M&M Cookies for Easter

Easter 2020, the first holiday of the quarantine that I could not spend with my family *sigh*. Even though I moved to NYC from my hometown a couple of years ago, I always find a way to be together with my family for birthdays and holidays. But given the stay-at-home orders in place to prevent the spread of coronavirus and wanting to keep my family safe, I wasn’t able to be home with my family for Easter this year. We still dressed up and celebrated Easter together virtually, even though we were physically apart. We also reminisced on the incredible family trip we took last year along with my dad, my aunt, and our friend to Budapest, Prague, and Vienna where we got to experience multiple Easter markets in each of those cities. One thing this pandemic has reinforced for me is that beautiful memories live on and it’s something to hold on to during difficult times since they offer such immense joy.

To kick off the Easter weekend, my sister and I baked some cookies together via Zoom! I found a recipe for cookies and since it’s hard to maintain a fully stocked kitchen these days (especially in the baking department), we used different mix-ins for our cookies and had a sweet treat for the holiday weekend. I did half of the recipe with Reese’s peanut butter eggs and the other half with Cadbury chocolate eggs (I highly recommend the Reese’s combo!). It was really easy to use Zoom to share the recipe on both of our screens, follow the recipe steps simultaneously, and chat while we waited for the cookies to bake. We wrapped up by tasting the cookies and our mom joined in to chat as well. I think I’m going to keep doing Zoom baking sessions, stay tuned!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 2/3 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup white or milk chocolate chips
• 1/2 to 1 cup M&M candies or candies preferred

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place parchment paper on top of baking sheets, set aside, or place on ungreased baking sheets.

2. Add butter to a microwave dish and microwave for 25 seconds or more until butter is partially melted, like 1/2 of the butter should appear melted while the other half still looks like a melted butter stick.

3. Add the brown sugar and white sugar to a large mixing bowl with the partially melted butter and stir well to combine.

4. Then, beat in the egg and vanilla until just combined.

5. Add in the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until just combined.

6. Add in the chocolate chips and candies by hand, saving a few to press onto the tops of the cookie dough, if you wish.

7. Use a large cookie scoop (3 tablespoons) to scoop out 12 cookies or use a medium-sized cookie scoop (1 1/2 tablespoons) for 18-20 cookies and arrange them evenly on the baking sheet.

8, Bake for 10 minutes for medium-sized cookies and 13-15 minutes for larger cookies. Cookies will still be slightly underdone when you remove them from the oven. Make sure not to overbake for soft and chewy cookies. Cookies will not spread much while baking.

9. Let sit on baking sheet for 5 minutes before eating. Allow cookies to cool completely before storing in an air-tight container for up to 4-5 days.

Recipe from The Baking ChocolaTess