Giant Peanut Butter M&M Cookies

There aren't too many things better than giant warm cookies fresh out of the oven on a chilly Sunday morning, especially when those cookies are peanut butter and M&M cookies.  Usually I spend Sunday mornings cleaning around the house and catching up on organizing, but this past weekend I got everything done on Saturday and woke up Sunday to a completely free day. Since I needed a new recipe to post this week on the blog, I decided that I was going to make cookies to use up some of my baking supplies leftover from the holidays, hence the Christmas colored candies.

I knew right away that I wanted the cookies to have M&Ms, but it took me awhile to decide what flavor base I wanted to use for the cookie dough. I debated a bit between chocolate chip, sugar, and peanut butter but in the end peanut butter won because we made super amazing peanut butter blossoms over the holidays and I wanted to replicate the same flavor combo.

Originally I planned on just putting the M&Ms right into the cookie dough batter, like you would with regular chocolate chip cookies, but then I saw a recipe with the candies pressed right onto the tops of the cookies and decided to give that a try since it looked so cute. The same recipe suggested making the cookies huge, which I never do, so I thought that would be a fun twist.

Since we have been on sugar overload the past few weeks, I only baked half of the cookies and stuck the other half in the freezer for another day.  I am sure this will come in very handy some night when I have a huge pregnancy craving for cookies at 9 o'clock at night.  If you want to freeze some of the cookies, put the raw formed cookies onto a baking sheet and place in the freezer for at least an hour, until frozen solid.  Then store the cookies in a ziploc bag until you are ready to bake.  Make sure you write the oven temperature and cooking time on the bag so you don't have to look up the recipe when you are ready to make them.  You can bake the cookies directly from the freezer, just plan on increasing the cooking time from the original recipe by a few minutes.

The cookies came out delicious.  They were more of a classic peanut butter cookie with a slightly crunchy texture/outside layer, yet they still have a soft cookie bite.  Normally, I prefer a chewy style cookie, but these were fantastic with a bold peanut butter flavor and the contrast of the chocolate and the crisp M&M shells.  Of course, you really can't ever go wrong with the peanut butter and chocolate combo and these were no exception, especially since they were jumbo size. I hope you give these super easy and quick cookies a try soon!    

Giant Peanut Butter M&M Cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) room temperature butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
Approx. 1 cup M&Ms or other chocolate candies

Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Cream the butter and peanut butter together in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or use an electric mixer.  Add the sugars and beat for 2-3 minutes on medium speed until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure everything is well combined.  Add the egg and vanilla and beat until incorporated.  Mix in the baking soda and flour until just barely combined.

Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup or a large ice cream scoop to scoop the cookies onto two parchment lined baking trays.  Flatten the cookies slightly so they are shaped like thick discs.  Press M&Ms or other chocolates onto the entire top surface of each cookie.  Do not put more than 6 cookies on each tray, as they will spread out quite a bit.  I was able to make ten cookies using a 1/4 cup measuring cup.  Bake for 14-16 minutes until the edges are slightly golden brown and the middles are still soft looking.  Allow the cookies to set on the trays for about 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.   

Enjoy!

Inspired by Susie Freaking Homemaker and Joy of Baking