Mini M&M Chocolate Cookies

Mini M&M Chocolate Cookies

At work, we hit a milestone in a crazy big project so we had to celebrate. We had an ice cream social for the team and one of the ice cream toppings included mini M&Ms. By the way, I was trying to figure out how to transport the sprinkles and toppings from home to work and I used my cupcake tin! Worked perfectly.

Since we had a lot of mini M&Ms leftover, I made these chocolate cookies - the recipe was easy to find...it's on the back of the package!

Mini M&M Chocolate Cookies
Adapted from the recipe on the back of the 12 ounce package

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup (200 grams) sugar
3/4 cup (150 grams) light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 (315 grams) all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder (I used 28 grams of Callebaut dutch processed cocoa powder)
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of kosher salt
1 cup M&M minis (The recipe calls for 1 3/4 cup M&Ms but since I was using leftovers, I only had a little over 1 cup)

Note: You need to chill the dough for an hour or overnight.

1. Cream butter and sugars together in a mixer with paddle attachment.
2. Add eggs and vanilla and blend until combined.
3. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
4. With the mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture and blend together just until combined.
5. Fold in the mini M&Ms.
6. Chill for an hour or overnight.
7. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
8. Scoop out tablespoons of dough and place on cookie sheet. I like to top each cookie with a few M&Ms so I'm guaranteed some m&m on the top. If you use the full amount of M&Ms, you might not need to do this because you'll have enough M&Ms in the batter.
9. Bake 10-13 minutes. (Their instructions say 7-9 minutes for chewy cookies and 10-12 minutes for crispy, but mine were totally not done at 7 minutes)

Leftover Halloween Candy Bundt - Day #16 of Food Librarian's I Like Big Bundts 3

Leftover Halloween Candy Bundt

I Like Big Bundts - Day #16

I'm exhausted. I ate so much candy at work today...then got hit with a sugar coma. We had to counteract that with microwave popcorn. Sweet and Salty. It's all about living a balanced life. :)

We're on Day #16 of I Like Big Bundts...the Food Librarian's crazy quest to post 30 bundts in 30 days. All to encourage you to make a bundt for National Bundt Day on November 15th!

So, did you have a bunch of kids come by your house? Or, were you in a snow storm and had to cancel Halloween (that is soooo sad for the kids)? Or, were you just so shocked and torn up by the divorce of Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries after 72 days of marriage that you just couldn't face the trick or treaters...and ate all the candy? Well, whatever happened yesterday, if you have some leftover candy, here is a Bundt that'll help you out!

Basically, a vanilla bundt cake with chopped up candy. I used a bunch of Snickers, Twix, Milky Ways...but you can add so many others: Whoopers, Butterfingers, Junior Mints, M&Ms... I would be hesitant to put in "sugary, non-chocolate" based candies such as Starburst or Skittles...don't know how they would turn out with melty colors.

 

The submission info can be found here! Bake a bundt for National Bundt Day on November 15th! Then submit a photo or blog post by November 24, 2011 and I'll send you a 1 1/4" button for baking along with me!

I saw this bundt on Natalie's Killer Cuisine last year and put it on my list to make! See you tomorrow for another Bundt! - mary the food librarian

Recap of I Like Big Bundts 3:
Day #1: Buttercake Bakery's Marble Bundt Cake
Day #2: Lemon Bliss Bundt
Day #3: Double-Chocolate Bundt Cake with Ganache Glaze
Day #4: Spice Bundt Cake with Brown Butter Vanilla Bean Glaze
Day #5: Gingery Pumpkin Breakfast Bundt
Day #6: Maida Heatter's Budapest Coffee Cake Bundt
Day #7: Dark Chocolate Bundt
Day #8: Banana Chocolate Chip Bundt
Day #9: Apple Spice Bundt
Day #10: Pumpkin Spice Bundt
Day #11: Doll Bundt Cake
Day #12: Light Chocolate Bundt with Coffee Glaze
Day #13: Spiced Cranberry Bundt
Day #14: Brown Sugar Bundt
Day #15: Buried Alive Bundt Cake

Recipe: Click here for printable recipe

Bundt Pan: Traditional 12-cup Bundt Pan

Brrr-ownies - Tuesdays with Dorie

Brrr-ownies with York Peppermint Patty Pieces

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Karen of Welcome to our Crazy Blessed Life selected Brrr-ownies of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

I misread the instructions and picked up Peppermint Pattie Pieces instead of bites or the full-size patties. How did the Peppermint Patty grow into such an empire of products? Anyway, the pieces are like little M&Ms and are blue and white (or, in my World Cup speak, Argentina...Yes, I'm suffering from withdrawals from the Cup).

Chopping these suckers up can only be described as "Shooting candies all over the kitchen." People, they move, they move on their own. Eventually, I had to grab them individually and chop them, then threw them into the batter.

The verdict? I really wish I had the bites because that would have much more minty flavor. I love mint and the pieces don't have much. I mean, the insides aren't even "mint" color - it is brown and chocolately. As if.

So, I'll try these again with the proper ingredients.

Thanks for picking this one Karen! Be sure to check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers!

P.S. Don't forget to enter my Amazon gift card giveaway...as I head to my 40th birthday. Tuesday, July 13th is the last day to enter!

Recipe:
Find it on Karen's blog
or page 103 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Candy Corn Jello Bundt - Day #13 - I Like Big Bundts

Day 13 of I Like Big Bundts: 30 Days of Bundt Cakes
Candy Corn Jello Bundt

Thanks to my friend JustJenn of JustJennDesigns for making the logo! I was driving home last night and heard Sir Mix-a-Lot on the radio! Of course, no endorsement is implied...but I really think he'd like a Big Bundt!

