2-18-12 the best cookie base, evah

So I found this recipe on Pinterest, gave it a whirl at Mom and Dad's, and can now definitively say, this is THE cookie recipe from now on. 

M&M Cookies were Mammammy's recipe, but I have to say, as much as hers swim in my memory as fantastic, these are better.

There are several things about this recipe that are probably the "secret" to how awesome they turn out.

You need one egg and an additional yolk -- which I think makes the texture just perfect. 

You also need to melt the butter and then let it cool to room temperature. Don't microwave the bowl you are going to mix the dough in. Keep everything room temperature. 

Also, what I learned the first time through, is a whisk of no use. Use a spoon until you reach this point and nothing more will fold in:

And this where the real magic happens -- in your hands. You knead this stuff until it goes from what you see above to what you see below.

And then, bathe your perfect ball of dough in beautiful colored M&Ms (or, gasp, whatever candy or chocolate you prefer)

And then work those in by hand as well.

Now, the next part of the magic comes with the little decapitated snowmen you create on the cookie sheet. You ball them up, pull them apart and push each half one on top of the other. 

This somehow makes them just thick enough in the center to be better than a perfectly flat cookie.

Not the one that toppled over -- must have made the bottom half too small there. 

These are the only cookie I like to eat more when they've cooled than when they are hot out of the oven. I don't know what it is, but these cookies just straight out rock.

As an aside, during the cookie making, I discovered that I have gospel cats. I was listening to the Houston funeral while baking and every time the choir got going, I looked over and both Faith and Bruiser hovered around the computer. When the singing stopped, they'd wander away. And when it started again, here they came. I have also told Sam that at my funeral, don't bother with the singing if they can't find a black church to hold it in. And the cats should be invited.