Sweetheart M&M Cookies

This Tuesday is super duper special and probably the most fitting day for a SWEET TOOTH TUESDAY! What sweeter day that Valentine’s Day?!?! I had been meaning to share my special Valentine’s day blogs prior to the holiday but that obviously wasn’t the way things turned out. Even though these desserts are Valentine’s day inspired, there is no reason they can’t be made year round.

The prettiest looking cookies were staring me in the face when I walked into my grandma’s kitchen yesterday. I wasn’t shy about requesting that I help her eat them. I was willing to do my part and give her a hand with the eating process….it was a tough job but someone had to do it. One bite and I knew that the rest of the cookies also belonged to me too. I soon found out that Aunt Sharon had made those delicious treats. It wasn’t long before I was asking her for the recipe….and she happily obliged. She shared her secret baking tips but despite all the help in the world my cookies weren’t going to be as pretty, moist and fluffy as the ones that were waiting at grandma’s house. Alas, I’ll just have to keep making batch after batch to perfect my baking skills. ;) As long as I have tasters around I’ll keep popping them in the oven. It just so happens that these cookies are perfect for Valentine’s Day. Loaded with red, pink and white M&Ms, chocolate chips and nuts….. not to mention they are monster-sized. Oh yeah, and they're PINK! I LOVE PINK!!!!

Ingredients:

2 c flour
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking soad
3/4 c sugar
3/4 c brown sugar
1 c butter flavor crisco
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
1 pkg M&Ms (set a couple handfulls aside to put on top of each cookie before baking)
1 pkg semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 c chopped nuts (optional)

Directions:

1) Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda and set aside.
2) In another bowl, cream both sugars and crisco. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until smooth.
3) Add dry ingredients and mix well. Add M&Ms, chocolate chips and nuts.

4) Bake at 350 for 10 - 12 minutes (remove from the oven when they begin to turn golden brown around the edges.)

A whole lotta bakin' goin' on

Make sure to put some extra M&Ms on top before you put them in the oven!!!

Since we had big plans for these cookies I made sure to make plenty by doubling the recipe. We had lots of Valentines to share with today after all. We (I’m including my daughter in this process…it was all her idea...I swear) found some cute heart shaped paper plates to put the cookies on and ended up just covering them with plastic wrap and tying some ribbon around the plate. After searching all over town for some pretty cellophane we decided that it wasn’t meant to be so Saran wrap it would be! Not quite the cuteness that I’d pictured but as my husband said, “does it really matter, Ashley?”  He still couldn’t figure out why I’d been in the kitchen from 7:00- 11:00 and still had the mixer going strong when he went to bed…..my kitchen looked like a war zone by that time. But I was quite proud as I looked around and saw the five pans of cookies and my second dessert cooling on the counter. Multi-tasking in the kitchen is getting easier all the time. After the baking process was finished up the packaging assembly line and "helped" write the Valentine cards we slipped under each ribbon.

I'm shipping all of these out of my house! They are just too good. Too easily accessible. Far to easy to grab and chow down before I can even comprehend what I'm doing. It's for the best. They could be very dangerous in the hands of a sweet addict like me. You have been warned. ;) But despite the addiction to such goodness I already find myself excited to try these each holiday with the holiday themed M&M colors! Bring on the Easter M&Ms! Oh yeah, one more thing.....ENJOY!!!!