Mexican Chocolate M&M Cookies

by Kelly J. Larson

My daughter’s Cinco de Mayo themed baby shower is coming up and I get to bake all the desserts. The big challenge is to narrow down options because my brain is disorganized with a ton of ideas that would be awesome. I get carried away and go sliiiiightly overboard. I’ve been doing some trial runs at home, plus when I was in Colorado last week, I whipped up two different desserts for the soiree, then stuck them in my in-laws’ freezer. These luscious lime bars need to be cut and gussied up to be fiesta ready. Below is the practice run that I did last week. Besides these, I made triple layer brownies that I added to the menu at the last minute because Lindsey really likes them. They’re also in the in-laws freezer in Colorado waiting for me to do my thing with them. In the meantime while I practice, there is no shortage of taste testers. Luckily I have been sending goodies with my younger daughter to church on Wednesday nights for her youth activities. Sometimes I’m proud of what I send and other times I’m just glad I didn’t have to throw away ingredients altogether and that they are willing consumers. Last night I sent her with a plate of cookies that were less than stellar.I could tell by looking at the recipe that it was going to be off somehow, yet I dutifully carried on as instructed. The cookies didn’t spread, the flavor was lacking and even though they were soft as the creator had touted, they were a big disappointment and definitely not something I will make again. At least they were visually appealing in cute little mini form. Too bad they were blah tasting. The teens didn’t care and still scarfed up most of the cookies.

What a difference a day makes! I’m crazy about this night and day comparison of the icky batch of cookies versus the AMAZING ones below. Today I fixed what I knew was wrong, tossed the bad recipe and started from scratch. I grabbed a bag of Reese’s peanut butter chips (which stayed unopened) and followed the chocolate base recipe on the back, somewhat. I cut the recipe in half, decreased the amount of butter, increased the salt slightly to help tackle the sweetness, added cinnamon and mini M&Ms and came up with perfection.I am so glad I did because this latest concoction yielded some of the best cookies I’ve made. Talk about major yumminess — and since they’re less than a fourth inch thick, it feels like there are hardly any calories, so it’s easy to reach for another one. That might be bad actually. They’re so addicting!

Now is a good time to bring up the name I’ve given these bad boys, Mexican Chocolate M&M Cookies. My husband spent part of a summer as a teenager living in Mexico and isn’t much of a fan of Mexican chocolate. Recipes I have come across on the web have said to just add cinnamon if you don’t have Mexican chocolate, so that’s all I did. I’m stretching for Cinco de Mayo desserts and essentially calling in an allowance favor. If you’re not buying it, feel free to name your Mexican Chocolate M&M Cookies anything you’d like. It’s a free country. Ish. Regardless of their name, I want ten of these soft, chewy, thin buttery chocolate cookies with a tinge of cinnamon flavor, garnished with mini M&Ms, that bring a nut-free option to the dessert table for my daughter’s shower.

Mexican Chocolate M&M Cookies

Mix together the following dry ingredients:

1 cup flour
6 tablespoons Hershey’s cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Beat the next ingredients until fluffy.

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar

Add egg, vanilla. Beat well.

1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Add after baking, one at a time:

mini M&Ms, assorted colors

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Gradually add flour mixture. With a small stainless scoop 20 balls of dough, in a 4 x 5 pattern on a Silpat lined baking sheet. Bake 8 to 9 minutes. Immediately add six mini M&M’s to each cookie. Makes 36-37 cookies.