M&M’s Butterscotch and Chocolate Puffed Rice Cookies – These no bake holiday cookies are so easy to make and super addictive! And these puffed rice cookies are paired with a downright dangerous creamy cake batter frosting!
Puffed rice cookies are an indulgent treat
As someone who is a big fan of chocolates, cookies and delicious desserts, the holiday season itself is one big sweet treat. It’s a gift that keeps giving, a treat that keeps treating.
I especially love making cookies for the holidays. Perfectly portioned for individual snacking, easily transportable, great for gift-giving – what’s not to love?
These soft ginger cookies, classic linzer cookies and thumbprint cookies, shortbread cookies, homemade marshmallows, rice krispie treats etc. are all some of my absolute favorites that I make every holiday!
For this post, I was really excited to be able to work with M&M’s and Dove Chocolates, along with Pillsbury cake mixes to create one deliciously addictive Christmas cookie!
These simple, no-bake, easy to assemble M&M’s Butterscotch and Chocolate Puffed Rice Cookies are meant to be shared with all your loved ones this holiday season, and with Ziploc holiday containers or the Ziploc bags, they are easy to be packaged, transported and gifted too!
I have made these amazing butterscotch swirled marshmallows using Dove Chocolates before, and this time I made it even better with the addition of M&M’s!
Butterscotch and chocolate – now that’s a marriage made in heaven. It’s a flavor combo that you could never go wrong with, one that I’ve used extensively in my desserts (like these oreo popsicles, and this butterscotch chocolate fudge sauce, or this butterscotch latte that I turned into a Tim Tam Slam!).
I’ve been a huge fan of M&M’s for as long as I can remember, so much so that I even had personalized M&M’s party favors at my wedding!
Cake batter frosting
So here I have used M&M’s, Dove Chocolates and Pillsbury Moist Supreme White Premium Cake Mix to make these indulgent, no-bake butterscotch and chocolate puffed rice cookies with cake batter cheesecake frosting that are perfect to celebrate the spirit of the holiday season.
M&M’s milk chocolate XMAS minis are great festive additions with their red and green candies. I even made cake batter milk to go with the cookies, because you know, Santa deserves a treat too.
These chocolate puffed rice cookies are embarrassingly easy to make, but I do recommend using a sugar thermometer to get the right consistency for the butterscotch base.
It also matters what kind of chocolate you use in these cookies too, a good quality chocolate like Dove Chocolate is a great choice. I made these several times to get the consistency just right and this is the recipe that gives me the most satisfying results!
The first attempt – was with just butterscotch and white cake mix. The white cake mix dried out the cookies and they refused to bind together.
Second attempt – was butterscotch and chocolate, with the white cake mix. I thought the extra chocolate in the cookies would help add more moisture, but I was wrong. I also added the M&M’s to the cookie mix, but as the mix was hot, the M&M’s melted into the mix. So I decided to add the mini M&M’s on top of the cookies instead.
On my third attempt – I skipped adding white cake mix into the cookies and instead made cake batter cheesecake frosting to top my butterscotch chocolate puffed rice cookies, and they were magical!
I tested the recipe multiple times too because they were just so addictive to taste test and to make sure it was fool-proof.
These chocolate puffed rice cookies remind me of the puffed rice bars that I grew up with. I would melt caramel and chocolate bars and mix it with puffed rice and then let it set in a container – they were one of my favorite snacks that I used to make on my own as a kid, because they were so easy and I didn’t have to bake them.
Since the butterscotch puffed rice cookies are sweet, the cake batter cream cheese frosting and the cake batter cold milk are a nice contrast.
But if you’re like me – you’d probably end up eating the puffed rice mix and cream cheese frosting straight from the bowl, with a spoon. No shame in admitting that. Not when it comes to treats that are addictive like these.
The salty sweetness of the butterscotch puffed rice cookies with the tangy creamy frosting and crunchy M&M’s bits, make these cookies a truly indulgent sweet treat.
They are certainly not for those who are on a restricted diet, but for all those moments in life when you need a little treat, a cookie equivalent of a pat on your back, a batch of these butterscotch and puffed rice cookies are super simple to whip up.
You could even color the frosting with green coloring and get into the spirit of the season by making the frosting look like a Christmas tree!
Recipe
Butterscotch Puffed Rice Cookies with M&Ms
US based cup, teaspoon, tablespoon measurements. Weight measurements are recommended for accurate results whenever available.
Common Measurement ConversionsIngredients:
M&M Butterscotch Puffed Rice Cookies
- 200 g packed brown sugar 1 cup
- 60 mL water ¼ cup
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp corn syrup optional
- 240 mL whipping cream 1 cup
- 100 g Dove milk chocolate about 8 – 9 pieces (you can use any milk chocolate you like)
- 2 cups puffed rice cereal
- M&M minis to decorate
Cake Batter Cream Cheese Frosting
- 120 mL heavy cream ½ cup
- ¼ cup Pillsbury white cake mix the dry mix
- 226 g cream cheese 1 block (softened at room temperature)
Instructions:
Cookies
- Place the first 4 ingredients in a saucepan and heat over medium high heat, while stirring to melt the sugar.200 g packed brown sugar, 60 mL water, ½ tsp salt, 1 tbsp corn syrup
- Bring to a boil and let it thicken over medium heat, for about 5 minutes.
- Add the cream and mix in until completely incorporated.240 mL whipping cream
- Bring the mix back to a boil, and clip a candy thermometer to the mix. Let the sugar syrup cook until it reaches 250°F.
- Remove from the heat and let it cool down to about 180°F
- Add the Dove milk chocolate and mix in until the chocolate is completely melted.100 g Dove milk chocolate
- Add the puffed rice next, and mix gently to mix the cereal through. Be careful not to crush the puffed rice.2 cups puffed rice cereal
- Using a cookie scoop, scoop equal portions of the butterscotch chocolate cookies onto a parchment paper-lined tray.
- When the whole mix has been portioned out, the cookies would have cooled down enough to be handled, but still malleable. At this stage, flatten out the cookies and press in some mini M&Ms on top, and on the sides of each of the cookies.M&M minis
- Let the cookies cool completely and harden.
- When the cookies have hardened, they can be stored until ready to be served.
Cake Batter Cheesecake Frosting
- Whisk together the whipping cream and white cake mix, until the mix is dissolved completely in the cream.120 mL heavy cream, ¼ cup Pillsbury white cake mix
- Add the cream cheese and whip using a whisk until light and fluffy. Optionally, you can add any color you like, or keep the frosting white. Keep in the fridge until ready to use.226 g cream cheese
- Place the frosting in a piping bag with a star tip attached when you are ready to frost the cookies.
- Pipe a swirl on top of each cookie, and top with more M&M minis if preferred.M&M minis
- Serve with cake batter milk (optional).
Nutrition Information:
“This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.”
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