Red Ape Cinnamon and Snickerdoodle M&M Cookies

Last week something super exciting happened..someone saw my blog and wanted me to try out a product. I am the type of person that loves surveys and product reviews (I also am a Bzzagent) so I couldn't wait to try out the Red Ape Cinnamon that showed up on my doorstep. The first thing I noticed was that it was lighter in color than my normal cinnamon, and when I compared the smell, I couldn't believe the difference. The Red Ape cinnamon smelled sweet and clean; mine smelled dirty. You can just tell it's good quality. A 1lb bag is $13, which is pretty good. You can find out more about it here.


So with my Red Ape cinnamon, I decided to make some simple snicker-doodles with Easter colored M&M's.

Snickerdoodles with M&M's
1 c. butter
1/4 c. white sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar, packed
2 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 pkg. cheesecake flavored instant pudding mix (you could easily use vanilla flavored)
2 eggs
2 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 pkg. M&M's
cinnamon sugar

Cream butter and sugar until light, add vanilla and pudding mix and continue mixing. Beat in eggs and let it mix for a few minutes, until it's really fluffy. (I recently purchased the Beater Blade for my Kitchenaid...TOTALLY worth it! It's really easy to get my butter and egg mixture white and fluffy.) Stir in the flour, baking soda and cinnamon until completely incorporated and then mix in about 1/2 a bag of M&M's (use more or less, but save some for the cookie tops.)

When I made them, I actually separated the dough in half before I put the cinnamon in. In on half, I added the cinnamon, in the other I added the M&M's. Then I kind of "swirled" the dough. In the future, I will skip this step; if the cinnamon dough was a little darker, you would of been able tell it was swirled, but to me it seemed like more work for not a lot of results. Anyway...

Roll cookie dough into balls (I would say teaspoon size...big enough so you can fit 3 M&M's on it) and then into the cinnamon sugar. Add the M&M's on top. Place on a cookie sheet and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 8-10 minutes.

These weren't my absoloute favorite cookies, but Adam loved them. He gave Red Ape cinnamon two thumbs up.