Santa's favorite cookies are sweet, soft and chewy! These festive M&M pudding cookies are the perfect chocolaty cookie with a glass of milk, and will disappear faster than you can say mistletoe.
Ingredients
1cupunsalted buttersoftened, 2 sticks
3/4cupbrown sugar
1/4cupwhite sugar
2largelarge eggs + 1 egg yolk
1teaspoonvanilla extract
3.4ouncesvanilla instant pudding mixOne box, must be instant
2 1/2cupsflour
1teaspoonbaking soda
1/2teaspoonsalt
¼cupchocolate chunkssemisweet, or chips plus extra for decorating
¼cupM&Msred and green, plus extra for decorating
¼cupmini marshmallowsplus extra for decorating
¼cuppretzel piecesplus extra for decorating
Instructions
In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar with an electric mixer until well mixed.
Add the eggs, extra egg yolk, vanilla extract and mix until combined. Pour in the instant pudding and mix well.
In a separate bowl add the flour, baking soda and salt and mix to combine. Add this dry mixture to the wet mixture and mix with an electric mixer until a dough forms.
Fold in the chocolate and M&Ms and mix into the dough. With a silicone spatula to keep the pretzels from crushing too much, fold in the marshmallows and pretzel pieces, mixing until just combined.
Chill the dough for at least 1 hour, but can be overnight.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
With a medium cookie scoop. portion the dough into two tablespoon dough balls. Leave at least two inches between cookies when placing on the prepared cookie sheet. Top each cookie dough ball with several extra chocolate chips, marshmallow pieces, pretzel pieces and M&Ms. See notes.
Bake the cookies for 9-10 minutes, until they set at the edges and lightly browned on top. You don’t want to overcook these, it's better to underbake in the middle slightly.
Let the cookies cool for 2-3 minutes on the pan, then transfer the cookies to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling completely. Enjoy!
Notes
Toppings
I love the addition of the gooey marshmallows and slightly salty pretzels, but if you prefer you can substitute them for more M&Ms or chocolate chunks in this recipe.
Marshmallow Baking Tips
Marshmallows melt wherever they touch the pan. This gives the cookies a delicious caramelly flavor, but can look a little messier. I try not to put the marshmallows that are in the dough straight on the pan. After the cookies cool you can break off any of the caramelized bits that hit the pan.If you add the marshmallows to the top of the cookie right after baking while the cookies are still warm, the marshmallows will hold their shape and look pretty.You can add the marshmallows to the top of the cookie in the last 1-2 minutes of baking to get marshmallows that have a little golden brown on them without melting too much. This is what I did for the photos to have an even prettier cookie presentation where the marshmallows are golden brown.