I am that person who can’t make a trip to the mall without stopping at Auntie Anne’s for a pretzel or Mrs. Fields for a cookie. Unfortunately this is an obsession that I have already passed on to Big H at the age of three…oops. Nine times out of ten I will pick an M&M sugar cookie. Unless I feel like being a little bit “healthy” and opt for an oatmeal raisin one instead haha. Well I recently found the absolute perfect recipe that rivals those sweet mall morsels. Since the the Summer Shape Up starts tomorrow I figured I needed to get this recipe up so that you could make them today and eat the whole batch like I plan to! I followed Joyfull Momm’s recipe almost exactly but I always make a double batch because they are so melt in your mouth delicious that they disappear quickly and because I like to keep some in the freezer :).

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups All-Purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups sugar, plus 1/3 cup for rolling

2 oz. cream cheese

6 tblsp. unsalted butter, melted

1/3 cup canola oil (or vegetable)

1 large egg, preferably at room temperature

1 tblsp. milk

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups M&Ms

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl combine the cream cheese and 1 1/2 cups of sugar. Pour warm melted butter on top and cream together.

3. Whisk in the oil, then the egg, milk and vanilla extract.

4. Slowly start to fold flour mixture in with a rubber spatula.

5. When the dry ingredients are partially incorporated, add in 3/4 cups of M&Ms. If you wait until the mixture is fully mixed in to add the M&Ms then you will end up overmixing. Refrigerate 2-3 hours.

6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll about 2 tbs of dough into a ball and roll in reserved sugar as quickly as possible. You don’t want to handle dough too much.

7. Flatten dough balls with the bottom of a glass or measuring cup until they are about two inches in diameter. Bake 10-12 minutes or until just set.

8. When cookies are out of oven press three (or more) M&Ms onto the top of each one. Let cool on baking sheet for five minutes and then transfer to cooking rack.

The recipe yields about two dozen cookies so I definitely recommend doubling it :)