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Soft M&M Cookies – the Valentine’s Day version!

I have to admit something weird. During Halloween or almost any other candy-centric holiday, I can have little packages of M&Ms around the house with no real problem. They hang out in a dish and eventually Jim eats them. But when the Valentine’s Day specialty M&Ms arrive all bets are off. I can’t resist pink M&Ms!

I usually just throw cookies together starting with something like the old standard Tollhouse recipe as a base then adding things like oats, chocolate chips, nuts, heath bar pieces, etc. to customize the cookies. However, this recipe uses corn starch to keep the cookies soft and chewy. Pretty nifty secret weapon to have in your cookie baking arsenal.

Here’s what you need:

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M&Ms (pink or the more boring color of your choice), Flour, Sugar, Brown Sugar, Egg, Butter, Corn Starch, Baking Soda, Salt, & Vanilla.

Click here for a Soft M&M Cookies Shopping List

Like most cookie recipes, this one starts with softened, room temperature butter so plan ahead and set 1½ sticks of butter out earlier in the day.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place 1½ sticks (¾ cup) of softened butter in a large bowl or the bowl of a mixer. Add ¼ cup regular white, granulated sugar and ¾ cup lightly packed brown sugar.

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I’m using dark brown sugar because that’s what I have in my pantry. If you want lighter colored cookies, use light brown sugar as it has less molasses in the mix.

Add 1 egg and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract to the bowl.

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Mix on medium speed until well combined and smooth.

You can also obviously make these stirring thoroughly by hand or with a hand-held mixer.

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In a separate bowl, combine 2 cups of flour with 1 teaspoon baking soda.

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Yes, thanks to my friend Jen I have the cutest cat measuring spoons on the planet!

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Add 2 teaspoon of cornstarch and 1/4 teaspoon salt.

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Whisk the dry ingredients together to combine.

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With the mixer on the lowest speed, slowly add the flour mixture and mix only until the flour has been mostly combined.

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Stir 1 cup of M&Ms into the dough by hand. Don’t use the mixer or you’ll break the cute candy all apart.

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This is pretty stiff dough so you have to work carefully to get the M&Ms stirred in.

If you have a cookie sized ice cream scoop, now is the time to use it. (My scoop is the medium size, about 2 inches across.) I resisted the cookie scoop for years and now am a devoted fan. It takes all the guess work out of forming and shaping cookies so that they bake evenly.

Cover your baking pans with parchment paper and scoop out the dough leaving about 1 inch around each ball for the cookies to expand while cooking.

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Bake at 350 degrees for 8-9 minutes, just until the top and edges start to become golden brown.

The cookies might still look quite soft on top but they will firm up as they cool.

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Let the cookies rest on the baking tray for a few minutes so they hold their shape and then transfer them to wire cooling racks.

Soft M&M Cookies

As the baker, you’re entitled to eat one warm and gooey, right off the tray!

Enjoy these nice, big soft M&M Cookies with your favorite Valentine.

Here’s the recipe – adapted from Averie Cooks & Anna Olson

 Soft M&M Cookies

This post brought to you with the assistance of the Idiot’s Kitchen Fluffy Web Assistant, Henry. More Valentine’s Recipes coming soon!

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3 Responses

  1. Oh, I’ll take at least one….with tea please.
    I love my scoop and wonder how I lived without it.
    That and parchment changed my life.

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