M&M Cookies

I will blog about Christmas soon, I promise, but this topic deserves a blog of it's own. Yes... M&M cookies are getting a whole blog dedicated to them.

It all started when I was little. For Christmas my Mom and Dad go bake-crazy. They make a little bit of everything for us to snack on and to take to parties. One of my greatest memories from Christmas growing up is all the yummy sweets I never got to have the rest of the year. Now of course I have developed my favorites and my parents had to make them every year no matter what. My most favorite of the treats were the M&M cookies my Dad would make. I only eat the ones my Dad makes. No cookie store or package from the grocery store will do. They have to be from my Dad.

Now as I have gotten older I have got the recipes from my Mom and made some of the yummy Christmas treats. I, however, do not always wait until Christmas to make these. I will do them for no good reason at all or for parties. Of all the ones I have tried, the only one I fail at every time is the M&M cookie. Every time I make them they come out harder than rocks. I am serious. You can't even cut them with a knife! The first time I used the solid Crisco instead of the oil. Yeah, I ended up with hockey pucks. I call Dad every time I make them to make sure the recipe I am using is right and he says it is. After a few tries I gave up. I had no clue on what I was doing wrong. I mean, I am not a baker. I am a cooker. I can't even make brownies from a box. They come out hard as a rock or doughy. So maybe I should just stick to cooking.

Well this past weekend my parents came up for Christmas. We had Christmas dinner at my house and my Mom helped me cook. I bought tons of cooking items and I realized that all I needed for M&M cookies were the M&M's. Perfect! I would have my parents make the cookies with me so I could see what I was doing wrong.

Or so I thought...

Mom and Dad spent half the time in the kitchen arguing over the recipe. Mom says use a full cup of oil where Dad says use a 1/4 cup. Now I am not baking expert but that is a big difference. Well, Mom ended up having to add a ton of flour to thicken up the batter. However, when I make the cookies I used 1/4 cup like the recipe says. So now what! Mom said try a half of a cup. Thanks Mom!

So another year down, another Christmas gone by, and I still have no clue on how my Dad makes his M&M cookies. I think it is a conspiracy. My Dad doesn't want me to know how. They are purposefully telling me the wrong recipe so I will never be able to make them myself. I guess they will have to start putting batches of M&M cookies in the mail and over-nighting them. I have to have my M&M cookies!!