Monster Cookies??

I'd never even heard of Monster Cookies until this Christmas when my mom started mentioning them.  The way she talked, I thought they were some new fangled invention.   Clearly, I was wrong.  A couple of weeks ago, I was cruising my recipe websites trying to come up with a good recipe to make and a friend suggested Monster Cookies.  So I gave it a shot. 

I adapted this recipe: Paula Dean's Monster Cookies
Here's what I used:

3 eggs

1 1/4 cups packed dark brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 12-ounce jar creamy peanut butter

1 stick butter, softened 

1/2+ cup multi-colored chocolate candies (M&Ms)

1/2+ cup chocolate chips

2 teaspoons baking soda

4 1/2 cups quick-cooking oatmeal (Not the same thing as instant otameal)

Here's what I did:

Preheated the oven to 350 degrees F.

Lined the cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Combined the eggs and sugars. Mixed well. Added the salt, vanilla, peanut butter, and butter. 

     HINT: Make sure  the butter really is softened.  I prefer to let it set out at room
               temperature to soften rather than heating it up in the microwave.

Mixed well. Stired in the chocolate candies, chocolate chips, baking soda, and oatmeal. Droped by tablespoons 2 inches apart onto the parchment paper.

Baked 10 minutes.

     HINT: On your first batch, make sure you start checking on them around 8 minutes as
               oven times vary.  You do not want to overbake these cookes.

Removed from oven.  Let stand for about 3 minutes before transferring to wire cooling racks.  This is what they looked like fresh out of the oven:

See how they're still a little bit gooey in the middle?  That's how I like 'em!

These cookies turned out to be really good.  The base of the cookie tastes a lot like a peanut butter cookie.  I don't like peanut butter cookies, so I expected to not like these, but I just kept eating them.  Funny how that happens . . .

These cookies were very soft and stayed that way for days.  I put them in plastic baggies after they cooled and they kept just fine.  I will warn you though, this recipe made a lot of cookies.  A LOT, a lot.  Like, 72+ cookies.  And that was after I ate half my body weight in dough.

Enjoy!