as the wine cork turns: i made cookies from scratch?

well i’ve never made cookies from scratch before. my idea of making cookies was getting in my car, driving to target, grabbing one of those pre-packaged cookie guys, popping them in the oven and boom 6 minutes later i have cookies.

so when laurie (lee’s mom) invited me to her annual cookie exchange and told me the requirement to come was to make 6 dozen cookies from scratch ... let’s just say i was slightly intimidated.

if you’ve never heard of a cookie exchange like me, here’s what goes down. about 30 women made their favorite cookie recipe from scratch and make six dozen of the same kind of cookie. we all brought over bottles of wine and the 72 cookies. laurie had moved everything off her tables in the dining room, kitchen table, lunch table, and surrounding tables in the living room so you can display your creation.

all the cookies are accounted for and it’s decided on how many each person can take depending on the number of people to cookie ratio. we all formed a line that started in the kitchen and winded around the tables throughout their house to gather what everyone had created. some good, some better than good, and some what the heck is this?, and some downright amazing. i’m no master chef baker by any means as i didn’t even have a decent baking tray to display mine on. however, they did turn out pretty awesome.

oh and yes i somewhat followed a recipe, but added my own personal touch and two extra scoops of some ingredients because let’s be real – every cookie is better with extra sugar.

so here is what i made:

peanut butter m&m & chocolate chip peanut butter cookies

confused yet? i know that title is redundant. someone told me to name them monster cookies, but what the hell does that even mean? basically i made a peanut butter cookie base and mixed in chocolate chips and a bag of peanut butter m&ms.

the peanut butter m&m’s actually were a last minute decision as lee bought them for himself. but at the last second i had a stroke of genius moment and decided they would be phenom in the cookies. sorry dude.

1 cup Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

½ of a big bag of peanut butter m&m’s

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tablespoon milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup unsifted flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

honestly use your best judgement when it comes to the portion of the peanut butter. this is the standard ingredient measurements i went by, but i added at least 2 more scoops of peanut butter and maybe ¼ more brown sugar and regular sugar this called for.

1. preheat to 350 degrees. in a large mixing bowl, mix together the butter, peanut butter (use judgment, but for real – the more the better), brown sugar (here too), and sugar until blended

2. the beat in the egg, milk, and vanilla and stir together. in a separate bowl, combine your flour and baking soda. i used very minimal baking soda.

3. add in your desired amount of chocolate chips and peanut butter m&m’s. mmmmm!

4. combine together the flour mixture. again, i used my judgment and ended up putting in more flour to get a dough-like consistency. don’t know what “dough-like consistency” is? me neither. i just winged the whole thing. just do it until it’s not runny and will stick together pretty well, but not too dry either. it will make sense when you do it. and it should kinda look like this.

5. put in fridge for around 10 minutes. not a dang clue why you have to do this.

6. scoop out normal size balls on a light cookie sheet; ungreased & pop them in the oven. typical time says 12-15 minutes, but ehhhh we all know cookies cook after you take them out of the oven. so i did about 10 minutes and then watched them/took them out to finish cooking.

ps i did two heaping batches twice to end up having 72+ cookies.

i couldn’t believe how good they were. they were a hit at the party and afterwards. see below for everyone’s cookies!

{laurie & i at the party}

{post cookie exchange}

for your enjoyment, i also went to a christmas party the same weekend as the cookie exchange. and i wore a christmas onesie. we all know what happens at tacky christmas parties where there is a keg present as well as “jingle” juice aka everclear, so i’ll spare you the details and let the pics tell you how our night went.