Peanut Butter M&M Cookies

Although I don't know how much these cookies cost to make, I do know how the dough holds up in the freezer.  Great!  The cookies can bake strait from frozen and the only difference is a little color bleed from the m&m candies.  This creates a halo effect around the candies which does not effect the taste.  Check out this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter flavored Crisco
(my mother in law always uses these in her cookies.  They help the cookies set up and not spread out flat)
1 C creamy peanut butter
1 C sugar
1 C packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 C all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
8 oz semi sweet chocolate chips
1 medium bag regular M&Ms

Directions:

Mix Crisco, peanut butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl with a hand mixer.   Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt.  Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients gradually.  Mix well with hand mixer.  Set mixer aside and add chocolate chips.  Stir by hand. 

To Freeze:  Roll into 1 inch balls and place on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.  Top each cookie with three M&Ms.   I like to make sure that each cookie has 3 different colored M&Ms. 

Look how cute they are!  Place the pan in the freezer for one hour.  Then you can peel up each cookie and place it in a zip lock bag. 

Put these back into the freezer until needed.  Then when you are expecting a few guests, or want to treat the kids when they get home from school place cookie dough back onto cookie sheets and bake at 350 degrees for 11 min.  When edges just start to brown take cookies out of the oven and let cool on the cookie sheets for 5-10 min so they can finish cooking through.  This will ensure they are cooked, but still soft. 

If you look closely you can see the halos around the M&Ms.  This only happens to the cookies that get frozen before baking.  If you bake immediately there will be no halos. 

I hope you like these cookies as much as we do.  If you don't want to freeze any of the dough you can bake all the cookies for 350 degrees at 11 min. 

Christie aka Keeza