Peanut Butter M&M Cookies

For some reason my daughter's favorite cookie is peanut butter. I can't blame the girl, I love all things peanut butter, cookies being one of them for sure! But I always just thought that kids favored chocolate chip cookies. And ever since my hubby gave me a beautiful new Kitchen Aid mixer for Valentine's Day I have been baking up a storm lately! Let's just take a moment to look at my beautiful mixer...

So since I'm always baking, my daughter now thinks she is a baker (she has memorized every ingredient that goes into chocolate cake from scratch) It does make me proud! :) 

But now, she wants to bake her favorite cookie every weekend so "only she can eat them". Typically we make peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, but we decided to shake things up a bit this past weekend and whip out a bag of m&m's instead of chocolate chips. Target happened to be having a sale on candy, so we just had to buy three bags of m&m's. You can't pass up a good deal!

I searched the recipe box and found this delicious recipe buried in there. These came out thick, soft, and chewy!

We also made some delicious cookie ice cream sandwiches with homemade vanilla bean ice cream with these also. What can I say? We were in the mood for homemade goodness this past weekend!

Peanut Butter M&M Cookies

{printable recipe}

1 cup butter

1 1/2 cups peanut butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups m&m candies

Preheat oven to 350°

Cream together butters and sugars.

Add the eggs and vanilla, beat well.

Combine the flour and baking soda, mix into the creamed mixture.

Fold in 1 1/2 cups of the m&m's with a wooden spoon, being careful not to break the candies.

Roll the dough into 1 inch balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Press 2 or 3 of the reserved m&m's into the top of each cookie.

Bake for 10 minutes, or until cookie is puffy, but not browned on bottom (if they are they are over-cooked and will be hard and crunchy)

Remove from the oven, and let sit on the cookie sheet for another 3-4 minutes to harden up a bit.

Transfer cookies to cooling rack to finish cooling.

Makes 3-4 dozen cookies, depending on how big you make them.