Cookie Monster Cookies

March 20, 2019

I’m a big fan of cookies, I like them because no one can keep track of how many you’ve eaten. If you say you’ve only had one but in the meantime, you’re chomping down on your 7th, no one will ever know! They’re easy to grab and easy to devour, doing away with any evidence in a matter of seconds. No need for a knife to cut a slice, a cake plate to hold the goods or a fork to help you eat it. Hand, mouth the end!

Today I sat down and thought about everything I would like in a giant cookie, I imagined all the flavours that I thought would go nicely together and then I started putting them aside. Starting with a giant box of Astros (these guys are underrated), peanut butter, a bowl of dark chocolate chunks and finally oats for some extra crunch! All these ingredients looked magnificent together and I felt like they were the perfect combo to make up my Cookie Monster Cookies recipe. I’m calling them this because they feel like the type of cookie the maestro himself would knock another puppet off their perch for!

This recipe requires you to bung everything into one bowl, mix and then bake. One thing I must warn you of though is that they will have to sit in the freezer for a good hour before you pop them in the oven. Chilling the batter prevents the cookies from spreading too much and you’re going to want to keep these bad boys nice and chunky!

INGREDIENTS (Makes about 12):

· 115 grams unsalted butter, room temperature

·1 cup light brown sugar

·1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

· 2 teaspoons vanilla essence

· 2 eggs, room temperature

· 1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour

· 1 teaspoon baking soda

· 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

· 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

· 1/4 teaspoon salt

· 1 cup regular oats

· 1/2 cup Astros (any chocolate like this will work, Speckled Eggs, M&M’s)

· 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips or chopped up chocolate

DIRECTIONS:

Pre-heat your oven to 180° C. In a freestanding mixer (fitted with the paddle attachment) or using an electric beater, cream the butter, brown sugar and peanut butter together on medium speed. Give it a good 2 and half-minute mix.
Scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl and then on low speed, add the eggs one at a time and mix until fully incorporated. Then add your vanilla essence, mix.
In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and oats. Mix with a fork.
Slowly add this flour mixture to your batter and mix (on low) until everything is just combined and you have a nice dough on your hands. Do not over mix it.
Using a spatula fold in your Astros and dark chocolate chunks.
On a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper start placing your cookies, which you will form by using an ice-cream scoop or a 1/4 cup measuring cup. I filled the cup then banged them out onto the paper, making sure that there were a few Astros and chocolate chunks sticking out for extra eye candy 🙂
Place your formed cookies on the tray or on a wooden board and into the freezer allowing them to chill for about half an hour. If you land up freezing them, that’s also fine you can bake them straight from that state.
Place your cookies on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, leave about a 4cm gap between them. Bake for ±15 minutes or until they’re slightly golden brown around the edges. They will come out feeling a bit soft, don’t stress, just carefully using an egg lifter, lift them onto a cooling rack and allow them to cool completely, they will firm up as they go Enjoy!