M&M Bird's Nest Cookies

I went to Target the other day and had a coupon for a free bag of M&Ms as long as it was under 2.99 a bag. I picked up a bag of milk chocolate M&Ms in the shape of speckled Easter eggs in cute pastel colors. The recipe on the bag for the nests was awesome, so I am posting it here. I have made comments as well in italics

M&M's Bird's Nest Cookies

Combine the taste of toasted coconut with colorful "M&M's"® Chocolate Candies for Easter and get Yellow's favorite springtime dessert.

Yield: 3 dozen cookiesBird's Nest Cookies (more like 2-2.5 dozen normal-sized cookies)

1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
2 sticks butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups "M&M's"® Plain, Peanut, Almond or Crispy Chocolate Candies for Easter

What to do:

Preheat oven to 300 F. Spread coconut on non-greased cookie sheet. Toast in oven, stirring occasionally, until it turns light golden, about 25 minutes. Remove coconut from cookie sheet and set aside.

Increase oven temperature to 350°F.
In large bowl, add butter and sugar and whip until light and fluffy; beat in egg and vanilla. In medium bowl, combine flour and salt. Blend into creamed mixture.
Form dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Roll heavily into toasted coconut. Place coconut cookies 2 inches apart on lightly greased cookie sheets. Make indentation with thumb in center of each cookie. (I put the toasted coconut in a giant measuring cup and tossed the balls into the cup and shook it around to make things a little less messy. I would also suggest chilling the dough for 15-30 minutes because our first batch spread a lot and the "nest" was more like a pancake)

Bake 12 to 14 minutes or until golden brown. Remove cookies and cool completely. (We had to remake the indent for some reason. I held the cookie with two fingers on opposite sides of the cookie and used the thumb of my other hand to reshape the dent in the cookie center) Fill indentations with "M&M's"® Chocolate Candies for Easter.

Original recipe from M&M's


We also made our usual macaroon recipe and turned them into nests as well. The cookies resulting from this recipe are your more traditional macaroons and are very coconutty and dense as there is no flour involved.


14 ounces sweetened shredded coconut (basically, a bag of coconut)
14 ounces sweetened condensed milk (if you are trying to cut the fat a bit, use Borden's fat free condensed milk; you really can't taste the difference, I promise!)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (I use 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1/2 almond extract because the smell and taste is just that much better!)
2 extra-large egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Combine the coconut, condensed milk, and vanilla in a large bowl. Whip the egg whites and salt on high speed in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until they make medium-firm peaks. Carefully fold the egg whites into the coconut mixture. (Ok, if you are like me and you don't have the luxury of a mixer, just beat the egg whites and salt with a fork for a couple minutes. It's a nice arm workout and the cookies come out looking just as good!)

Drop the batter onto sheet pans lined with parchment paper using either a 1 3/4-inch diameter ice cream scoop, or 2 teaspoons. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown. Cool and serve.

(To make nests, we just waited until after the cookies were baked and as soon as we took them out, we made a thumbprint!) Add candies on top and viola! Or, if you are making them just on a random day, I'd suggest melting some nice chocolate on the stove and them dipping the macaroons or drizzling chocolate over them. It's sinful!)