recipe: Easter M&M Peep cookies

Easter. no prep time - needed a quick recipe, but wanted one that was still fairly cute and in theme w/ the holiday. since kids were going to be around, i went with a classic simple chocolate-chip inspired cookie. the recipe was snagged from Love Veggies and Yoga by Avery Cooks - it's a nice base recipe and i'm glad i found it b/c her trick of adding cornstarch to keep the cookies soft & chewy is smart -- and worked! i followed the recipe verbatim, with exception to adding in a few chopped up Peeps -- nothing says Easter like some dismembered marshmallow friends.  the cookies themselves are fairly light tasting, so the marshmallows added a nice extra hit of sweetness. 

ingredients list: 

- 3/4 cup (1 & 1/2 sticks) butter, softened

- 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

- 1/4 cup granulated sugar

- 1 egg

- 2 tsp vanilla extract 

- 2 cups flour

- 2 tsp cornstarch

- 1 tsp baking soda

- pinch salt

- 1 & 1/2 cups M&Ms 

- 4-5 Peeps, chopped into small chunks

to make: in the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter, sugars, egg, vanilla and beat on medium speed until creamy, light, and fluffy. add in the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, salt, and mix until combined (note: it will seem like there is not enough liquid to ever absorb this flour... my mixture seemed like a pile of sand. it does eventually soak it all up and becomes "normal"). stir in the M&Ms & Peeps by hand.  

place dough onto prepared cookie sheet (cooking spray or parchment paper)in 2-inch balls. flatten dough balls slightly with your palm, then refrigerate dough for at least 2 hours before baking (this will prevent the dough from spreading if it is too warm). 

when ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. bake cookies 8-10 minutes. allow to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before moving to rack to finish cooling.