Dark Chocolate M&M and Pretzel Cookies.

 

Friday = Spinning Day and Spinning Day = the implementation of two strategies; Operation 1. Not Die and Operation 2. Not get a Migraine. Both of these strategies include afternoon snacks and in this form, afternoon snacks = the beeeee's kneeeeeeees.

 

I know what you're thinking...you're all, cookies? Sports fuel? Reeeeallly? Well let me tell you...I got 70-something percent in the sports nutrition module of my Dance Science Masters therefore know allll about pre-fueling carbs and post-fueling protein and all the thing the cool kid athletes need....or at least I did once, and give these cookies a big fat thumbs up.

There's protein-ey carbs in the oats, and carb-ey carbs in the sugar and flour and there's salty carbs in the pretzels and there's protein and fun fat in the cream cheese and butter and egg and there's eeeven those clever little antioxidant things for recovery in the dark chocolate. So there.

They also taste bloomin' great so don't worry if Friday is not your spinning day....make them anyway. With Love and Cake.

Dark Chocolate M&M and Pretzel Cookies.

Adapted from a recipe by Bakers Royale

A few notes:

• I used dark chocolate M&Ms and bashed up pretzels, because, well, that sounded bloomin' GREAT to me, but feel free to use anything that sounds great to you, you could use actual 'pretzel M&Ms', or salted peanuts or, I don't know...jelly beans?
• If you can't lay your hands on dark chocolate M&Ms, (get a friend that travels to the states often, thanks sis) they're similar to Smarties so maybe give those a go.

Makes a good 15-20

You will need

2 x baking sheet, lined (or bake in batches)

55g cream cheese, at room temperature

1 egg

100g caster sugar

110g soft brown sugar

1.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda

165g butter, melted

160g plain flour

130g oats

100g dark chocolate M&Ms

50g snack sized pretzles, chopped and bashed up a bit

• Oven on....180°c.
• In a nice big bowl, beat together the cream cheese, egg, caster sugar, brown sugar and bicarb until well combined.
• Add the melted butter and then gently fold in the flour and oats.
• Finally, stir through the M&Ms and pretzel pieces to evenly distribute.
• Pop heaped dessertspoon-fulls of cookie dough onto your prepared baking sheet, leaving plenty of space for spreading between each one.
• Bake the cookies 12-15 minutes, then have a peak. What you're looking for is bronzed edges and a non-wibbly centre....so pop them back in for a few minutes if you're not quite there yet, otherwise remove from the oven and let the cookies firm up on the baking tray for 5 minutes or so to, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely...or just enough to make gooey, mmmmm.