rainbow cookies

Cookies are pretty easy to make, right? Compared to stacking towering layer cakes, dipping chocolate truffles, and frosting pretty cupcakes?

Wrong.

I think cookies have some sort of personal grievance with me…because mine always always always, without fail, come out flat as Stanley (look at that throwback).

Except these!

I’m thinking it might be a touch of magic from the rainbow.

I like my cookies soft and chewy, and I also love rainbows and bright colors, so these were all I could have ever asked for and more. Plus, they even kind of made it in a care package through a 6-day long cross country roadtrip from PA to CA in the summer heat…with the key words being ‘kind of.’ But I’m not sure that I’d even survive that! So I forgive you, yummy little troopers.

This is how you make them:

First you measure out the sugar, sandcastle-style. Then you become so distracted by the M&Ms that you forget to take pictures other than ones that are full of color and prettiness.

Cream the butter and sugar, blah blah blah, add more things, mix mix mix, form dough, etc…then the most important part! Dumping in the M&Ms!

I love it.

Then bake them like this. Which looks really strange. But trust me on this! Jessica of How Sweet It Is knows her stuff.

Chewy Rainbow Cookies

adapted from How Sweet It Is

makes 18 large or 36 small cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) of salted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup mini m&m’s

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Mix the flour and baking soda in a bowl and set aside. In another bowl, mix the butter and sugars until they are combined (and look like the first picture above). Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and stir until mixed. Gradually add flour and mix until a dough forms. Fold in the m&m’s.

Divide the dough how you choose (1/4 cup portions for 18 large cookies or 2 tablespoon portions for 36 smaller cookies). Shape each portion into a ball with your hands then pull each ball into two equal pieces. Turn each half so that the rough side of the half (what used to be the inside of the ball) faces upwards and then squish both halves together. Place the dough rough-side up on a baking sheets. If you’re doing large cookies, I’d leave about 2 inches in between each.

Bake for 12-15 minutes (large cookies) or 8-12 minutes (small cookies) or until the edges are slightly brown. The centers should be soft and puffy. Do not over bake. Let cool completely then dig in!