Chocolate Chip & M&M Cookies

We are back to K having a rough go at school. I won't get into all of the details, but his teachers and the bus driver certainly deserve a little treat. They have all been so great and so supportive of K and I feel a bit indebted to them. Y's mom was a teacher and she said that people would often send flowers or some sweets to school. Since I like baking, she suggested that I just bake something for them. I originally intended on making French macarons, but to be honest those are a lot of work, I'm still a tad sick, and T has not been sleeping that well. I need all the sleep I can get. Something quick and easy seemed best - chocolate chip and M&M cookies won out.

I tried Alton Brown's recipe and while I was a bit spectical at first, these ended up being delicious. You start by blending melted butter with the sugars. I think this was the first time I started cookies with melted butter.

Once that is blended you whisk up the eggs, milk and vanilla, then pour it into the butter mixture and blend again.

Then you add the flour mixture. The dough was a bit sticky, but looked good.

Finally I added the chocolate chips and M&Ms. Alton's recipe only calls for chocolate chips, but I think M&Ms brighten them up a bit. I added about 6 ounces of each.

When it was all mixed up, the dough looked so festive.

After refrigerating for an hour, I used a level tablespoon to roll the cookies into balls. I baked them for 8 minutes, even though the recipe called for 15. Fifteen minutes seemed like a lot to me for cookies. At eight minutes, the edges had gotten slightly crispy, but the middles were just barely set. I really wanted a soft, chewy cookie and was a tad bit disappointed.

I put them in a ziplock overnight and when I ate one for breakfast (don't judge), it was surprisingly soft and delicious. Perfect!

This afternoon, I put three dozen cookies into individual bags and then closed each bag up with a little strip of washi tape.

Then I loaded them up into two boxes and they are sitting on the counter waiting for K to take them to school tomorrow morning. I really hope tomorrow goes well for K. I think all of us - K, myself, the teachers and his bus driver - are all hoping this. Please send loving thoughts to him tomorrow morning; he seems to need a bit extra these days.