Welcome Back Cookies

I’ll be honest … these are the M & Ms left over after I removed all the green ones to make St. Patrick’s Day cookies. Sure, most people would simply toss the rest of the bag once it had been ruined like that. But I thought, Why add another pile of chocolate to an already teetering landfill? So  I took pity on those remaining blue, pink, purple and yellow M & Ms and made a second batch as a sort of “welcome back!” to spring. That’s just how green I am.

Shannon’s “Together We Can Save The Earth” Cookies

• 2 sticks of softened butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups regular all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt*
• 6 ounces M&Ms (about 1 1/2 cups)*
• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
• 6 ounces milk chocolate chips

It’s really important that you do this first step exactly right, or you’ll end up with flat, flat, still-buttery-but-oh-so-flat cookies:

Take those two sticks of softened butter, add the white and brown sugars, and beat the life out of it. I mean it. A good 4 or 5 minutes in the mixer should do it. You want the mixture to be very, very fluffy. I stop every minute and scrape all the buttery deliciousness from the sides of the bowl so my mixer paddles have a fighting chance.

When it’s all nice and fluffy — and ONLY when it’s all nice and fluffy — add the egg and vanilla and beat another minute.

Mix the flour, baking soda and salts together and add to the butter mixture. Blend just until moistened. Add the M & Ms and chocolate chips and stir to distribute.

*NOTE: I used peanut M & Ms for this. Use whatever kind you like. As to the salt, there’s really nothing quite as good as kosher salt. It’s much coarser than regular table salt, so it holds up better in the batter and makes for a more interesting cookie. If you don’t have it, drop everything and run to the store.

Arrange by scoopfuls (probably about 2 TBSP each, but I’m guessing. I use a small ice cream scoop) on baking sheets and bake 11-14 minutes @ 350. I like the edges to be a little brown.

Let cool just slightly before eating six or eight.