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Monster Cookies

Posted by Garrett McCord of Vanilla Garlic on Oct 24, 2007

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Elise's neighbor Andrew enjoys one of Garrett's monster cookies.

Please welcome guest author Garrett McCord of Vanilla Garlic who is sharing some of his favorite cookie recipes with us here on Simply Recipes. ~Elise

Monster cookies. Ultimate Chippers. Super Cookies. Regardless what you call them, kids love them. A cookie packed full of peanut butter, chocolate, and candy, it's a must have cookie for Halloween and perfect for any kid oriented event.

Still, adults shouldn't miss out and personally, I'm not the biggest peanut butter and candy fan (insert collective gasp). So while making this classic kiddy cookie, I decided to make a few tweaks for an adult version of The Monster. Studded with Heath toffee bar chips, dark chocolate, and pecans it's a very sophisticated sugar rush. I also made a version that didn't use peanut butter to make sure everyone's happy, including those who aren't so inclined to the stuff.

Personally I like to split the base dough into two parts; one half using kids mix-ins and the other using adult mix-ins. If you decide to split the dough into two different batches, halve the amount of the mix-ins, otherwise it will be all candy and no cookie. Of course feel free to add white chocolate, almonds, coconut or whatever you most enjoy, that way everybody wins.

Monster Cookies Recipe

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Ingredients

Peanut Butter cookie ingredients:
1/2 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup of creamy peanut butter
3/4 cup of granulated sugar
3/4 cup of packed brown sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour

Regular monster cookies ingredients:
1 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup of granulated sugar
3/4 cup of packed brown sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour

Kids Monster Cookies Mix-Ins For Whole Batch
1/2 cup of butterscotch chips
1 1/4 cups of M&Ms
1 cup of Chocolate Chips

Adult Monster Cookies Mix-Ins For Whole Batch
1/2 cup of chopped pecans
1 cup of chocolate chips (dark chocolate preferable)
1 cup of chopped Heath bar bits

Method

1 Preheat oven to 375°F. Beat the butter and peanut butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugars and beat at medium speed until well incorporated and fluffy.

2 Add the eggs and vanilla and beat for about 2 minutes on medium speed.

3 Add the baking soda and beat for 30 seconds. Be sure to scrape down the sides and bottom to ensure all the butter is well incorporated.

4 Add the flour and salt, a bit at a time until incorporated but do not overmix.

5 Fold in the mix-ins for either the kid version or the adult version. OR split the dough in half and cut the mix-in ingredient measurements in half, for half adult cookies and half kid cookies.

6 Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and scoop on rounded spoonfuls of dough and bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden bown. Be sure to let them cool on the baking sheet before you move them.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Indexed: Cookie, Halloween

14 Comments

Yum, I love monster cookies! I use Paula Deen's recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_32570,00.html

Posted by: Josh Baugher on October 25, 2007 4:32 AM

I'll hitch my wagon to your adult version of these. While I love peanut butter, I'm not a fan of the peanut butter/chocolate combo.

(What's that I hear? Is that the Reese's factory shutting down? Nah...)

Those two "monsters" Matthew and Andrew don't look like they could hurt a fly. They do, however, look like they could do some serious damage to a couple dozen Monster Cookies.

And that look of cookie bliss on Monster Andrew's mug is priceless...

Posted by: jonathan on October 25, 2007 5:08 AM

I have a recipe for something called Blizzard Cookies that is almost identical to this one except for the "fillings". My recipe is perfect for those days when you just need a good sugar/chocolate fix. 1 cup milk choc. chips + 1 cup white choc. chips go in the batter, then you melt half a cup of dark choc. chip and turn it into the batter to create a marbled effect. The cookies are so chocolatey it's not even funny. I'm gonna hold back on the choc. chips a bit the next time and add some chopped pecans in stead. It sounds yummy!

Posted by: Soes on October 25, 2007 1:08 PM

I love chunky cookies. I have a friend who makes bakery perfect cookies at home. She loads them with chips, nuts etc. She swears by butter flavored Crisco (GAG) but her cookies always tastes great.

