Easter Egg Cookies: Elevate your holiday baking with these irresistible chocolate chip cookies, infused with the festive charm of colorful, egg-shaped M&M’s!
Easter Cookies are a delightful way to celebrate the spring season and utilize those colorful Easter candies in a truly delicious manner. Transform your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe into a holiday masterpiece that promises to be a hit with family and friends alike. Every bite offers a perfect balance of classic comfort and festive cheer, making them an ideal treat for gatherings, dessert tables, or simply a sweet indulgence.
Why These Easter Egg Cookies Are Your Next Must-Bake Holiday Treat
Searching for that perfect dessert to make your Easter celebration extra special? Look no further! These Easter Egg Cookies are not just any cookies; they’re a vibrant, delicious, and incredibly fun twist on a timeless classic. Here’s why they absolutely deserve a spot on your holiday baking list:
- Effortlessly Festive: Imagine the joy of a classic chocolate chip cookie, now brilliantly adorned with festive egg-shaped M&M’s. It’s a simple yet incredibly effective way to infuse your dessert table with holiday spirit. These cookies are a treat for the eyes as much as for the palate, appealing to everyone from the youngest child to the most discerning adult.
- A Touch of Gourmet Excellence: Our recipe starts with a foundational half batch of the renowned Jacques Torres’ Secret Chocolate Chip cookie dough. This isn’t just any cookie dough; it’s a legendary recipe, celebrated in the New York Times, known for its deep, complex flavor and remarkable chewiness. Integrating this gourmet base elevates these Easter cookies to an entirely new level of deliciousness.
- Embrace Seasonal Delights: The hunt for unique Easter candies is part of the fun! I specifically used the charming Milk Chocolate Speckled M&M’s, which I happily discovered at Target. Their distinctive egg shape and speckled coating are perfect for capturing the essence of Easter.
- A New Easter Tradition: For those looking to evolve their holiday traditions, these cookies offer a fantastic alternative to traditional egg hunts. While the thrill of the hunt might fade with age, the joy of delicious, homemade treats never does. These cookies provide a wonderful opportunity to involve the whole family in a creative and tasty Easter activity.
- Irresistible for All Ages: Whether you’re baking for a lively family gathering or a quiet afternoon treat, these cookies cater to every palate. The combination of rich chocolate, tender cookie, and colorful M&M’s creates an undeniable appeal that truly transcends generations. Your husband, kids, and even distant relatives will be asking for the recipe!
When I first spotted those enchanting Milk Chocolate Speck-tacular Eggs by M&M’s at Target, I knew instantly they were destined for a batch of extraordinary cookies. It sparked an idea: why not transform our favorite Easter candies into delightful desserts? It’s a fantastic way to extend the holiday spirit beyond the basket and into the kitchen, creating memories as sweet as the treats themselves.
Diving Deep into the Ingredients: What You Need for Perfect Easter Egg Cookies
Crafting these exceptional Easter Egg Cookies begins with understanding the role of each high-quality ingredient. This recipe, adapted from a gourmet base, utilizes specific components to achieve its signature texture and profound flavor. Here’s a detailed look at what you’ll need:
- Kitchen Staples: Ensure you have your basic pantry heroes ready: granulated sugar, light brown sugar, large eggs, fine sea salt, and baking soda. These form the essential foundation of any great cookie.
- Butter: Opt for high-quality salted butter, softened to room temperature. The salt acts as a crucial flavor enhancer, balancing the sweetness and enriching the overall taste profile, even in desserts. Room temperature butter is key for proper creaming with the sugars, creating a light and airy dough.
- Cake Flour: We highly recommend King Arthur brand for its consistent quality. Cake flour, with its lower protein content, is essential for giving these cookies their incredibly tender, delicate crumb. It prevents the cookies from becoming tough, contributing to that desirable melt-in-your-mouth texture.
