Valentine's Day Cookies: M&M and Chocolate chip

Okay, so I'm back a day or two later than I had anticipated. We have a sick toddler on our hands in the Luster household. Bennett has been very sick the last two days, which put a hold on baking/cooking for me. But he was getting a bit bored today, and when I asked if he wanted to help me make cookies, he practically jumped on the counter. hehe

These cookies are made with the same exact recipe I use for my chewy chocolate chip cookies, the only change I made was instead of two cups of chocolate chips (1 small bag) I used one cup, and substituted red, pink & white M&M's for the other cup of chocolate.

I also put a few drops of red food coloring gel in the second half of the batch, but you can't really tell unless the cookies are side by side. I guess coloring desserts isn't my strong suit... could be worse, haha.

I'm quite excited to keep getting recipes out for Valentine's Day ideas for y'all! We found a new mall here, or new to us, because we had driven past it probably 100 times and had NO idea it was a mall! I found a chef/baking store there, and got some pastry bags, and piping tips and a cookies cutter. I'M SO GIDDY ABOUT IT! :) Stay tuned y'all, fun stuff to come....

----M&M Chocolate Chip Cookies----
yields approx 30 medium cookies

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup pack brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg (yolk, and white) PLUS 1 egg yolk
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted (if you have salted butter on hand, just omit the pinch of salt)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt (only if using unsalted butter)
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup Valentine's Day M&M's

Preheat your oven to 325F. Grease your cookie sheets, or line with parchment paper. I used a paper towel with some room temperature butter, and rubbed down the cookie sheets. I find this works well enough, that I don't have to re-apply any butter or cooking spray between batches.

Cream together melted butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. I used my kitchen aid mixer, BUT I usually just make this recipe with a good ol' bowl and wooden spoon. Just made sure all the lumps are gone, and everything is well incorporated.

Add your egg, egg yolk, and vanilla, and mix well to combine.

In a seperate bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking soda. I already stated this in the ingredients list, but if you chose to use salted butter, just omit the salt. Once all your lumps have been sifted out, add the dry mixture to the mixing bowl & combine.

Once the cookie dough has come together, stir in the chocolate chips and m&m's by hand.

Scoop small mounds of cookie dough onto the baking sheets, leaving an inch or two between the cookies, because they will spread. Bake for 15-17 minutes, rotating cookie sheets half way through.

Once cookies are done baking, let them cool for two minutes on the pan before transferring them to a cooling rack!

I did add some red food coloring gel to the second half of the batter, just for a little more pink Valentine's Day love. :)

Hope you enjoy this recipe, and feel free to use this recipe with ONLY chocolate chips! This is my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe EVER.

TIP: I keep a bowl next to my work space, so I can throw trash into while I'm baking. Or as Rachel Ray would call it, a GB..... no?.... no...? Anyone? LOL Well, here's my GB. :) Easy clean up!

TTFN