I love going into the kitchen on Saturday and Sunday morning, putting on my apron and getting to work! It’s even more satisfying when the end result is exactly what you hoped for or even better than what you hoped. In this case, these cookies turned out even better and the process was fun too! I love getting to blog my cooking experiences and when something turns out really well it adds to that passion, but it also gets me really excited to post when my pictures turn out well too.
Taking pictures of the food I make has been harder than I thought and the biggest issue is always the lighting. With the time change, it gets dark here by 5 but the sun is usually down by about 4:20, which means that by the time I get off of work everyday there’s no more natural light. My kitchen doesn’t have the best lighting either, with one small window above the sink it doesn’t allow much to work with. I usually end up carrying my food into the living room where I can find better light.
The other thing I’m learning to work with is props – when to use them and how to use them. For this photo shoot, I used a couple cream colored hand towels that had a faint red stripe down them and a turquoise plate which helped contrast the cookies.
Anyways, back to the cookies!
This recipe is an adaption of a recipe by The Pioneer Woman. I call it Triple Chocolate Christmas Cookies even though I am technically using 4 types of chocolate in this recipe. I use unsweetened cocoa powder, white chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips and mini M&M’s which are milk chocolate. The semi-sweet and milk chocolate are very small amounts and don’t differ too much so I considered them as one. As for the Christmas part, I topped them off with some red and green mini M&M’s to make them more festive. I love the red and green against the dark brown chocolate color.
Gather your ingredients and start mixing!
Cookie recipes always call for softened or room temperature butter but if you’re like me you don’t think that far ahead and it can take butter several hours to get to room temperature. I cheap a little and zap the butter into the microwave for 10 seconds at a time. You don’t want to end up with melted butter, but 10-second intervals should do the job.
Whip together the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy, then add in the eggs one at a time. Then mix in the vanilla.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Slowly add in the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix after each time to combine. Mix until just combined.
Dump in the white chocolate chips and the semi-sweet chocolate chips and mix in using a rubber spatula. If you mix the chips in with your mixer it will break the chips apart and it’s also a little rough on the mixer if there are too many chocolate chips.
Scoop the dough onto a baking sheet that is covered with a baking mat or parchment paper. Then lightly press the dough down to make a flat top using your fingers – I tried using a measuring cup but it kept sticking and the fingers worked best. This will allow a surface for the M&M’s.
Add on 6 mini M&M’s to the cookies – I didn’t realize how large these cookies would get so regular M&M’s would work a little better or use several more mini candies to help cover the whole surface.
The cookies only need to bake for about 9 minutes in a 350* oven.
The cookies spread out a lot when baking which makes the edges slightly crispy but the middle still really soft and chewy – basically the perfect cookie! I like the different layers of chocolate that you get in this cookie and how even though it’s super chocolate-y they aren’t overwhelming. However, I definitely prefer these triple chocolate cookies with a glass of super cold milk.
Make some today to share with your friends or co-workers – they’re easy to make and bake up really nice, plus they look so pretty and festive for Christmas!
Enjoy!
Triple Chocolate Christmas Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 sticks Butter softened
- 2 cups Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 1 TB Vanilla Extract
- 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 3/4 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- 1-1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
- 1 tsp. Kosher Salt
- 2 cups White Chocolate Chips
- 3/4 cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
- Green & Red colored M&M;'s - mini or regular
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350*
- Mix the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs one at a time, then mix in the vanilla.
- Sift together the dry ingredients, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Slowly mix into wet ingredients. Mix until just combined.
- Stir in chocolate chips. Scoop onto baking sheet and lightly press to flatten top. Add on green and red M&M;'s
- Bake for about 9-10 minutes.
