Valentine’s Day M&M Cookies

Happy Valentine’s Day! I made a little box of goods for my boyfriend (which I still have yet to give him, so hopefully he doesn’t see this before then) filled with cookies and miniature heart cakes. How cute are these M&M’s? I love that M&M’s come in different colors for every holiday season. It makes themed baking so easy! I had a busy baking day today; I baked 4 different types of cookies (3 dozen of each), a cake, brownies, AND truffles! So I’m a bit exhausted and a bit sleep deprived. I had midterms this past week and had about 15 hours of sleep total for those 5 nights. Eeeek! But I was so relieved to be done with tests and finally have time to bake again, so I went a bit overboard. Oh well! Everything turned out cute, that’s all that matters.

These cookies are ok. There’s something a bit off about them, but I haven’t quite bit my finger on it. I prefer the Nestle Tollhouse recipe over this one, along with my ultimate favorite CCC recipe. It seems that even though I’ve found my favorite CCC recipe, I can’t but help and try new ones. Why? I have no idea. Well, enjoy!

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted & cooled
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup valentine’s m&m’s

directions
1. Adjust an oven rack to lower-middle position and heat the oven to 325 degrees. line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.
2. In a large bowl, beat the melted butter and sugars together with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Beat in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla until combined.
3. Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture until combined. Mix in the chips until incorporated.
4. Working with 2 tablespoons of dough at a time, roll the dough into even balls and lay them on the baking sheets, spaced about 2 inches apart. Stud the dough with the m&m’s.
5. Bake the cookies until the edges are set and beginning to brown but the centers are still soft and puffy, about 16 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Oh yeah! I managed to do a little blog-makeover the other day that seriously took me FOREVER redoing my gadgets and what not. What do you think?