It's Time For Christmas Cookies!!!

This truly is the most wonderful time of the year, in my humble opinion of course. I love Christmas movies, Christmas decorations, Christmas cartoons and music, but most of all I love baking goodies for Christmas. Decorated sugar cookies, chocolate dipped wonders, peppermint scented treats, they're all so tasty. So this year, I thought I would write a new installment on the blog. I'm trying for a 12 days of Christmas treats theme. Some might be cake pops, some might be cupcakes but all should be perfect for a holiday treat basket to give as a gift. So here goes.

Treat One: The chocolate chip cookie reboot

I asked my daughter the other day, what would be the perfect cookie to leave for Santa. Her suggestion was a little twist on the chocolate chip cookie. She wanted a cookie with a little bit a peanut butter, chocolate chips and M&M's candies. Lucky for me I had all of the ingredients on hand so I went to work creating a recipe. I took the basic recipe for chocolate chip cookies and added 2 tablespoons of peanut butter and a cup of holiday plain M&M's. They were just what she wanted and she exclaimed they were the best cookies ever!!!! You can't beat that.

Chocolate Chip/M&M Cookie

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup butter (2 sticks unsalted) softened
2 eggs
2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips (semi-sweet)
1 cup plain M&M's

Preheat oven to 375
In a small bowl, mix together flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside. Using either a hand mixer or stand mixer, cream butter, sugars, vanilla and peanut butter together. Be careful not to over beat the butter. Add eggs and mix until incorporated. Add flour mixture and mix. Using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, mix in the chips and M&M's. Scoop dough onto cookie sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Enjoy & stay tuned for the next Christmas treat!!!!