Recipe: M&M Cookies

On Tuesday afternoon, I found myself with nothing to do. Class was over, I’d done all my laundry and I was up to date with all my TV shows and my news feed. I had even done all of my reading for classes. I’d originally planned to use the time to make a start on a Shakespeare essay I have due next week, but it turns out the line numbers in the assignment do not match up to my English, not American books, so while I waited for clarification from my professor, I had nothing to do. Then I realised I had unsalted butter in the fridge. And brown sugar and flour in the cupboard. And one egg left. What else could I put in cookies from the cupboards?

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I had the idea from the Smarties Cookies my Mum used to make all the time when I was a kid and I really adored, and the Smarties Cookies you can get in English supermarkets (the only shop brought cookie I can actually eat without wanting to spit it out again). Because of this, when they first came out of the oven and I ate the first one (I am impatient like that) I decided the flavour was great, but the texture was all wrong and I was going to remake them with a different type of sugar so that they were flatter and chewier. But actually, as I sat munching on one while my roommates and I watched New Girl, I decided that I actually rather liked them, they were a good, solid cookie and that I’d treat you all to the recipe as is.

  • 200g (7oz) Plain Flour
  • 1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda (Baking Soda)
  • 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
  • 130g (4 1/2oz) Butter, softened and preferably Unsalted. 
  • Pinch Of Salt
  • 170g (6oz) Soft Light Brown Sugar
  • 1 Egg
  • 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 115g (4oz) M&M’s

Pre-heat the oven to 180c (350f) and line two baking trays with baking parchment. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until completely combined, and slightly lighter in colour. If you have one, this can really, really easily be done in a food mixer (the entire recipe can be done that way, rather by hand). Add the egg and the vanilla and beat until completely combined and smooth. Add the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and the salt, and mix well until everything is combined with no lumps of flour left. Finally, add the M&M’s and mash in with your spoon until they are evenly spread throughout the mixture. Make the dough into balls slightly bigger than a ping-pong ball and space them equally out on the trays. You should get about 8 cookies out of the mixture, 4 on each tray. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the cookies are golden. Remove from the oven and leave on the trays for about 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely, and in my case put them out for my roommates when they get home. 

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I’d love to hear what you think of these cookies, and your own variations on them instead. I’m not a fan of peanut butter, but for my readers in the USA I think these would be pretty awesome made with peanut butter M&M’s, or even peanut M&M’s for my UK readers. Also, obviously Smarties would make a good cookie too!

What is your all time favourite type of cookie? 

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