Do you mean to add the baking soda to the wet mixture? In most recipes I have used the baking soda is added to the flour and salt. Then the dry mixture is added to the wet mixture.

When I think I have the time I attempt to bake cookies. Recently I started baking bar cookies. I bake a very easy chocolate chip pie that is more than thick pie shaped cookies or brownies.

Linda

Linda, just add it in before the flour. I have learned that for some chemical reason, adding the baking soda in before the flour always ensures softer cookies. Adding it when sifted with flour creates crunchier cookies. Not sure why. Any chemists out there have an answer?
-Garrett

Posted by: Linda on October 25, 2007 1:34 PM

I just made a half batch of the adult versions, and they are wonderful! Thanks for the great, easy recipe.

Posted by: Tyler on October 25, 2007 11:26 PM

I made a half batch of the kid version last night and they turned out flat and crispy... Please help! I need to experience this cookie as it appears in the photographs!

Kate, I reduced the amount of peanut butter as some are having issues. While I did not have issues with it, make sure that if you are making a half batch, you are only using half the amount of peanut butter shown. The amounts for the kid and adult mix-ins are listed in the recipe for WHOLE BATCHES.

Posted by: Kate on October 26, 2007 9:33 AM

I am thinking these would be ultrafabulous with Reese's Pieces mixed with M&M Mini's instead of regular sized M&M's.

PeanutButterOverload a Go Go!

Thanks for the ideas, the pictures of the children are magnificent.

Posted by: Lanie on October 26, 2007 4:26 PM

I just made these and they turned out wonderful! I did cut back on the amount of both sugars used (a habit my mother somehow got me to do!). I made the kid version and used (along with the peanut butter) 1/2 c. mini chocolate chips, 1/4 c. mini reeces pieces, 1/4 c. mini m&m's, and 1/2 c. toffee bits. I don't like having too much 'stuff' in my cookies, but if I were making them to give away I would probably use a little more of each of the mix-ins, just to make them look more fun. Thank you for the yummy cookie recipe! :)

Posted by: sandra on October 29, 2007 1:22 PM

Hey there,
I'm happy about the idea of baking the m&ms into the cookie rather than just dotting them on the top. There's a company here which seems to provide biscuits like this to every cafe in Sydney but the Smarties are on top - so the kids pick off the (stingy) 5 Smarties and then don't eat the biscuit, which is a boring crumble butter not-particularly-nice biscuit anyway. These will get a workout in this house.

Posted by: kim at allconsuming on November 6, 2007 12:36 PM

I made these for my kids' school office ladies...and I got mean glares from the cafeteria ladies for not making THEM some....so another batch had to be made.
THEY LOVED 'em....
Might make this a new tradition around report card time.
:)

Posted by: suzanne on November 14, 2007 1:38 PM

Hello there, has Andrew ever thought making advertising pictures? I would like to know. Beautiful cooking website. Thank you.

I think all that is on Andrew's mind is playing basketball, bugging his older brother, and getting into as much trouble as his mother will allow. ;-) ~Elise

Posted by: Thierry Hoffnung on April 17, 2008 5:17 PM

Hi! could i just ask, in the first picture I see, how'd the cookie not flatten out? It looks big and bulky and awesome.

Because of all the awesome stuff in it. That's what makes it so monster. ;) ~Garrett

Posted by: ying on July 14, 2009 3:07 AM

Hi--I made these today and they were highly enjoyed by all. I didn't have anything for the mix-ins but chocolate chips, so I just put 2.5 cups of those in--the cookies came out rather flat and crispy for the first batch, however I put the dough in the fridge for the first cooking interval, and the successive batches came out thicker (but still crispy.)

Posted by: Jeanine on October 13, 2009 4:25 AM

I made the regular monster cookie recipe and added semi-sweet and milk chocolate chips. The cookies came out great. I loved the flat, chewy consistency with crispy edges...yum!

Posted by: Rick on December 14, 2009 5:42 AM

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Monster Cookies

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Monster Cookies Recipe