- Bread Flour: Also from King Arthur, bread flour is a surprising but vital addition. Its higher protein content helps develop more gluten, which is responsible for the delightful chewiness that makes these cookies so satisfying. The combination of cake and bread flour creates a perfect textural balance: tender on the inside, chewy on the outside.
- Baking Powder: Always check the expiration date! Unlike baking soda, baking powder loses its potency over time, which can significantly affect your cookies’ rise and texture. Fresh baking powder ensures a light and airy lift.
- Vanilla Extract: Please, always use pure vanilla extract, not imitation. The difference in flavor is profound. Real vanilla adds a warm, aromatic depth that artificial versions simply cannot replicate, enhancing the overall taste of your cookies.
- Chocolate Chips: Semisweet chocolate chips are ideal for this recipe. We prefer Ghirardelli brand for its excellent quality and consistent melting properties. The rich chocolate complements the M&M’s without overwhelming them. You can also use chocolate disks for a more gourmet melt.
- Egg-Shaped M&M Easter Candy: These are the stars of the show! Look for the Milk Chocolate Speck-tacular Eggs or similar festive, egg-shaped varieties. They are typically found seasonally at major retailers like Target. Their unique shape and vibrant colors add both visual appeal and a fun crunch. If you can’t find egg-shaped ones, pastel regular M&M’s work beautifully too.
Crafting Your Easter Egg Cookies: A Step-by-Step Guide to Perfection
Baking these festive Easter Egg Cookies is a joyful process that culminates in a truly spectacular treat. Follow these detailed steps to ensure your cookies turn out perfectly golden, chewy, and adorned with vibrant M&M’s.
- Prepare Your Wet Ingredients: In a large mixing bowl, or the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the softened butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. Cream these ingredients together on medium speed until the mixture is light, fluffy, and pale in color. This process incorporates air, which is crucial for the cookie’s texture.
- Incorporate the Eggs: Add the large eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Ensure each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next. This helps create a stable emulsion and a smooth dough.
- Combine Dry Ingredients: In a separate bowl, whisk together the cake flour, bread flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. This ensures all dry ingredients are evenly distributed.
- Add Dry to Wet Mixture: Gradually add the dry ingredient mixture to the wet ingredients. Mix on low speed until just combined. Be careful not to overmix, as this can develop too much gluten and result in tough cookies. Stir in the pure vanilla extract until just incorporated.
- Fold in Chocolates and Prepare for M&M’s: Gently fold in the semisweet chocolate chips or disks. For the M&M’s, we have a strategic approach: mix in only a *small portion* of the Easter M&M’s into the dough, reserving the majority for garnishing the warm cookies later. This technique helps preserve their vibrant colors and prevents them from cracking during baking.
- Chill the Dough (Highly Recommended): Cover the cookie dough tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 24 hours, and ideally up to 72 hours. This chilling period is a game-changer! It allows the flavors to meld and deepen, the flour to fully hydrate, and the sugars to caramelize slightly, resulting in a richer, chewier cookie with less spread.
- Scoop and Bake: When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper. If your dough is very firm from chilling, let it sit at room temperature for 10-15 minutes to soften slightly. Use a 2-tablespoon cookie disher to scoop uniform balls of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 2 inches apart.
- Bake to Golden Perfection: Bake for about 12-14 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden brown but the centers still look slightly soft. Remember that cookies continue to set as they cool.
- The M&M Finishing Touch: This is where the magic happens! Immediately upon removing the baking sheets from the oven, carefully press 3-4 of your reserved egg-shaped M&M’s onto the surface of each warm cookie. The residual heat will soften the chocolate just enough for the candies to adhere beautifully without cracking their colorful shells.
- Cool and Enjoy: Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. This helps them firm up and prevents them from breaking. Once cooled, they are ready to be savored!
Expert Tips for Baking the Best Easter Egg Cookies
Achieving bakery-quality Easter Egg Cookies is easier than you think with these professional tips and tricks. These insights will help you master the nuances of this recipe, ensuring every batch is perfect.
- Mastering the Flour Blend: The dough for these marvelous cookies is distinctive because it incorporates both bread flour and cake flour. This combination is intentional: cake flour contributes to a tender, melt-in-your-mouth texture, while bread flour adds a delightful chewiness. Ensure you have both on hand, as they are key to the unique structure of these cookies. Do not substitute one for the other or use all-purpose flour for the full amount.
- The Magic of Dough Chilling (The 72-Hour Rule):
- PRO-Tip: For an unparalleled depth of flavor, akin to caramel undertones, and a superior chewy texture, refrigerate your cookie dough for a full 72 hours before baking. This extended chill time allows the flour to fully hydrate, the flavors to meld and intensify, and the sugars to undergo a slight caramelization, resulting in a truly gourmet cookie.
- While 72 hours yields the best results, the dough can be baked immediately or after chilling overnight if you’re short on time. However, if you can wait, the difference on the third day is truly remarkable.
- Handling Chilled Dough:
- PRO-Tip: After prolonged chilling, the dough will be quite firm and hard to scoop. To make it more manageable, let it warm up a bit at room temperature for 10-15 minutes before you start portioning. This will make scooping much easier without compromising the benefits of the chill.
- Consistency is Key with a Cookie Disher:
- PRO-Tip: For uniformly sized cookies that bake evenly and look professionally made, use a cookie disher (or cookie scoop). This ensures each dough ball is roughly the same size, meaning they will all finish baking at the same time, preventing some from being overdone and others underbaked.
- Cool Baking Sheets for Optimal Spread: Always allow your baking sheets to cool completely between batches. Placing cookie dough on a hot baking sheet will cause the butter to melt too quickly and the dough to spread excessively, leading to thin, greasy cookies. A cool sheet ensures a controlled spread and perfectly shaped cookies.
- Parchment Paper Perfection: Line your baking sheets with parchment paper. This simple step is a game-changer for preventing sticking, ensuring your cookies lift off cleanly, and making cleanup a breeze. It also promotes even baking.
- Strategic M&M Placement for Vibrant Colors: Instead of mixing all the candy eggs into the dough, reserve most of them. Immediately after the cookies come out of the oven, gently press 3-4 M&M’s onto the surface of each warm cookie. This prevents the M&M shells from cracking and fading during the baking process, ensuring their vibrant colors remain bright and appealing.
- Proper Storage for Freshness: Once completely cooled, store your Easter Egg Cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3-4 days. For longer storage, you can freeze the baked cookies or even the scooped dough balls.
- Freezing Dough for Future Cravings: You can scoop the chilled dough into balls, place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and freeze until solid. Once frozen, transfer the dough balls to a freezer-safe bag or container. They can be stored for up to 2-3 months. Bake from frozen, adding a couple of extra minutes to the baking time.
Your Top Questions Answered: Easter Egg Cookie FAQs
We’ve gathered common questions about these delightful Easter Egg Cookies to help you bake with confidence and achieve the best possible results.
To ensure your M&M’s maintain their vibrant color and minimize cracking, the key is timing. Instead of incorporating all the M&M’s into the dough before baking, reserve a portion. As soon as the cookies are fresh out of the oven and still very warm, gently press a few M&M’s onto the surface of each cookie. The residual heat will adhere them without prolonged exposure to the oven’s high temperatures, which is what typically causes cracking and color fading.
No worries if you can’t find the exact egg-shaped M&M’s! Many brands offer regular-shaped M&M’s in festive pastel Easter colors, which will work equally well and bring the same festive spirit to your cookies. You could also use other seasonal chocolate candies, chopped mini chocolate bars, or even colorful Easter sprinkles for a different look and texture. Feel free to get creative with your toppings!