Every so often, I check Google Analytics and find that some of my Jello posts still get hits. The Broken Glass Jello and Laker Nation style Stained Glass Jello are most popular. So, I thought I would try to hit a few themes with this creation....Candy Corn Jello Bundt. It's Halloween! It's everyone's favorite Jello! It's Bundt shaped!

A huge shout-out to my co-worker. Everyone at the library knows of my love of the Bundt and Jello. I've been going to Salvation Army, Goodwill and other thrift stores looking for vintage Jello molds. One day, after a particularly disappointing weekend (I got sick and had to cancel my trip to San Francisco), I found a beautiful green Tupperwave Jello mold in a bundt shape on my chair. I almost cried. My co-worker was cleaning out her kitchen and gave me her seldom used Jello form! How awesome!

Don't you love how the mold makes these look like little Candy Corns?! How perfect is that?!

If you want, you can also make the orange and yellow layers opaque by tweaking my Easter Jello recipe and adding condensed milk to the layers.

Sure, technically, this Jello mold isn't a "Bundt CAKE", but I hope you let me slide on this one! This mold has a hole in the center...my definition of a Bundt style creation! :)

Candy Corn Jello Bundt

Since there are all different shaped molds, there isn't a real recipe...I'll just tell you what I did. The recipe needs to be adjusted to fit your Jello mold. Mine holds about 5 or 5 1/2 cups of liquid.

The top layer is a sweetened condensed milk mixture. I sprinkled two packages of Knox gelatin onto 1/2 cup cold water. Let that sit for 5 minutes and the gelatin will bloom. Meanwhile, boil 1 cup of water. Combine the gelatin mixture with the 1 cup boiling water and stir until completely dissolved. Then pour in 1 can (14 oz) of sweetened condensed milk (do not use evaporated milk). Stir completely and pour as much as you need into the mold. I think I used about 2/3 of the mixture and tossed the rest. Yes, probably not very efficient, but I was winging it!

After at least 4 hours in the refrig...longer is probably better, I placed 1 large box (6 ounces) of orange Jello in a glass measuring cup. I added enough boiling water to equal 2 cups of mixture. I stirred until dissolved, let it cool a bit, and poured most of it on top of the white mixture.

After another round in the refrig, I did the same with a large box of lemon Jello and placed it in the mold.

I'm almost half-way. Whew! Come back tomorrow for Day #14 of my 30 Days of Bundt...all leading up to National Bundt Day on November 15th. You have it on your calendar, right?!??!
- mary the food librarian

Recipe ideas from the Food Librarian's Jello past:
Broken Glass Jello
Laker Nation style Stained Glass Jello
Easter Jello
Layered Jello

I Like Big Bundts recap:
The Food Librarian confesses: I Like Big Bundts
Day 1: Pumpkin Spice Bundt with Buttermilk Icing
Day 2: Chocolate-Cinnamon Bundt Cake with Mocha Icing
Day 3: Pumpkin-Apple Spiced Bundt
Day 4: Cinnamon Ripple Sweet Potato Bundt
Day 5: Chocolate Zucchini Bundt
Day 6: Cardamom Vanilla Bundt
Day 7: Monkey Bread in a Bundt
Day 8: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bundt
Day 9: Coconut Bundt
Day 10: Sweet Potato Bundt
Day 11: Mom's Apple Cake Bundt
Day 12: Meyer Lemon Bundt

Caramel Crunch Bar (Tuesdays with Dorie)

Caramel Crunch Bars

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Whitney of What’s left on the table? chose Caramel Crunch Bars, page 112-113 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

There are few things I've never seen on the baking aisle in Los Angeles: Heath Toffee Bits and Cinnamon Chips. Not saying they aren't here (see below)...but I don't remember coming across them. I was contemplating making my own English toffee bits for this recipe...

Sunday: Visiting my friend Helen. I was washing the dishes after lunch, telling her about my toffee bit dilemma, and mentally planning out when we should go to Menchie's for kosher frozen yogurt sold by the ounce (I, of course, love the little mochi balls). Anyway, all of a sudden, I look up and Helen has a package of Heath Toffee Bits in her hands! She bought them during the holidays...and knew where they were in the cabinets! Thanks Helen!

I thought these were good, but really, really, super, duper sweet. A wee bit sweet for me...but enjoyed at work.

Thanks again Helen for the toffee bits! I'm going to make the recipe on the back of the package for oatmeal and toffee bit cookies...and bring you and the girls some!

In Dorie's book, she sandwiches these with ice cream to make a beautiful sandwich. Be sure to check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers and get the recipe from Whitney's blog or Dorie's great book. Next week, fun with prunes! :)

Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops (Tuesdays with Dorie)

Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops

For this week's Tuedays with Dorie recipe, Rachel of Confessions of a Tangerine Tart chose Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops on page 85 for Dorie's most excellent book, Baking: From My Home to Yours. Buy this book!!

Whoppers are a special candy in my book. Chocolate outside and a soft cloud of melty sugary stuff on the inside. Combine with a cookie and what can you expect? Deliciousness!

These were very sweet, soft and yummy. Some people thought they were too sweet, and I think a tall glass of milk will help cut the sweetness. Also, these cookies have Ovaltine in them so I think they are practically a health food.

Check out the other TWD bloggers and their yummy creations!