Saturday, February 4, 2017

M&M SHORTBREAD COOKIES

Chris commented on the cookies pictured in a previous post, M&M Shortbreads, but didn't find the recipe online. It's a funny thing about that recipe. I noticed it on a package of M&Ms some years back and gave it a try. Grandson Jack was here at the time, and we liked them. Fortunately I saved the recipe and now have it on my iPad because I've never seen it again, nor have I found it on M&Ms website (www.mms.com). So, here it is:


1 cup butter (no substitutes, i.e., don't use margarine, Crisco, etc.)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 to 2 cups M&Ms

Preheat oven to 300 degrees
Mix butter, sugar and vanilla thoroughly. Gradually blend in flour and cornstarch. (If dough is too dry to work with, add milk one tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached.) Add one cup M&Ms. Gently flatten each cookie with a flat-bottomed drinking glass dipped in sugar to prevent sticking. Press in additional candies to decorate. 

Bake 25-30 minutes per pan. Cool 5 minutes before removing. (About 3 dozen cookies)

Since this recipe isn't on the M&M website, I can only conclude that for some reason it wasn't successful. Previously I haven't had difficulty with it, but when I baked them the other day, I used Lucerne (Safeway brand) butter which was still hard after having sat on the counter for 24 hours. The dough was very stiff, and I had to add two tablespoons of milk to make it workable and probably should have added three.  It takes some time to bake these cookies and then it's a small batch. Still, if you like shortbread cookies and M&Ms, and you've had some experience in the kitchen, I think you'll like these cookies.

M&Ms celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2016, having come on the market in 1941. Mike confirms that he doesn't remember a world without M&Ms. 

As an aside, 20 years ago I bought a string of M&M Christmas lights. I liked them so well that I bought another string for myself and sent strings to the existing grandchildren as well. I love those lights to this day. In fact, the light string gave out, so I removed the plastic "M&M" caps and placed them over a new string of white lights. They stay on well enough when the string is hooked into the kitchen window.

If we didn't have plastic, I wouldn't have those M&M lights. KW

5 comments:

Chris said...

Thank you!! We love peanut M&M's here at the Resort, so will have to make a special purchase.

Hallie said...

Have you had peanutBUTTER M&Ms? I sure like those, but they're never in vending machines and I don't typically buy the bigger bags. I'm a purist for the cookies, though and I LOVE finding M&Ms in a cookie!

Kathy said...

I've thought about whether peanut M&Ms or peanut butter M&Ms might be used in this shortbread recipe, but I think I agree that regular M&Ms would be best.

Chris said...

I forgot to put regular M&M's on my grocery list so no cookies this week. :-(

Kathy said...

Maybe something will come up and you'll get out so that you can pick up some M&Ms.