Chilling your cookie dough, especially for an extended period like 24 to 72 hours, performs several magical transformations. Firstly, it significantly enhances the flavor development, often leading to deeper, more complex notes, sometimes even caramel-like undertones. Secondly, the flour has more time to absorb moisture from the other ingredients, resulting in less spread during baking and contributing to a thicker, chewier cookie. Thirdly, it allows the gluten to relax, which can also improve the texture. Overall, chilling leads to a cookie that is richer in flavor, chewier in texture, and more visually appealing.
While we highly recommend chilling the dough for the best flavor and texture, you can skip it if absolutely necessary. However, be aware that your cookies may spread a bit more and have a slightly less developed flavor profile. If you’re really pressed for time, even a 30-minute chill in the refrigerator can help firm up the dough and improve the texture compared to baking immediately.
Once your Easter Egg Cookies have completely cooled to room temperature, store them in an airtight container. They will stay fresh and delicious for 3-4 days at room temperature. To extend their freshness, you can also freeze the baked cookies in an airtight freezer-safe container or bag for up to a month. Thaw at room temperature before serving.
Beyond the Batch: More Easter Treats to Love
If you’re looking to expand your Easter dessert repertoire, here are some other fantastic recipes that promise to bring joy to your holiday table. From classic cakes to whimsical treats, there’s something for every sweet tooth:
- Carrot Cake Cheesecake from Chocolate Moosey
- Nutella Easter Egg Candy from The Messy Baker
- White Chocolate Easter Bark
- Coconut Macaroon Easter Nests
- Easter Candy Brownie Cookies
- Plus, explore all my Best Holiday Recipes for more seasonal inspiration!
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Easter Egg Cookies
15 minutes
14 minutes
29 minutes
36 cookies
An amped up chocolate chip cookie base, enhanced with the festive touch of Easter M&M’s, perfect for your holiday celebrations.
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, at room temperature
- ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups plus 1 tablespoon cake flour
- 1 ½ cups bread flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate disks or chips (Ghirardelli recommended)
- 10.9-ounce bag of M&M’s Speck-tacular Eggs (or similar Easter M&M’s, reserve some for garnish)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF (175°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the softened butter and both sugars until light, pale, and fluffy.
- Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition until fully incorporated.
- Reduce speed to low. Gradually add both types of flour, baking powder, baking soda, and vanilla extract; mix until just combined, being careful not to overmix.
- Gently fold in the semisweet chocolate chips (or disks) until evenly distributed.
- Cover the dough tightly and refrigerate overnight or for up to 72 hours for the tastiest, chewiest results and enhanced flavor.
- If dough is very firm, let it sit at room temperature for 10-15 minutes. Using a 2-tablespoon cookie disher, scoop cookie dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart.
- Bake for about 12-14 minutes, or until the edges are lightly browned and the centers are still soft.
- Immediately upon removing the cookies from the oven, carefully press 3-4 reserved Easter M&M candies onto the surface of each warm cookie. Use caution to avoid burning your hands.
- Cool slightly on the baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Total time does not include chilling time for the dough.
This recipe is adapted from the famous Jacques Torres’ chocolate chip cookie recipe, ensuring a gourmet base for your festive Easter cookies.
Recommended Products
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- OXO Good Grips Medium Cookie Scoop
- KAF Cake Flour
- KAF bread flour
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
36 cookies
Serving Size:
2 cookies
Amount Per Serving:
Calories: 296Total Fat: 18gSaturated Fat: 11gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 61mgSodium: 328mgCarbohydrates: 31gFiber: 1gSugar: 19gProtein: 4g
Thatskinnychickcanbake.com occasionally offers nutritional information for recipes contained on this site. This information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from online calculators. Although thatskinnychickcanbake.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.
Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased can change the nutritional information in any given recipe. Also, many recipes on thatskinnychickcanbake.com recommend toppings, which may or may not be listed as optional and nutritional information for these added toppings is not listed. Other factors may change the nutritional information such as when the salt amount is listed “to taste,” it is not calculated into the recipe as the amount will vary. Also, different online calculators can provide different results.
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Image from the original post, March, 2013.