M&M Holiday Mint Chocolate Cookies
Chewy M&M mint chocolate cookies. This mint chocolate cookie recipe is perfect for the holiday season!
Three cheers for sugar week on the blog! I worried (a teensy bit) about posting too many sweet recipes in a row, and then realized that that is why the holidays are so darn special.
Don’t worry, I’m not even done. There is another insanely festive (and frozen) holiday treat coming to the blog on Monday. Prepare your waistbands. Things are about to get real.
Ok, so I know that everyone and their mother is posting holiday cookie recipes right now, but I’m adding one more to the pile! These cookies have it all! Chocolate, cocoa powder, peppermint extract, and lots of one of my favorite holiday candies: M&M holiday mints.
My family has a tradition of putting bowls of these holiday mints on the Christmas table to snack on all day, and I can’t resist them for the life of me!
Those candies are dangerous. I’ve always had a huge crush on peppermint or mint anything.
I think I inherited it from my late grandmother, Mima, who used to have a drawer-full of York peppermint patties in her house. A visit never went by without me eating several of them in one sitting. And mint chocolate chip ice cream remains my all-time favorite ice cream to this day.
I’m ridiculously predictable.
So you can imagine just how addicting these cookies are!
They are perfectly chewy and soft, and are absolutely packed with chocolate flavor! In addition to the mint candy-coated M&Ms, the cookie batter is made with a combination of cocoa powder and melted bittersweet chocolate.
The candy coating on the candies also adds the best, unexpected texture to these guys.
Similar to other cookie recipes, this dough needs to chilled for a minimum of 45 minutes prior to baking. This helps keep the cookies are excessively spreading out in the oven.
If the dough becomes to difficult to handle, allow it to soften slightly at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes once you take it out of the fridge.
Don’t worry if the dough seems dense. I recommend using a spoon and your fingers to shape the dough into balls–as it is too hard of a batter to be scooped! It is a little messy this way (chocolate.all.over), but they come out perfectly nonetheless.
M&M Holiday Mint Chocolate Cookies
Ingredients
- 5 ounces (140 g) bittersweet chocolate roughly chopped
- ¾ cup (90 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons (15 g) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup (4 oz; 115 g) unsalted butter, softened softened
- ⅓ cup (70 g) packed dark brown sugar
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg room temperature
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon pure peppermint extract
- ¾ cup (150 g) M&M Holiday mints
Instructions
- Place the chopped bittersweet chocolate in a microwave-proof glass bowl and heat at 20 second increments, stirring between each interval, until the chocolate is just melted. Set aside and allow the chocolate to cool for 5 to 10 minutes or until lukewarm.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. Using stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter at medium speed for a minute until creamy. Add the brown sugar and granulated sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the egg, peppermint, and vanilla extract and beat until well combined. Beat in the melted (lukewarm) chocolate. On low speed, slowly add the flour mixture until just absorbed. Using a rubber spatula, scrape the bottom of the bowl to ensure that all of the ingredients are well incorporated.
- Gently stir in the M&M holiday mints. Scoop the dough into 1-inch balls and set on a plate. Cover with plastic wrap and allow the dough to chill in the fridge for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until firm.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (176°C) with a rack in the center position. Transfer the chilled cookie dough balls onto a parchment-lined half sheet pan, setting them apart by about 2 to 3 inches. I recomend only baking 8 cookies on one sheet pan.
- Bake for 10 to 14 minutes, rotating the pan halfway, or until the cookies have set on the outer edges, but are still somewhat soft in the center. Remove and allow the cookies to cool completely on a cooling rack.
Tips for Success:
- Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week, and will remain chewy and soft.
17 Comments on “M&M Holiday Mint Chocolate Cookies”
looking great
The.Boy and I are pretty much the BIGGEST holiday mint M&M freaks. I won’t even tell you how many bags we’ve eaten this year (too many). But we always have room for one more and a batch of cookies!
The wedding is over though! You deserve all the holiday M&Ms! 😉
I love that you warned me about scooping these! Many a scoop I have broken on a too-hard dough. But it would have been worth it because chocolate-mint is my life, and these look amazing.
Yes! That is the worst, isn’t it?! These are definitely non-scoop friendly, but delicious nonetheless. Thanks Sarah! (And thank you for including my thumbprints in your cookie round up!).
Oh Laura, you can’t be doing this to me! More amazingly delicious cookies I can’t stop staring at! They look so Christmasy and ready to be eaten with a big glass of milk!
Oh so festive! Can’t say no to chocolate cookies!
These look fabulous! Quite the “cookie lady” this week and I love your story. Was going to resist buying these this year i.e. the “wedding diet”. What do you think?
I hope I can “taste test” some of these!!!
If prepare your waistbands mean just cutting them up, then I’m all ready there! Ha ha. Love this. Bring on the sweets. We’ll diet in January.
The mint M&M’s are totally my favorite!!! Add chocolate cookies to the mix and I’m a goner. Good thing I just bought a new pair of stretchy pants, and that the words wedding diet mean nothing to me.
YUMMY!! I don’t even care that there a million cookie recipes, this one looks like a winner!!
these look great and I love the festive colour!
It’s not like I need another cookie in my kitchen right now, but I so want to make these for my family. They look amazing. And I’m right there with you–I LOVE mint anything, too!
Yeah!! Gotta love cookies!! 🙂
These cookies look fabulous!! Love the mint in there!
These look super delicious! Pinned!