Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Just look at how cute these double chocolate chip cookies are!
I mean, who does not love pink in their cookies?
Doesn’t that make you smile?

These cookies are so perfect for the chocolate lover in your life! What is better, they take less than 35 minutes from start to finish!

As I write this, Valentine’s day is right around the corner, and I used Valentine’s M&M’s. But these can be made with any color M&M! Because they are such a favorite in my house, I will probably be making St. Patrick’s day, Easter, 4th of July, and Fall editions. I will also be making them with traditional M&M colors. However, if you’re not feeling M&M’s, there are many variations of this cookie you can make.

If your making this for Valentine’s day and want to make it a complete meal, I recommend pairing these double chocolate cookies with my favorite, pasta puttanesca with kalamata olives and capers or vegetarian pot pie with mushrooms and thyme.

Instructions

These cookies are so simple to make. It’s a chocolate chip cookie recipe with cocoa powder and M&M’s. Feel free to swap out the M&M’s with other types of candy. Some tasty options include:

What I Love About This Recipe

• They are sooooo easy to make!
• Always taste great. Scratch that. They always taste amazing!
• It is easy to bake just what you need and to freeze the rest for later. (Instructions on how to do that below)
• They can be made festive by using M&M or other candies that coordinate with the current holiday.
• My family always thinks I am a great baker when I make them, but that is because they do not know how easy they are to make (shhhhh, our secret!)

Step One: Gather Ingredients

Step Two: Cream Ingredients

Beat together room temperature butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla at medium speed in either a stand-up mixer (using the flat beater attachment) or a hand mixer. You will want to ensure the ingredients are well incorporated and smooth.

Step Three: Add Dry Ingredients

Setting your mixer on a low speed, add flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt to the mixture. I recommend giving it a good mix by hand first. This will keep the powder from flying all over the place like a dust storm 🙂 (yes, this did happen to me.)

At this step, you will want to mix the ingredients until they are just mixed. It is easy to over-mix at this step. If you do, the result will be flat cookies. Which honestly, flat cookie tastes just as good to me!

Step Four: Add the M&M’s or Other Candy

Once the dry ingredients are incorporated, add the M&M and chocolate chips combination to your batter by hand. In this process, your M&M’s might become cracked here. It’s ok, I think it adds character and will also crack in the baking process. However, if you want to avoid this, use mini M&M’s. They might still break, but overall they tend to hold up better.

Step Five: Scoop and Bake

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

Scoop dough into balls that are about 2 – 3 teaspoons in size. Then place, the dough balls evenly spaced on the baking sheets. This batch should yield three dozen cookies, but that can vary depending on the size of cookie balls.

Place the cookies into an oven preheated to 350 degrees for 11 – 13 minutes. The time can vary depending on your range and your taste. I like my cookies more on the done side, so I cook them for the full 13 minutes.

Step Six: Add Remaining M&M”s in by Hand

When the cookies are done baking, remove them from the oven and immediately place the remaining M&M’s by hand. It is essential to do this right when the cookies come out of the range so that the M&M’s stay in place.

Visual Steps

Make Ahead

This recipe makes 36 cookies, and it’s more than we would eat in a couple of days. My solution is to freeze some of the cookie dough to enjoy it later with friends and family. (Ok, or just the two of us — and I tend to eat these frozen and raw– shhhhhh — I know it is terrible and do not recommend eating raw cookie dough.)

To freeze the dough:

1. Scoop the dough into balls as if you were making cookies.
2. Place the dough balls on parchment paper
3. Freeze cookie dough balls for an hour.
4. Once the dough is frozen, place the cookie balls into a freezer bag and zip shut.
5. Allow the dough to come to room temperature (about 1 – 2 hours) before baking.

The dough can be stored for three months in the freezer.