Chocolate, The Red, White And Blue

Americans LOVE their chocolate. No doubt about it. In fact, the average American consumes about 9.5 lbs of chocolate every year. It is estimated that Americans will consume the equivalent of about 10,000 chocolate bars over the course of their life. WOW! We are second to the Swiss, who eat about 11.8 lbs per year, but we’re quickly catching up.

We also love our cookies. Nearly 93% of American households serve cookies, and most of the cookies served are chocolate chip, or some other chocolate variety. Cookies came to America through the Dutch in New Amsterdam in the late 1620s. The Dutch word “koekje” was Anglicized to “cookie” or cooky. The earliest reference to cookies in America is in 1703. So they have been around longer than America as a country has been. We love our cookies for a lot of reasons, but mainly because they are good comfort food, that often remind us of happy childhood memories and fun times, that, and … they taste good. The cookie possibilities are endless, and they come in so many shapes, sizes and varieties. Cookies have always been my favorite dessert, and most probably always will be. Mrs. Nash, my second mom while growing up, made cookies everyday, and everyday when Kathy and I were playing or after school, we always had a wide variety of delicious cookies as a snack. The house always smelled so good too. 🙂

When you combine chocolate and cookies together, well that is just a little bit of Heaven in every bite. How could you go wrong???? With it still being July, America’s birthday month, I decided to make some patriotic cookies to celebrate.

These are just chocolate cookies with red, white and blue M & M’s, but they are still fun and still taste very good. I used the same recipe for the chocolate peanut butter chip cookies, and just substituted the M & M’s instead. I also just place them on top so they would really pop rather than incorporating them into the mix.

Chocolate M & M Cookies

2 1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups softened butter or 2 1/2 sticks

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp chocolate extract

1 10-oz package of M & M’s

Preheat the oven to 350* F or 190* C.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Combine all the dry ingredients together and set aside.

Mix the butter and sugar together until creamy. Add the eggs 1 at a time, mixing in between. Add the vanilla and chocolate extract and mix again. You do not have to add the chocolate extract, however, it really makes the flavors pop. If you don’t use chocolate extract, use 2 tsp of vanilla instead. Add the flour 1/2 at a time, mixing in between until everything is blended together.

You can either fold in the M& M’s at this time, or leave them for the end and just place on top of the cookies.

Drop about 1 TBSP of cookie dough onto the prepared pans, roll into a ball, and lightly press to slightly flatten them if you like. Bake for about 10-12 minutes or until the cookies are set. Allow the cookies to cool for about 5-10 minutes on the pan before transferring them to a baking rack to finish cooling.

Share with friends and savor the flavors.

In my book, there is nothing better than fresh, homemade cookies. YUMMY!!!!!

Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay cool, stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.