What can I bake with surplus M&M's?

I love it when a new movie comes out and candy companies like M&M/Mars roll out collector edition versions of their candies. While I am a big movie goer (and proud to say a charter member of Netflix) I am not what you would call a collector of movie paraphernalia so it’s not for that reason that I get excited; but rather it is because 9 times out of 10 a few weeks down the road when the movie is but a distant memory and the American consumer has moved on to the next big thing the collector packages go on clearance.

Such is the case with my recent purchase of M&M’s Transformer’s Revenge of the Fallen (was that really a movie? No one in my house cared) I was able to nab a few bargain bags of half priced Transformer M&M’s!

While I easily could have inhaled each bag, (I am in fact an M&M addict-plain not peanut…sometimes almond…never dark and certainly never those over-priced M&M premium flavors.) I showed constraint and decided to look for some recipes that used M&M’s. (Yeah that’s it"…kids don’t eat them, Mom bought them to bake with.")

As luck would have it my cooking contest/blogger friend Anna from Cookie Madness had a yummy (easy) recipe on her blog for Chocolate Chip Pretzel Bars so I gave them a go. I made one slight alteration-I replaced half of the semi-sweet chocolate chips with butterscotch chips (I sure do love those butterscotch chips). Not surprisingly the bars were loved by all. My daughter thought that they would make a delicious base for an ice cream sundae while they were still warm…unfortunately we only had mango sorbet in the fridge…ahhh..next time. OK so that takes up about 1/2 cup of M&M’s any suggestions on things to make with remaining? (I bought 3 bags...c'mon...they were on sale!!)

Chocolate Chip Pretzel Bars

by Anna at Cookie Madness (from Food & Wine)

1 cup all purpose unbleached flour (135 grams)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda (2 ml)

1/4 teaspoon salt (1 ml)

6 tablespoons unsalted butter (85 grams)

1/2 cup light brown sugar (110 grams)

1/4 cup granulated sugar (48 grams)

1 teaspoon vanilla (5 ml)

1 large egg

3/4 cups pretzels, broken

1 cup semi- sweet chocolate chips

1/3 cup M&Ms (plain) – more if you want

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 inch metal pan with foil and spray with cooking spray (or use parchment).

Mix together the flour, soda and salt; set aside.

Beat the butter and both sugars in a mixing bowl. When light, beat in the vanilla. Add the egg and beat until it’s mixed, then gradually stir in the flour mixture, followed by the pretzel pieces, chocolate and M&Ms.

(I don't normally like to eat cookie dough because my mom warned me about the raw eggs and all, but this m&m studded dough was pretty darn tempting)

Spread mixture evenly in pan and bake on center rack for about 25 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool completely. Lift from pan and cut into bars.