Friday, October 31, 2008

BOO! Happy Halloween!

In the spirit of the holiday, I wanted to share a YUMMY recipe with you.  I know there are many version of this cookie out there, but this is the one my mom has used for years and sells great big cookies at the farmer's market using this recipe.

Don't be frightened---It's MONSTER COOKIES!  While they don't look Halloween-ish, it is scary how much goes in to these cookies.  Yes, you can--and probably should scale it down.  But, silly me, I only halved it.  Be aware, the recipe halved still makes dozens and dozens of cookies.  Well, you'll see when I post the recipe.  But let me just show you the bowl of cookie dough--this is my biggest bowl.  I mixed the dough in the Kitchen Aid mixer, but before I could finish putting in the oats and mix-ins, I had to transfer it to this bowl.  The cookie is so full of good stuff that it doesn't even need flour to hold it together.  I actually made the dough about a month ago when I really needed to clean out my baking cupboard.  I had too many open bags of chips and candies.  So I dumped them all in with these cookies and they turned out great.  After baking 2-3-4 dozen, I made the rest into cookie dough balls and laid them out on a baking sheet, in layers, with each layer covered by wax paper, and I froze them.  I believe I froze another 5 dozen or so.  Huge, I'm tell you!  Monstrous!  But SO good!  I pulled a few dozen out of the freezer and baked some more off a few days ago in honor of this blessed day.  (When freezing dough balls, these cookies need to be flatten slightly before freezing.  They also need to thaw slightly before the layers with wax paper will come apart from each other, or freeze before layering.)

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So, the dough went from this---to these:

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I made some big ones (center), but then made most of them smaller.  What?  Are you seeing Oreo cookies in there?  Yes, just another thing I needed to "clean out" of the cupboard.

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Okay, I'll stop teasing you with pictures and give you the recipe.  But be warned--it's huge!  Feel free to cut it down, way down.  But if you need a huge amount of delicious bake sale cookies or for whatever, these are great!

MONSTER COOKIES--the recipe comes from a friend of my mom's, Laurie Nelson, that was put in an old church cookbook.  (This is only HALF the recipe!)

6 large eggs

4 cups brown sugar

2 cups granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons corn syrup

4 teaspoons baking soda

1 cup butter, softened (not margarine)

1 1/2 lbs. peanut butter 

9 cups old fashioned oats

Here's where you get to have fun:  Add whatever chips, etc. you want.  I added to this batch:

3 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

2 cups M&M's

1 cup peanut M&M's

6 Oreo cookies, broken up

a handful of Reese's peanut butter Whoppers

a handful of Reese's pieces candies

a handful of Reese's peanut butter chips

In a big, giant bowl, mix ingredients together in order given.  I like using the mixer until it gets to be too much.  If you 1/4 the recipe, it will all work nicely in the mixer.  Use a cookie scoop to make dough balls and flatten slightly before baking on parchment paper lined baking sheets.  Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes.  Cool on pan for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool. 

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These cookies are so simple and tasty--hello, we're talking about peanut butter and chocolate and candy here, people!  You cannot go wrong with these Monsters!   Now go--go Trick-or-Treating with the kiddies and then raid their candy and make these cookies! ;)

6 comments:

Clumbsy Cookie said...

That's the kind of mosters that don't scare me! I would eat them all up! Happy Halloween my dear, have a great time with kids today! Can you share the candy they'll get with me? Ahahahahahah!

Megan said...

I was all set to "star" the recipe when I realized it has pb in it. Hmm. I'm sure with that much stuff in there, it would hold together with the peanut butter! You sure have a lot of goodies stuffed in there!!

Lisa magicsprinkles said...

FOUR cups of brown sugar?? and this is half the recipe? Monstrous! I like.

Becky said...

I've had "monster" cookies before, but never with oreo's. They have to be heaven sent, anything with oreo's are delicious!

Kate said...

Yummmm monster cookies! One of my favorite cookies!

Aspiring Mom2three said...

My in-laws have made Monster cookies every Thanksgiving for the last 18 years! So glad to see someone else make these! It's a super tradition in their home and our kids love helping. They've not put any type of candy or Oreo cookies in theirs. Our son is allergic to chocolate, so they make sure they save some back that have no chocolate in them.