An M&M Day

NATIONAL M&M DAY, OCTOBER 13

In the early days of television–not in the beginning, but close to the beginning–an ad appeared on TV in glowing black and white: a girl and a boy, about 8 years old, the girl in an organdy Sunday-best dress and white gloves, and the boy in a suit and tie, held Easter baskets. In one hand they clasped candies. They ate the candies and said in unison as they held up their hands, “M&M chocolate candies melt in your mouth, not in your hands.”

To celebrate NATIONAL M&M DAY, I looked up a history of M&M’s.

1. In 1941, Forrest Mars Sr. began making these candy-coated chocolate candies in a New Jersey factory.
2. In 1949, the slogan “Melts in your mouth, not in your hand” was adopted.
3. In 1950, a black ‘M’ was printed on M&M’s. The ‘M’ was changed to white in 1954.
4. In the 1980’s, M&M’s were sold internationally.

Because M&M’s are easy to eat, astronauts eat them in space. I like to eat them too, but I have learned that if I hold them in my hand long enough, my palm turns the color of the rainbow. (I don’t wear white gloves when I eat them.)

As I eat the candies, I like to group them according to colors, one of each color in each group.

This is one of my favorite brownie recipes, made with mini-M&M’s. A chocolate layer beneath an M&M-filled vanilla layer. Festive and yummy!  Be sure to read through the directions before mixing the ingredients.

Double-Decker Confetti Brownies

¾ cup butter or margarine, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, divided

2 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tablespoon butter or margarine, melted

1 cup M&M’s Semi-sweet Chocolate Mini Baking bits, divided

Makes 24 brownies

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease 13x9x2 inch baking pan; set aside.
2. In large bowl, cream ¾ cup butter and sugars until light and fluffy; beat in eggs and vanilla.
3. In medium bowl, combine 2 ¼ cups flour, baking powder, and salt; blend into creamed mixture.
4. Divide batter in half. Blend together cocoa powder and melted butter; stir into ½ of the dough.
5. Spread cocoa dough evenly into prepared baking pan.
6. Stir remaining ¼ cup flour and ½ cup M&M’s into remaining dough; spread evenly over cocoa dough in pan.
7. Sprinkle with remaining ½ cup M&M’s.
8. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until edges start to pull away from sides of pan.
9. Cool completely. Cut into bars. Store in tightly covered container.

Enjoy!

     Beth

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*My information about National M&M Day came from