Holly Jolly Peanut Butter Cookies is a recipe from a newspaper insert somebody left on the table at Starbucks. These peanut butter M&Ms cookies originally called for Parkay margarine. Back in the day, stick margarines were great for baking because they had more fat. They've since been reformulated, so you have to really careful to pick one with at least 80% fat. In this case it's best to just use butter.
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Holly Jolly Peanut Butter Cookies Notes
At one point I tried to find the recipe online and found it on an M&Ms Facebook pages. Last time I checked the Facebook page was still there, so if you are looking for M&Ms ideas you're in luck! In the meantime, here are the changes I made to these peanut butter M&Ms cookies.
-- Used unsalted butter instead of a Parkay stick
-- Increased the salt by ¼ teaspoon to make-up for the missing Parkay stick
-- Added 1 cup Hershey Milk Chocolate Chips and 1 cup Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips
-- Omitted M&Ms from inside the cookie and just stuck them on the outside of the hot cookies. Sticking them on at the end helps keep them from cracking in the oven (like the one on the right in the photo above which I cooked), and they do adhere if you stick them on while the cookies are hot.
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Recipe
Holly Jolly Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (130 grams)
- ⅔ cup old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt use ¼ if using salted butter or spread
- 1 cup crunchy peanut butter
- 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature (114 grams)
- 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar (200 grams)
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar (65 grams)
- 1 large egg
- 1 ¼ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup milk chocolate chips plus another cup of Reese's chips -- optional
- ⅓ cup M&Ms, in holiday colors or peanut butter chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Combine flour, oats, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.
- Cream the peanut butter, butter, and both sugars in large mixing bowl with electric mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Using lowest speed of mixer or by hand, stir in the flour mixture.
- Stir in chocolate chips and peanut butter chips (if using). Form mixture into 1-inch balls. Place 3 inches apart on nonstick baking sheets and flatten with tines of fork in criss-cross pattern. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned and centers are still soft.
- As soon as you pull the cookies from the oven, scatter holiday M&Ms on top. Cool 1 minute on baking sheet; transfer to wire racks. Cool completely. Makes about 36 cookies depending on what your idea of a 1 inch ball is.
julie moore says
sorry misspelled the cookie, they were MONSTER cookies!
julie moore says
i also cut this out of my paper, and am about to bake them. i was wondering if it has any kind of outmeal cookie tast to it, with the oats being in it? i hope so, because i had these cookies last year called monter cookies. they were oatmeat, peanut butter, M&M cookies, but the woman would not give me the recipe! i have been trying to clone the ever since, with no luck!
Melanie Giant says
I never thought of putting some M&M's chocolate on my peanut butter cookies. I can surely try this one later since all of the ingredients are already on the kitchen. Thanks for sharing.
Anna says
Oh, the perils of M&M cookery. Eric, I've had that happen before. That's probably why I developed the habit of throwing them on top after the cookies are baked.
Eric S. says
I too cut out and tried the recipe and the M&Ms broke and burned the bottom and sides of my cookies where the chocolate hit the cookie sheet. I also think there were to many M&Ms in the cookies, I would take your recommendations next time and place only a few M&Ms on the top of each cookie. Thanks again for your version, I printed it out and will try it the next time I bake them.
lindsay says
oh these for sure make me holly jolly! I can't get enough PB and chocolate combos. 😉
AJ says
I find that overbaked is always best for peanut butter cookies; when you put 'em in your mouth all the "butter taste" squeezes out! I have no idea why this seems to happen only with peanut butter cookies for me; pretty sure it's psychological.
I'm all holiday-ed up this year, so these cookies fit right in! Now to find your recipe from last year of the white chocolate chip, salted cookies -- a hit during the holidays!
Also, you must have a good pumpkin log recipe around here somewhere... (off to search!)
Lee says
Sorry i just saw 36 cookies
Lee says
They look good how many does this recipe make
Anna says
They were kind of like regular criss-cross peanut butter cookies. I overbaked some of mine and actually liked the overbaked ones the best because they were crispier. The ones that weren't overbaked were kind of soft and tender in the middle with crispy edges.
Melissa says
I cut out this recipe too from last weekend's paper; I just hadn't gotten to making them yet. How are they texture-wise? Chewy or crisper? Thanks for the link to the "secret" site!
the blissful baker says
i'm going to bookmark this so i can bake them for the holidays. they look great!
Darlene says
Thanks for the hint to stick the M&Ms on immediately after baking, because I always thought that cracked M&Ms ruin the appearance of cookies. My son would love these, but I'll have to wait until after wrestling season.