Giant M&M Cookies

When I was about eight-years old a Starbucks opened up in our neighborhood.  This was a very big deal.  In an area that had recently only ushered in a Barnes and Nobles—our first big chain—people viewed the entrance of Starbucks as a sign of the apocalypse.  it’s a lot like this video.  yeah, i reposted that.

My parents drilled me into being wary about the place.  I probably would have never gone in if it hadn’t been for friends’ parents bringing me there after school.  Or it being right by my elementary school.  Nevertheless, I went in and the rest is more or less history.

This cookie reminds me of the rainbow cookie that Starbucks used to sell (maybe they still do?).  Only fresher, brighter and all-around tastier.  Those cookies were a hallmark of Seventh Grade for me.  During ELA test-prep sessions, my friend and I would each get a large rainbow cookie.  I would always eat out the M&Ms first, savoring the chewy interior parts.

I got a perfect score on that exam, maybe these cookies had something to do with that?

Anyway, February and March seems to be the time around which all of my English friends have birthdays.  We’re bombarded with nights-out, presents to buy and sub-par cakes to eat.  Happy Birthday!  But all the celebrations get old quite quickly.

Luckily, it is a mini-baking marathon of sorts.  Perhaps this time of the year can take the place of Christmas in my personal pantheon of baking holidays.  We’ll see.  These cookies were made for a friend’s 20th birthday.  I think it’s a good cookie, a kid’s cookie.  A manner of saying “welcome to your twenties!  but you’ll always be a kid at heart”

That’s how I felt when making them and sneaking an M&M or two.  And that’s how I felt when I ate a warm one, falling apart, from the oven.  These cookies are fun.  They will make you feel like a kid again.  Even their colossal size can only induce smiles.

Okay, and maybe a few stomach-aches.

I found the recipe on How Sweet It Is and used regular-sized M&Ms, though I can imagine it might be fun to try a variety of different flavors.  If you wanted the candy pieces to be smaller, you could cut the M&Ms, or substitute smarties.

What candy reminds you of being a kid?  Do you remember Starbucks’s rainbow cookie?

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