Delightful mini New York-style Christmas cookies, packed with vanilla, white chocolate, and festive M&Ms. The perfect Christmas cookie for spreading holiday cheer!
Christmas is the perfect time to bake something special, and these mini New York-style cookies are sure to bring festive joy to your kitchen. With a soft and chewy texture, bursts of creamy white chocolate, and the crunch of colourful holiday-themed M&Ms; they’re an irresistible treat that’s as fun to make as it is to eat. Perfect for cookie exchanges, gifting, or simply enjoying with a mug of hot chocolate, these cookies are a holiday must-have.
What makes these cookies extra special is their balance of flavours and textures. The vanilla cookie base pairs beautifully with the sweetness of white chocolate. While the vibrant red and green M&Ms add a cheerful pop of colour. Each bite is a little celebration of the season, making them ideal for Christmas parties or as a centrepiece to a cookie box.
Not only are these cookies delicious, but they’re also easy to bake and adaptable. Whether you’re a seasoned baker or a beginner, this recipe will guide you through creating a batch of festive magic. So, grab your apron, pop on some Christmas songs, and let’s make these mini New York-style Christmas cookies the highlight of your holiday baking!
Star Ingredient
The star ingredient of this recipe is the Christmas-coloured M&Ms. Their vibrant red and green hues bring a festive, cheerful touch. They add a delightful crunch and a hint of chocolatey sweetness. This pairs perfectly with the creamy white chocolate and rich vanilla cookie base. The M&Ms’ visual appeal makes these cookies perfect for the holiday season!
You can pick up a festive mix of M&Ms from M&M world if you are need it. This mix has red, green and white M&Ms in it. Not nearby, try picking up a couple of tubes of M&M elf treats. These tubes have red and green M&Ms which are the main colours to bring that festive feel. The tubes are recyclable which make this a great way to shop plastic free.
How to Purchase Ingredients to be Conscious to the Planet
Cookies are great bakes that can utilise ingredients from zero waste shops or that you can make. The baking cupboard staples of flour, sugars, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt can all be purchased from zero waste shops. The leavening agents and salt are easy to pop into repurposed glass jars. Ones like apple sauces are good sizes. Flours and sugars you could use glass jars which are larger like repurposed pasta sauce jars. If you plan to buy in bulk, like I tend to do, airtight containers such as lunch boxes are helpful.
Chocolate is different forms can be found in zero waste shops too. Buttons, chips or drops are more common. Although they can sell bars of chocolate as well from different brands that have a focus on sustainable practices. Buttons and bars can easily be chopped up to work in cookies. Zero store stocks chocolate chips, so if you don’t want to have to chop you chocolate you can make an online order if you are not local to them.
If you are shopping in a supermarket, flour and caster sugar come in paper bags already. Consider being up some granulated sugar that also is in paper bags and make your own brown sugar. This means you can avoid the plastic bags that brown sugar tends to be packaged in.
Butter is fun to make at home and super simple. All you need is double cream which you can find in glass bottles. Depending on where you get your bottle of cream from, you can either return it, recycle it or repurpose it.
Ingredients you can buy plastic free
- Light brown sugar
- Caster sugar
- Plain flour
- Baking powder
- Bicarbonate of soda
- Salt
- Eggs
- White chocolate buttons / choc chips
- M&Ms – red, green, white coloured
- Vanilla Extract
Equipment You Will Need
- Freestanding Mixer or Bowl with Handheld Mixer
- Baking Sheets
- Silicone Baking Mat / Baking Parchment Paper
- Scales
- Reusable Food Bag / Pouch
- Rolling Pin
- Cooling Rack
Tips and Tricks when Baking Mini New York Style Christmas Cookies
Choose of Chocolate Chips
I think that white chocolate is very Christmassy, maybe it’s the colour. You can, however, switch you the chocolate type or use a mixture. This allows you to make these New York style Christmas cookies more to your preference. It also means you can make them regardless of what type of chocolate you have in the cupboard or fridge. If you can I would recommend using white chocolate. It gives another flavour to these cookies to contrast the milk chocolate within the M&Ms.
Baking from Frozen
You can freeze the cookie dough balls to be baked at a late date if needed. If you are baking from frozen add an additional 3-5 minutes onto the bake time. Silicone food pouches can again be very useful if freeze your cookie dough.
Gifting Your New York Style Christmas Cookies
Creating cookie boxes can be a great edible gifting idea. There are a few was you present these depending on how many different cookies you wish to include.
You could use a:
- Wooden box or tray
- Cake tin
- Reusable a biscuit tin
- Stainless steel lunch box
You can always add a festive ribbon to your tin so add an extra touch of unwrapping this sweet gift.
Mini New York Style Christmas Cookies
Equipment
- Freestanding Mixer or Bowl with Handheld mixer
- Baking Sheets
- Silicone Baking Mat
- Scales
- Reusable Food Bag / Pouch
- Rolling Pin
- Cooling rack
Ingredients
- 125 g Butter / Plant Butter / Margarine
- 100 g Light Brown Sugar
- 75 g Caster Sugar
- 1 Large Egg
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
- 300 g Plain Flour
- 1 ½ Teaspoon of Baking Powder
- ½ Teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda
- Pinch of Salt
- 100 g White Choc Chips / White Chocolate Buttons chopped
- 250 g M&Ms festive coloured red, green, white
Instructions
- Cream together the butter and sugars until pale and fluffy – can be in a bowl of a free-standing mixer or using a handheld mixer and bowl.
- Add the egg and vanilla and beat well.
- Sift in the flour, salt, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and beat until a dough forms.
- Pop 200g of the M&Ms into a reusable sealable bag, and using a rolling pin, bash until they are broken up – aim for a mixture of sizes of the broken bits – there can be some large sections.
- Add the chopped white chocolate chips and crushed M&Ms into dough and mix until evenly distributed.
- Using an electronic scale – weigh out 16 portions of about 58g of the dough – roll into balls and place either on the baking sheets lined with silicone baking mats (if they will fit in your fridge) or in a baking dish.
- With the last 50g of M&Ms, share between the dough bowls and push in the top.
- Pop the baking sheets/baking dish into the fridge to chill the cookie dough for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven 180 degrees .
- Remove the cookie dough from the fridge and pop onto the baking sheets if not refrigerated on them – make sure they are spaced out as the cookies will spread slightly – I end up baking mine in 2 batches on my two baking sheets (if baking in batches, pop the second batch back in the fridge).
- Bake for about 12-14 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and leave to cool for about 30 minutes on the baking sheets before transferring to a cool rack.
- Bake the second batch if required.
- The cookies are best served warm – if eating on a different day, reheat in a microwave for 10 seconds on full power.
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