4th of July cookies

I love holidays! All of them. I love the chance to create crafts and foods for special celebrations; even if it is just for my kids. (hey, they are an easy audience to please) I recently found an awesome M&M cookie recipe that I love. They are thick, chewy and loaded with chocolate. Yum!

With Independence Day quickly approaching I decided to make some red, white and blue cookies to bring to the lake with us. I already had a bag of M&M's on hand, so instead of paying the big bucks for single color M&M's I just took all the red and blue ones out of the bag I had. I ended up with 1 cup of M&M's then I added 1 cup of white chocolate chips to get the 2 cups of chocolate that I needed for the cookies.
A couple of things that make these cookies so delicious:
1. corn starch; yep I was skeptical at first, but it makes the cookies thick and chewy. (just a quick note: if you like to eat raw dough, and honestly who doesn't, the corn starch will leave a bitter taste in the dough. It all cooks out though I promise!)
2. Use real vanilla if you can. Seriously, it smells amazing and is so good. My grandma gets me a bottle of vanilla every year when she goes to Mexico, it is a small indulgence that I really enjoy. I know that vanilla can be pretty expensive so if you have vanilla extract feel free to use that.

The recipe:

Chewy M&M cookies - makes approximately 3 dozen cookies

1 cup butter - softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg + 1 yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 ounce package of M&M chocolates*
1/2 cup chocolate chips*
*or some combination that equals about 2 cups of chocolate (more or less to your taste)

Beat butter and brown sugar in large bowl. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Slowly add flour, corn starch, baking soda and salt and mix just until combined. Add chocolate chips and M&
M's (reserve some for tops of cookies). Refrigerate dough overnight or at least 1 hour. (seriously! it really makes the texture of the cookie perfect)

Preheat oven to 375*. Roll dough into balls and place on cookie sheets. Bake for 7-10 minutes. Press reserved M&M's on top of cookies while still warm. Enjoy, and I would love to hear if you try them.