Patriotic M&M Sugar Cookies

What is it about M&Ms that conjure up childhood memories? Remember when they added the blue ones? I may or may not have eaten the entire first bag of M&Ms that I purchased for my Patriotic M&M Sugar Cookie recipe. It was not a snack size. Oops. The Wedding Fairy was pissed. Sometimes a girls gotta eat brightly colored milk chocolate candies. It doesn’t happen often in my house but when the mood is right…

After I was done kicking myself for not picking out all the blue and red ones before consuming the entire bag, I dragged myself back to the store (ugh), because I didn’t want to make just any M&M sugar cookies; I wanted to make Patriotic M&M sugar cookies. Yup- there is a huge difference. The difference is that in order to make the patriotic variety you have to spend valuable time sorting through tiny coated candies that promise to melt in your mouth and not in your hand but totally cover your hands in a rainbow of colors in 5 minutes flat.

The sugar cookie base for these M&M sugar cookies is the Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies from Good Housekeeping’s 1955 Edition. It is a more cakey sugar cookie that isn’t as sweet as some of its drop sugar cookie cousins, which I think is perfect when you are mixing in other sweet candies or icing them.

The Good Housekeeping Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookie recipe is unique and I was intrigued by its use of buttermilk and requiring that you whip the egg white to stiff peaks before incorporating into the batter. It definitely produced a lighter, fluffier cookie. An interesting twist on an old American favorite!

Old-Fashioned M&M Sugar Cookies

Good Housekeeping, 1955 Edition

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup shortening

1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg yolk

½ cup buttermilk

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg white (room temperature)

Pre-heat oven to 375°. Sift flour soda, salt, and soda. Set aside. Mix shortening, sugar and egg yolk until very light and fluffy.

Mix in flour mixture alternately with buttermilk; then mix in vanilla.

Beat egg white stiff. It will whip up faster if you bring the egg white to room temperature and then beat with chilled beaters in a chilled bowl. Fold beaten egg white into batter. Fold in M&M’s.

Drop rounded tablespoons of batter onto a greased cookie sheet 3” apart. With a spatula, flatten until ½ inch thick. [Honestly, I forgot this step and nothing tragic happened.]

Bake until golden brown. Mine took 8-10 minutes. Good Housekeeping’s recipe says 20 minutes but that seems ridiculous. I tried to follow their instructing but pulled my first batch of over-cooked M&M Sugar Cookies out of the oven after 14 minutes. Blech!

You can also chill the batter over night and they will still be light and fluffy.

Apparently they sell bags of only red and blue M&Ms, thus saving one the trouble of sorting. I couldn’t find such a luxuries, but I hope you can because there is nothing like a Patriotic M&M Sugar Cookie to make you smile.

Save yourself!