bring on the pastel hues

Halloween is great but my favorite holiday in terms of the candy factor is Easter.  Haters can hate, but I love jelly bellies beyond belief and wanted to live in the UK just to have Cadbury Mini Eggs at my fingertips year-round.  All things egg-shaped and stuffed have a special place in my heart: Cadbury Creme Eggs (original and orange creme), marshmallow-filled eggs, Reese's peanut butter eggs, coconut cream eggs, I accept donations.  I am so happy about the existence of the Peanut Butter M&M (please do not go the way that the Crunchy M&M's did) and even happier to see it in it's adorable pastel Easter suit.  I nabbed a couple bags of these on sale and then had some fun.  The next few posts will have to do with a specific brownie cookie base and this was my test batch without tinkering.  They did their job as they were definitely more of a moist cookie-shaped brownie than a chocolate cookie (although I have a some great recipes for those as well).

Brownie Cookies

adapted from Southern Living® Incredible Cookies
Yield: 2 1/2 dozen

*INGREDIENTS
1/2 C unsalted butter (melted)
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
18 oz bitter sweet or semisweet chocolate
1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 large eggs (or 1 C liquid egg sub)
1 1/2 C granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 C chopped nuts (optional)
*if you want to add the candy on top, I would say 6oz should suffice.

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line standard baking sheet with parchment paper.
1. Melt butter, unsweetened chocolate and 9oz (1 1/2 C) bitter sweet chocolate in the microwave (stirring every 30 seconds) or over the stove until contents are completely melted.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, beat eggs, sugar and vanilla at medium speed while gradually adding dry ingredients to mixture until fully combined.
4. Add in chocolate mixture and beat well.
5. Stir in remaining bitter sweet chocolate and nuts. (Depending on what I am doing with the batter, I will sometimes omit this and leave out the second half of chocolate and/or sub in a different chocolate 
or candy)
6. Drop dough by 2 tablespoonfuls 1 inch apart.  *Place 3 peanut butter M&M's on top of each dough ball.
7. Bake for 10 minutes.  Cool slightly on baking sheets then remove and place on wire racks to cool completely.

Nutrition (without candies on top and minus half of the bittersweet chocolate): 172 cal, 11g fat, 23mg sod, 21g carb, 14g sugar, 2g fiber, 3g protein