M&M Cookies

M&M Cookies - made dough July 18, 2013 from Picky Palate

I made this cookie dough from start (taking the butter out of the fridge) to finish (scooping out the dough balls and putting them in the freezer to chill) in 15 minutes.  The only reason I know it took 15 minutes is I timed it because I made these before work and I didn't want to be late to the office. Normally I don't have time to bake or mix up cookie dough in the morning because that's when I work out.  But I was feeling too low-energy to workout that morning, probably because I stayed up late the night before reading a book (nerd alert).  Since I was awake anyway (because I have an annoying habit of waking up before my alarm goes off) but I didn't feel like exercising, I lay in bed an extra 30 minutes (telling myself every 5 minutes that I really should get up) then spent the rest of my normal exercise time making cookie dough.  I'm not sure that was the right calorie trade off to make but whatevs, right? (Although I did run 4 miles later that day to prep for the taste test cookie.)

As you can guess, 15 minutes doesn't allow for letting butter come to room temperature but since I hardly ever do that anyway, I had no problem dumping cold butter into my Kitchen Aid stand mixer and letting the mixer do the work of softening it up.  When working with cold butter, you want to beat it just enough to get the lumps out but not so much that you incorporate a lot of air into it and warm up the butter too much.  I typically beat it about a minute or so and even if it's still lumpy, I add the sugars and beat it another minute or two until the mixture is incorporated and there are no butter lumps.  Then proceed with adding the rest of the ingredients.

This was fairly good but rather typical of a chunky chocolate chip cookie with M&Ms in it.  It's more of a brown sugar cookie than a butter or sugar cookie.  Careful not to overbake it.  I did my usual baking time for the first batch and took it out as soon as the middle didn't look raw but once the cookies had cooled, it seemed like they had baked just a trifle too long.  Meaning they were baked but not underbaked which is how I like my cookies.  So for the next batch, I deliberately underbaked them and that was much better.

1 stick or 1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons instant vanilla pudding mix
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
1-1 1/2 cups mini M&M’s

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a large baking sheet with a silpat liner or parchment paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl ,cream butter and sugars until well combined. Add egg and vanilla, mixing to combine. Add flour, pudding mix, baking soda and salt, stirring to combine. Add chocolate chips and M&Ms, stirring to combine.
3. With a medium cookie scoop, place dough 1 inch apart from each other. Bake for 10-12 minutes until edges are golden and the middles no longer look raw or doughy. Let cool on cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.