Cookie Block

I can’t believe summer is winding down and Labor Day is a week away.  I’m not ready for summer to end.  I mean, I’m ready for the kids to go back to school, for sure, but if only the true summer vibe would last a few more weeks…..

One could wish.

But with the end of summer, that means a holiday, and of course that means menu planning!

For some reason, I planned out the dessert first.  And you guys know I love to make ice cream, so naturally it’s on the menu.

Cake Batter Ice Cream, to be exact.

This stuff is delicious.  But I wanted to amp up the ice cream, and make ice cream sandwiches. And that means I needed to make cookies.

For some reason, I have an aversion to making cookies.  When someone even mentions making cookies, I break out into the sweats.  No kidding.   I’m not sure why, but I very seldom can pull off making a cookie that not only tasted good, but actually resembled a cookie.

Usually, I buy store-bought, or I hire a “freelancer.”  But I wanted our Labor Day meal, the entire thing, dessert included, to be made by me.

I decided M&M cookies would be the perfect cookie for my ice cream sandwiches.  I made a batch, and they turned out like this:

Ok, but the colors of the m&m’s bled into the batter.  Not too sightly.  And not only that, but the cookies were a little flat.  I wanted “beefier” cookies that could hold their own in an ice cream sandwich.

So another batch was in order.  I called my sister-in-law and told her my predicament, and being that she knows I have this major cookie block, she came right over to help me make another batch.

Before she arrived, I made more dough, this time adding one cup of old fashioned oats, and two teaspoons of corn starch.  I had read that corn starch helps with the color bleed, and helps make the cookies thicker.

After cooking a couple cookies, we determined that we needed to add more flour.  So, all in, we used three cups of flour.  But, the color of the m&m’s still bled.   That’s when we decided to add the M&M’s half way in the baking process.

Bingo!

A lot of work went into these cookies, but appreciate what I learned making these two batches of cookies.  And now, I believe I have overcome my cookie block.

For the M&M Cookie recipe, click here.

For the Cake Batter Ice Cream recipe, click here.