Dark Chocolate Chip Peppermint M&M Cookies. Everyone needs a great chocolate chip cookie recipe that they can customize into any flavors they like. This one is mine. And I make them every Christmas.

I make a variation of chocolate chip cookies throughout the year. Always the same base recipe, but whatever I mix-in changes. I don't always use just semi-sweet chocolate chips. Usually I do a mix of dark, milk, semi-sweet. Sometimes I go for my version of my fave from a local bakery's mega-chip with those plus butterscotch, white chocolate and peanut butter. So good. So chock full of chips. 

This dark chocolate chip peppermint M&M cookies recipe has been on my blog for 9 years. They are one of my recipes that were in line for a much needed update, new photos etc. These are a staple every Christmas. I am not the biggest M&M fan, but I adore the white chocolate peppermint kind. They go so well in a buttery cookie and the bitterness of the dark chocolate chips offer a nice contrast to their sweetness.

Tips for making awesome dark chocolate chip peppermint M&M cookies:

•  You don't have to cream the butter and sugars first. You can cream everything but the flour, chocolate chips and M&Ms. This saves time on making the dough.
• Only the butter needs to be at room temperature or even cool room temperature for this recipe. Since it is going to be chilled before baking, no need to wait for butter to thaw
• Eggs can come straight from the fridge, no need to set those out to room temperature either
• Salt!  Use a teaspoon of kosher salt. I prefer Diamond, Morton tends to be saltier, use a little less if using that. Never use generic table or iodized salt. Since these cookies are sweet, the salt adds a nice balance to the cookies.
• Use a little bit of pure peppermint extract. Don't use just mint or they will taste like toothpaste/chewing gum. You want that candy cane flavor with the peppermint. 
• Mix the chocolate chips with the flour then add that to the creamed butter sugar mixture. Just mix until combined. You don't want to over mix this part. Doughs tend to get over mixed when adding in the flour, mixing, then adding in the mix-ins and mixing the dough again. You want to spend less time on prep. 
• Hand mix in the M&Ms since they are fragile.
• Underbake by a minute or two for chewy cookies. 

I cannot make perfectly round picture perfect cookies to save my life. And you know what? I am ok with that. I actually like to show that its ok for cookies to not all come out the exact same size and shape. 

I make these cookies to be about 3" across, they can be made smaller or bigger. Baking times will need to be adjusted if making them either bigger or smaller. But not by much. A minute or two and keep an eye on them. With under-baking to keep them chewy, they will look a little puffy and not quite done yet in the middle but that is ok. They are plenty baked and safe to eat once cooled.