Saturday Sweets: Jumbo Chewy M+M Cookies

Well, it happened.

My sweet little 5-year-old headed off to Kindergarten this week, and, despite my last minute plans to dredge up some tears, it was a happy morning all around.  I’m not much of a crier on any occasion, and it was especially impossible for me to be sad in the face of that much excitement and enthusiasm.  After her quick, flippant good-bye in the morning, I was much more touched by the huge hug I got when she got off the bus at the end of the day!  Kristopher missed his big sister for about 7.6 seconds, then settled in to play with all her things and read all her books before she came back and told him not to :)

The quiet in the house was something I haven’t experienced since that little school girl was a new baby, as the other two both napped at the same time, but I think I’ll adjust just fine.  I’ll just be continuing to pray that she loves it as much as she thinks she will, listens well, respects others, and settles into a good rhythm with some good friends.  Is that too much to hope for? :)

It seems that back-to-school comes with some serious responsibilities for parents.  I now have to a) know what day it is, and b) decide what I want her to have for lunch a whole day in advance.  Now, Gemma is the kind of kid who eats all the veggies and fruit and passes on dessert, so we had a chat about what she’d like to take.  We compiled a long list of everything from wraps to cantaloupe to cheese to cucumber.  The only snacks she could think of were popcorn and yogurt.  

While I definitely encourage (and probably heavily influenced) these choices, I wanted to make a special snack to send along for her first day, so we decided on m+m cookies, since she loves m+ms.  We never have them in the house so they qualified as “special”.  She enjoyed seeing it in her lunch, but then moved it aside and ate everything else and brought the cookie home, which made me smile.  

If you like big, chewy, soft, thick cookies, and you like m+ms, and, well, you like snacks, you will love these cookies. You need to chill the dough, because we’re working with melted butter, as in my Milk Chocolate Chewies, but the plus side is, you don’t need to break out your mixer!  Grab a whisk – this is kitchen therapy at its finest :)

If you want to know why they’re so big and thick and chewy and delicious, it’s because they’re adapted from Sally’s Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, and she does an impressive job of explaining the science, so I highly recommend checking that out, also if you just want an awesome chocolate chip cookie recipe. {Warning: you will get lost in a glorious sugar high on her beautiful blog!)

And is it a coincidence that m+ms and Lego match so well? I think not.

 Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction