M&M Mixed Nut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cookies are so yummy. They are perfect with milk, coffee, tea ... anything. 

These cookies are super easy to make. It's the perfect cookie dough to keep in your refrigerator for after dinner cookies. 

M&M Mixed Nut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups + 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted and cooled (12 tablespoons)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup M&Ms
1/2 cup mixed nuts, chopped
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 325F
2.  In a bowl, mix the flour, baking soda and salt together.
3.  Combine butter and sugars.  Then add egg, egg yolk, vanilla and mix.
4.  Slowly add the dry mixture to the bowl until dough forms.
5.  Fold in M&Ms, mixed nuts, and semi sweet chocolate chips.
6.  Stick the dough in the fridge for about 10 minutes.
7.  Use a 1 tablespoon cookie scooper and scoop 2 scoops on top of each other for each cookie.  Leave about 2 inches of space between each cookie.  Bake for about 12 minutes.

I am super excited to do more baking in 2016.

Keep baking friends!!

XOXO

Hot Chocolate Dark Chocolate Chip M&M Cookies

There is nothing like a chocolate chip cookie after dinner.  Throw in some chocolate chips and you have got a great ending to a night.

Hot Chocolate Dark Chocolate Chip M&M Cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour

4 ounces hot chocolate mix (not sugar free)

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup M&Ms

1 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Whisk flour, cocoa mix, salt, and baking soda together

2. Cream the butter, sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes)

3. add eggs 1 at a time.

4. Add vanilla

5. Add dry ingredients to the wet mixture until combined. DO NOT OVER MIX

6. Fold in the M&Ms and semi chocolate chips

7. Chill dough for about 1 hour

8. Pre heat your oven to 350 degrees.

9. Use a cookie dough scooper and drop about 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

10. Bake them 1 sheet at a time for about 9 minutes. Let cool on the sheet for a few minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool completely.

These cookies are super yummy because they are chocolatey without being too sweet.

MAKE THESE COOKIES!

XOXO

Chocolate Chocolate Chip M&M Cookies

My favorite snack are chips.  I love all chips.  Not all chips are equal.  But I would prefer a bad chip over some other salty snack.  My husband on the other hand loves sweets.  He has a major sweet tooth.  I have spoiled him with homemade baked treats since we have been married.  Today's recipe that I am sharing is for him.

These chocolate cookies are for chocolate lovers.  There is fudge chocolate pudding in them, semi sweet chocolate chip cookies AND mini M&Ms.  If you don't love chocolate there are not for you.  Also, if you don't love chocolate there is something wrong with you.  

Chocolate Chocolate Chip M&M Cookies

Ingredients:
16 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature (2 sticks)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 (3.5) package instant fudge chocolate pudding mix
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup mini semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup mini M&Ms

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper
2.  Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. 
3.  Add pudding mix, eggs, and vanilla extract. 
4.  Whisk together the flours, baking soda, and salt. 
5.  Slowly add the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients until just incorporated.  DO NOT OVER MIX!
6.  Fold in the chocolate chips and M&Ms.
7.  Using a cookies scooper, scoop 2 tablespoons cookie dough on prepared baking sheet spaced 2 inches apart. 
8.  Bake for about 10 minutes or until lightly brown.  Remove and place on cooling rack.

When baking cookies I highly recommend parchment paper over foil.  Obviously if you do not have parchment paper use foil.  But if you use foil please keep a eye on your cookies as they can easily burn or stick to the foil.  I love parchment paper.  It makes clean up easy and it keeps cookies from burning.  Today I ran out of parchment paper and lined ONE sheet with foil.  The results were a few burned cookies on the foil sheet.  Bah!  You win some you lose some.

Eat well friends!

XOXO

Reese's Pieces Chocolate Chip Cookies

There is just something about candy in chocolate chip cookies that is just so yummy.  I can never resist to add some sort of candy in my chocolate chip cookies.  

Chocolate chips ... Reese's pieces ... what a good combination!

Reese's Pieces Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• ¾ cup butter, softened
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup white sugar
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoon cornstarch
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips
• Reese's Pieces

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a deep dish cookie pan or whoopie pie pan with cooking spray and set aside.
2. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cornstarch and salt, and set aside. In a electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugars until creamy, about a minute. Beat in the egg and vanilla to combine.
3. Gradually add flour mixture to the butter mixture, beating well after each addition. Once dough has come together, stir the chocolate chips in by hand with a spoon.
4. Drop 2 tablespoonfuls of dough into the bottom of each cavity. Gently press it to cover the bottom of each cavity.  Top with Reese's pieces candy.
5. Bake the cookies for about 12 minutes or until the centers are set and the edges are golden and lightly crisped. Allow the cookies to cool in the pan about 5 minutes before gently removing to wire racks to cool completely. You can loosen them from the pan very carefully with a butter knife or dump them over

El Husbee brought these cookies to work on Monday to share with his co-workers.  I need a kid to bad for.  

Enjoy the summer!

XOXO

Chocolate Chip Salt Caramel Ghirardelli Squares Cookies

Homemade cookies are always so good.  I guess when I mean homemade I mean freshly baked.  This cookie snob is not a fan of store bought cookies.

El Husby and I took a trip to World Market over the weekend to look at some outdoor furniture and home decor.  Our trip was not a complete fail as we came home with a bag of Ghirardelli squares.

Sometimes I feel it is hard being the husband of a baker.  First there is a lot of baked goods and if you are not a daily runner it can be hard on your waistline.  Second there is the constant wait for pictures before you can eat anything.  Than last not forget the constant questions on the finish product.  Is it good?  How good?  Would you eat it again?  Is it better than the last batch like it?  Can you eat all of them or should we give some away?

