It’s a sleepy 4th of July here, which is OK by me. The morning began with our community’s annual 4th of July parade, with a couple of boy scouts from our troop leading the festivities. I love seeing the families turn out with their kids, wagons, pets, and bicycles decked out in red, white, and blue. It’s a small town celebration right smack in the middle of the fourth largest city in the U.S.
My daughter and I spent some time together this afternoon making Giant M&M Cookies for her to bring to a cookout. We used a recipe from joyofbaking.com (this is probably the first cooking video I have ever watched all the way through, and I found it helpful — boring, but helpful), decorated them with red, white, and blue M&Ms, and they came out great. The introduction to the recipe included a little history of M&Ms that I found interesting. They were invented by Forrest Mars, Sr., who traveled to Spain during the Spanish Civil War and noticed the soldiers eating small rounds of chocolate with a hard sugar coating that prevented the chocolate from melting. Back home, he paired up with Bruce Murrie, the son of the president of the Hershey company, to invent a similar candy. The M&M name came from the partners’ names — Mars and Murrie. Production began in 1940, and the candies were immediately popular. They were even included in the U.S. soldiers’ rations during WWII. It’s hard to beat eating them out of hand, but this recipe puts them to good use.
- 2 cups flour
- 1-1/4 teaspoons baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup butter, softened
- ⅔ cup sugar
- ⅔ cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 cup M&Ms
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Place butter and sugars in a large bowl, and using an electric mixer, beat until light and fluffy. Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla, and beat to combine. Stir in the flour mixture, mixing thoroughly.
- Using a ¼ cup ice cream scoop, scoop out dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Do not put more than 6 cookies on a sheet, as they spread a lot. Flatten balls slightly with palm of hand. Cover top of cookies completely with M&Ms, gently pressing the candies into the dough. Bake for 13-17 minutes, until cookies are golden brown and set around the edges (they will firm up as they cool). Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes on cookie sheets, then, using a metal spatula, transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
- Makes approximately 12 giant cookies.
Cover the top of the cookie completely with M&Ms
Wow — they really spread!
I think my daughter will be quite popular at the cookout, don’t you?
Cheer for your team with team colors (Go Astros!)
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