Christmas Holly Cookie Cups

Make these easy Christmas Holly Cookie Cups using my go-to peanut butter cup cookie recipe, red M&M's, and piped white chocolate! A fun way to add some color to traditional Christmas cookies!

Course Dessert

Cuisine Cookies

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 10

Total Time 45

Servings

Calories 82kcal

Author Melissa Rose

Ingredients

6 tablespoons butter, softened (¾ stick)
½ cup peanut butter
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
¾ teaspoon baking soda
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
30 mini Reeses Peanut Butter cups
4 squares white almond bark
36 red M&M's or round candies

Instructions

In a large bowl, cream together softened unsalted butter (6 tablespoons), peanut butter (½ cup), brown sugar (½ cup), and granulated sugar (½ cup) with an electric mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add in vanilla extract (½ teaspoon) and egg (1 large) and continue to mix for 10 seconds.
Add baking soda (¾ teaspoon) and mix on low speed for 10 seconds. Add all-purpose flour (1 ¼ cups) and continue to mix until all flour is incorporated.
Scoop & roll dough into 1 tablespoon sized balls and place each in a greased, mini muffin tin.
Bake at 350℉ for 8 minutes. This is the key to making sure the cookies are soft. After 8 minutes, you may look at the cookies and think they look too doughy and be tempted to put them back in the oven. But trust me, take them out a 8 minutes and they will finish baking on the cooling rack.
Remove from oven, and immediately press one mini Reeses peanut butter cup into the center of each cookie. Do not remove from pan.
While the cookies are cooling in the pan, melt 4 squares of almond bark in the microwave at 50% power (avoid full power or chocolate will seize). Once melted, remove from the microwave and stir until smooth. Add a few drops of green food coloring until you reach your desired shade.
Spoon melted almond bark into a plastic bag and use a scissors to snip off a tiny piece of one corner. Place printable holly leaf paper under a sheet of wax paper and use it as a outline to pipe about 75 leafs. You will only need about 60 to cover the 30 cookies, but I suggest making extra to account for any breaking.
Once cookies have cooled for at LEAST 20-30 minutes, test out the temperature by placing one holly leaf into the top of one of the cookies (use your least favorite looking leaf for this test!). Leave the leaf in there for about 5 minutes. If the green leaf starts to melt, this means that your chocolate is still too warm. The goal is to insert the leafs when the chocolate is cooled, but not yet hardened.
If the leaf does not melt, you’re good to insert the rest! Start by inserting two leafs into the top of each cookie, followed by an red candy. In the photo below, it may look like the melty chocolate would melt the leaf but you would be surprised with how long the Reeses cup will stay liquid, even when it’s cooled (assuming your house isn’t freezing cold).
Once all the leafs & M&M’s have been added, pop the muffin tin into the refrigerater (or outside if it’s winter) for 10-15 minutes or until the chocolate is hardened.
Use a spoon to gently “scoop” out the cookies on the opposite end of where you’ve placed the holly leafs . This is where spraying the muffin tin before baking is crucial, otherwise your cookies will stick to the pan.

Notes

As you can see in the photos above, I also tested out making these with white Reeses peanut butter cups which are equally as delicious and made for a fun mix of colors on my DIY cookie trays.

Nutrition