My poor Husbee was told not to eat these candy because I wanted to put them in cookies.  His face was torn between wanting the cookies and wanting to eat the candy in case I got lazy and did not make the cookies.  (I am guilty of this)

Since I yelled at him for letting the d-o-g lick my face/ear I felt bad and decided to make the cookies.

Chocolate Chip Ghiradelli Squares Cookies

Ingredients

• ¾ cup butter, softened
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup white sugar
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoon cornstarch
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips
• Ghiradelli Salted Caramel squares, unwrapped

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a deep dish cookie pan or whoopie pie pan with cooking spray and set aside.
2. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cornstarch and salt, and set aside. In a electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugars until creamy, about a minute. Beat in the egg and vanilla to combine.
3. Gradually add flour mixture to the butter mixture, beating well after each addition. Once dough has come together, stir the chocolate chips in by hand with a spoon.
4. Drop a tablespoonful of dough into the bottom of each cavity. Gently press it to cover the bottom of each cavity. Top with an unwrapped square. Top the candy with an additional tablespoonful of dough and gently press the top dough ball to cover and enclose the candy.
5. Bake the cookies for about 12-15 minutes or until the centers are set and the edges are golden and lightly crisped. Allow the cookies to cool in the pan about 5 minutes before gently removing to wire racks to cool completely. You can loosen them from the pan very carefully with a butter knife or dump them over 

These cookies were super easy to make.  I probably whipped them out in about 1 hour including baking time.  Please please please take the time to let the cookies cool inside the pan.  I know it's tempting to dig right in but the cooling processing is essential to keeping the cookies together.  

The cookies were very tasty.  However, you could not really taste the salted caramel.  I would say maybe night time I would sprinkle some sea salt on top of the cookie before baking.  With that said ... THESE COOKIES ARE DA BOMB!  So thick ... so chocolatey ... so good!  

Make these cookies!

XOXO

S'mores Bars

Oh my gawd!  These are amazing.  Drool worthy.  I am pretty sure this S'mores Bar is better than smore's itself.

So amazing.  It's very rich so a small piece will be very satisfying.  But I won't stop you from washing 3 pieces down with a huge glass of milk.

S'mores Bar
From Wit & Whistle

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Milk chocolate bars
1 1/2 cup marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)

Instructions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.
2.  In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light.
3.  Beat in egg and vanilla extract.
4.  In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt.
5.  Add dry mixture to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.
6.  Divide dough in half and press half of dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan.
7.  Place chocolate bars over dough.  2 king size Hershey's bars should fit perfectly side by side, but break the chocolate if necessary to get it to fit in a single layer no more than 1/4 inch thick.
8.  Spread chocolate with marshmallow creme or fluff.
9.  Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff.
10.  Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until lightly browned.  Cool completely before cutting bars.

Please try to resist from cutting the bars before it cool.  It is worth the wait. 

Let the baking season begin!

XOXO

Hugs Pretzel Sandwiches

I am trying to get back to cooking and blogging now that I am slowly recovering from my cold.  My poor husband has been living on take out and sandwiches/soup. 

Now that it is December something festive is a must!  I have been wanting to make these Hugs Pretzel Sandwiches for weeks but every store I have been to has been out of the pretzels that I need.  Finally I got my hands on a bag of the Snyder's Butter Snap pretzels.  There is nothing really special about these pretzels except for the fact that they are square shaped and perfects for sandwiching things. 

Hugs Pretzel Sandwiches

Ingredients:
1 bag Hershey Hugs
1 bag Snyder's Butter Snap pretzels
sprinkles

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 250 degrees.  Line a cookie sheet with foil.
2.  Lay out pretzels across cookie sheet.
3.  Unwrap Hershey Hugs and place one on each pretzel
4.  Place cookie sheet in oven for about 5 minutes or until Hershey Hugs start to melt (they will get shiny) 
5.  Pull cookie sheet out of the oven and place a pretzel on top of each Hershey Hugs and press down.  Sprinkle with some holiday colored sprinkles for decoration. 
6.  Cool completely before eating.  DO NOT EAT UNTIL CANDY IS HARD AGAIN!  Trust me!

You must make these!  They are super simple and oh sooooo yummy!  And with the right colored sprinkles these can be adapted for any holiday. 

Keep cooking my friends. 

XOXO

M&M Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

What's better to greet out of town guest than cookies?  Nothing!  Okay okay there are probably other items but that is what I made for my family visiting from LA over Labor Day weekend.  I love when I arrive at my grandparent's house with cookies and in unison everyone says "cookies!".  The younger ones dig in and the older ones complain that it's too sweet and not healthy.  An hour later the plate of cookies I came with is empty.  Oh family!

M&M Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Life Tastes Like Food

Ingredients:
1 cup + 2 tablespoons flour
1 cup wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted and cooled (12 tablespoons)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup M&Ms
1/2 cup walnut, chopped
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 325F
2.  In a bowl, mix the flour, baking soda and salt together.
3.  Combine butter and sugars.  Then add egg, egg yolk, vanilla and mix.
4.  Slowly add the dry mixture to the bowl until dough forms.
5.  Fold in M&Ms, walnuts, and chocolate chips.
6.  Stick the dough in the fridge for about 10 minutes.
7.  Use a 1 tablespoon cookie scooper and scoop 2 scoops on top of each other for each cookie.  Leave about 2 inches of space between each cookie.  Bake for about 12 minutes.

These cookies came out super yummy.  I will definitely make them again.  It's got a good chewy texture which is very important for me.  Oh and they have got to be healthy cause they contain walnuts!  Right?!? 

Enjoy!
XOXO