buy more, obviously. Lately my focus has been M&M’s candies. M&M’s are awesome in general, but lately they have been coming up with great flavor combinations. Cinnamon M&M’s are great in oatmeal cookies and coconut are just great for snacking. I was a little puzzled with what to do with some pretzel M&M’s that I had.

The best thing to do is to start browsing Pinterest for ideas. There are so many great ideas at your finger tips. All of those great desserts gave me so many different ideas. In the end I decided that I would make a peanut butter cookie and add the pretzel M&M’s. Pretzels and peanut butter are a great combo and peanut butter and chocolate is a great combo, and well basically it would all come together nicely.

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I made a special trip to my construction site just to bring some to one of my site supervisors. He is moving on to another project next week and I am crushed. We have worked together on this project for over a year. It’s to the point when we pick up each other’s phone calls we are really understand the real meaning of the call even when we can’t say it. Ahh never ending construction stress. So the next 3 months of the project will be tough but I’m just glad that I enjoyed the last 15 months of early mornings, long conference calls, and plenty of hilarious hair pulling situations that have resulted in some great boozy lunches. So in thanks I will be bringing him some treats featuring peanut butter, since it is his favorite.

Giant Peanut Butter and Pretzel M&M’s Cookies

Makes 16 3-inch cookies

Ingredients

  • 2 stick of unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup of crunchy peanut butter
  • 2 cups self rising flour
  • 9.9 ounce bag of pretzel M&M’s

Process

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla extract until blended. Mix the peanut butter until completely incorporated. Add the flour until just blended. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the M&M’s candies.
  3. Drop very large scoops of dough, approximately 1/4 cup, onto the parchment paper leaving plenty of room between the cookies to allow for spreading.
  4. Bake cookies until the edges are starting to brown and the cookies have set, approximately 18 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool 2 minutes on the baking sheet prior to removing to cool on a wire rack.

Cinnamon M&M Oatmeal Cookies

This was the first year I noticed that M&M’s had some great holiday themed candies. I picked up a few bags of each, including mint M&M’s, which I used in my Chocolate Chocolate Mint Cookies. They were a hit with the contractors for my project, so I decided that I should give cookie making a try again with another kind of M&M’s. I gravitated to the cinnamon M&M’s and decided that an oatmeal cookie would work well.

 

I started the journey of making these cookies by pulling out several cook books looking for an oatmeal cookie base that could be used with the cinnamon M&M’s. In the end, tweeting what I was doing ending out being fruitful since Rachel (Baked by Rachel) tweeted me back saying she had some great oatmeal cookie recipes on her blog. One being a crisp oatmeal cookie and another being a softer, chewier oatmeal cookie. I was looking for a chewy cookie so I went with the recipe on her blog. Perfect choice!

 

The cookie is soft, chewy and has nice cinnamony, chocolately pieces that dot throughout the cookie. The cinnamon flavor in the M&M is subtle but adds a nice touch to the cookie. I think the 1 bag is enough for the batch of cookies, but I can’t help but think that adding another 1/2 bag or so could not hurt!

 

I really enjoyed working with these M&M’s and I imagine that other’s did too since there is a Cinnamon M&M’s facebook page! I hope that you had a chance to try these since they are so good. I just grabbed a few more bags of these at Target for 30% off since it’s post Christmas. If you can’t find these still in stores then you should do a bit of googling for them. One place I found them was on The Candyland Store. I certainly hope they bring them back next year!

Cinnamon M&M Oatmeal Cookies

*makes approximately 3 dozen*

Ingredients

  • 2 sticks of unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup of sugar
  • 2/3 cup of light brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 2 1/4 cups quick cooking oats
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 9.9 oz of bag of cinnamon M&M’s

Process

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets.
  2. In a large mixing owl or stand mixer, cream the butter and sugars together.
  3. Add the eggs and beat until incorporated. Scrape the sides of the bowl down to evenly mix together.
  4. Add the salt, baking soda, flour, and cinnamon into the mixture and beat until fully incorporated.
  5. Gently mix in the oatmeal, milk, and vanilla extract. Again, scrape down the sides to ensure all the mixture is coming together evenly.
  6. By hand, mix in the M&M’s into the cookie dough.
  7. Using 2 spoons, scoop out heaping tablespoons onto the baking sheet. Do not crowd the cookies together.
  8. Bake for 11-13 minutes, depending on the size of the cookie, or until the cookie is set up in the center. Let cookie sit on the cookie sheet for 3 minutes prior to removing to fully cool.

Chocolate Chocolate Mint Cookies

During some recent shopping trips, I have come across M&M’s holiday flavored candies. I picked up all the varieties I saw and started to look up different recipes that I could use with the M&M’s candies. So far my favorites are the cheery cordials to eat and the mint to bake with, but i’m just getting started.

 

 

One of my coworkers makes the most unbelievable chocolate chocolate chip cookies. I decided that I would make something similar but instead of loading it up with chocolate chips I would add in the mint m&m’s. Having made chocolate chocolate chip cookies in the past I decided that could wing it and see how it would come out. The first time worked out well but I did not add any chocolate chips, only the m&m’s and I didn’t feel that was enough so I made them again and added in some chips. Much better! I love the mint and chocolate combo so these cookies are ones I would actually eat. I ate 2- very usual for me!

 

 

Chocolate Chocolate Mint Cookies

*makes 2 dozen 2 1/2″ cookies*

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 Cup all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon backing soda
  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs beaten
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips
  • 1 9.9 oz bag of mint m&m’s

Process Ingredients

  1. Preheat oven to 375 and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
  2. Wisk the flour, salt, baking soda, and cocoa powder in a bowl to combine. Set aside.
  3. Combine the butter and sugars in bowl and beat until light and fluffy.
  4. Add the eggs and vanilla extract to the sugar mixture and beat until combined.
  5. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix until a dough as formed.
  6. Once the dough has combined add in the chocolate chips and continue to mix.
  7. Using a spoon, gently mix in the m&m’s until evenly combined.
  8. Scoop the dough out and mix into 1 1/4″ balls by hand.
  9. Place the balls on the cookie sheets with plenty of room to allow spread.
  10. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove cookie sheets from oven when the center of the cookie is still soft to the touch. Let cool and set up for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet prior to removing.