Cake Batter Christmas Cookies / Saving your Christmas cookie dough

I am a Christmas obsessor. I wait all year to pull out the Christmas decorations, the lights, pick out a tree, and watch Christmas movies. My tree is (finally) up and decorated, the stockings are hung... more details on this later.

Nothing, I mean nothing, gets me more in the Christmas spirit, than Christmas cookies! Of course I have my go-to favorites that I make all year, but I love that this time of year gives me the excuse to try new ones, (and eat them too.)

These were pretty low on the difficulty scale.. Just throw in your ingredients and mix em' up! Sorta.

Cream your butter and sugars, add your dry ingredients... and your favorite additions.

Be better than me and sift your dry ingredients to avoid lumps... :)

These technically don't fall in the "Christmas" cookie category (like gingerbread or molasses)... but with red and green M&M's? Pretty damn festive if you ask me ;)

I had a bag of M&M's... and picked out all the red and green ones.....

Not a red or green in sight.

.......... Desperate times call for desperate measures :).

These turned out so rich and buttery. The cake mix really gives them an extra kick.. these will be pretty hard to beat!

My best Christmas cookie tip: what to do with all of that extra dough? I never end up using it all, most recipes yield around 60 cookies, too many in my house.

Lump your extra dough on a piece of cling-wrap. Use the cling wrap to push the dough and begin to roll into a log.

Lay the cling wrap rolled log onto a sheet of foil and roll again. Twist the ends, and voila!

Throw in the freezer and it's ready to slice and use, all year long ;) 

Great for gifts too!

I think these will make Santa very happy.

So much more holiday fun coming soon! Hope you wall had a fantastic weekend.

XO

Full Recipe

1/14 cup flour

1 1/4 cup yellow cake mix

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup of butter (1.5 stick), softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/12 tsp vanilla extract

Semi-sweet choc chips/M&Ms

1. Sift together flour, cake mix, and baking soda.

2. In a kitchen mixer with paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Add egg and vanilla extract.

3. Slowly add your dry ingredients one cup at a time, on low, until a smooth dough forms. Add chocolate chips and M&M's.. as much or as little as you'd like!

4. Place dough in the fridge for half an hour to chill.

5. Roll dough into 2-inch balls, bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes.

6. Don't forget to save some for Santa!