Dark Chocolate M&M cookies

I absolutely love dark chocolate. I could do without milk chocolate, but dark chocolate is my weakness. While at Target this past weekend, I passed the aisle with chocolate just to see if I could find something small for my sweet tooth. I ended up finding a huge bag of dark chocolate M&M's. I hardly ever see them in dark chocolate so I got them. I decided I needed to bake something with them so I don't end up eating the whole bag myself. I decided to make M&M cookies. Dark chocolate is a healthier option than milk chocolate, as most of you already know. This recipe is great because you can pick any kind of M&M and use them. Bryan really likes when I make these with peanut butter M&M's.

Recipe adapted from: http://www.joyofbaking.com/MandMCookies.html

Dark Chocolate M&M Cookies
Makes approx 32 cookies

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup Quaker Old Fashioned Rolled Oats
1 1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 teaspoon Salt
3/4 cup of Light, Unsalted Stick Margarine at room temperature (set out about 45 minutes before you start making the dough)
2/3 cup Granulated Sugar
5 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons Brown Sugar Splenda Blend or 2/3 cup dark brown sugar
1 large Egg
1 Egg Yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons Pure Vanilla
3/4 cup M&M's

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-Place one rack towards the bottom of the oven and the other in the top 1/3 portion of the oven
-Cover 2 baking sheets with parchment paper (easy cleanup and easy to remove from the baking sheet after baking cookies)
-In a bowl, combine flour, oats, salt, and baking soda and set aside.
-In a large bowl, add butter, sugar, and brown sugar. With an electric mixer, cream the sugars and butter for 2 to 3 minutes.
-Add egg and egg yolk and combine until blend thoroughly.
-Add pure vanilla and blend thoroughly.
-Gradually add flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture. You don't want to over mix the dough. Just combine it until all ingredients are blended.
-Drop dough by tablespoonful onto baking sheet.
-Top each of the cookies with M&M's, pressing them gently into the cookie dough
-Bake cookies for 12-16 minutes, depending on your oven
-Place the first cookie sheet on the bottom rack of the oven and bake for approx 6 minutes. Then move to the top rack and bake 6 minutes or until they are lightly browned.
-Remove from oven and let cookies cool for a few minutes before transferring them to a baking rack to completely cool.
-Store in an airtight container

*Modifications/Suggestions:
-Feel free to use all purpose flour if you don't use or like white whole wheat flour
-If you don't have rolled oats, just use 2 cups of flour

These cookies will be crispy on the edges and have a soft center. They are one of my absolute favorite cookies. Plus, they are made with whole wheat flour, so you are getting your grains and enjoying chocolate! P.S. each of these cookies is less than 100 calories.

Enjoy! :)