These adorable little cookies come together in one bowl, bake in less than 10 minutes and can be accessorized with everything from mini chocolate chips to tiny M&M’s, toffee bits to peanut butter chips or some finely chopped chocolate dinner mints.
If you love little cookies or have a house full of guests for the holidays and need a fun project to do together, whip up this cookie dough and have a blast dressing them up!
Let’s get started…
To begin, gather 8 tablespoons of butter, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1/3 cup of granulated sugar, 1 large egg, 1 large egg yolk, 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, 2 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 tsp of cornstarch, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.
Typically, you would want your butter to be right at room temperature for cookies, but thankfully, this recipe is super simple and requires no planning ahead. In fact, if you just saw this recipe and want to make these cookies right now, you can just pop a cold stick of butter into a large microwave safe bowl and run it on high heat for about 30 seconds to soften it up a bit.
You can see in the photo above that my butter was partially melted and this is what you are looking for. Add 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1/3 cup of granulated sugar in with the softened butter and mix with an electric hand mixer or a good stiff whisk until fully combined.
Next, add 1 large egg, 1 egg yolk and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and mix until fully incorporated.
To add the dry ingredients, you can either combine them in a separate bowl or add 2 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 tsp of cornstarch, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and 1/4 teaspoon of salt into a mesh sifter and gently sift them over the bowl. You just want to be sure that the baking soda and cornstarch are evenly distributed throughout the flour.
Mix the dough until the wet and dry ingredients are just combined and then gather your candy add ins….
Today, I am using mini chocolate chips, miniature M&M’s, toffee bits, small peanut butter chips and some finely chopped creme de menthe mints.
If you are using just one or two different candies, you can add them into the bowl and mix them in. If you are using a wider variety of candies, then it is best to add them in individually to avoid having to wash five or size different bowls afterward.
Use a small cookie scoop to gather a rounded teaspoon of cookie dough and roll the dough in some of the candy. You can press the candy into the dough and re-roll it into a ball or simple roll the outside of the dough in the cookie and transfer each portion onto a baking sheet leaving approximately 1 to 1 1/2 inch between each portion of dough.
Bake the cookies in a 350 degree oven for 6-7 minutes. Keep an eye on them, because they bake up quick! Once their edges are lightly golden, transfer the baking sheet onto a cooling rack and let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring the cookies directly onto the cooling rack.
Aren’t they adorable? It’s really fun having one cookie with M&M’s and then another with mint chocolate chunks and then another with toffee bits… they are small, so you can have quite a few of them…
These cookies are so easy, totally delicious and fun! You can whip up the dough in minutes and then let everyone put their favorite candy in their own cookies. Everyone gets the cookies they want in just a few minutes and from one bowl… what could be more fun?
Happy cookie baking!
Mini Candy Cookies
Ingredients
Cookie Dough
- 8 tablespoons of butter, softened
- 1/2 cup of brown sugar
- 1/3 cup of granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
- 2 cups of all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon of cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt
Suggested Candy Toppings
- mini chocolate chips
- mini M&M's
- creme de menthe, finely chopped
- toffee bits
- peanut butter chips
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
- Line two flat baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside for now
- Combine 8 tablespoons of softened butter with 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1/3 cup of granulated sugar in a large bowl
- Using an electric hand mixer on medium or stiff whisk, mix until fully combined
- Add the egg, the egg yolk and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and mix to combine
- In a separate bowl, combine 2 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 tsp of cornstarch, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and 1/4 teaspoon of salt and then add to the remaining ingredients
- Mix until just combined
- Form about 1 rounded teaspoon of dough into small round ball and roll in your candy add ins and place on the parchment lined baking sheets approximately 1 inch apart
- Bake in a 350 degree oven for 5-7 minutes or until the edges are just set
- Transfer the baking sheet onto a cooling rack and allow the cookies to cool for several minutes before enjoying
- Store leftovers in an airtight container
