Ohio Thoughts: Best Ever Monster Cookies

I make these cookies for many different holidays so this week they're for Valentine's Day!

Monster Cookies are not new and the recipes for making them are endless. Probably 95% of my cookies are homemade, but sometimes you just need a quick and easy recipe.

I decided to come up with my own version of Monster Cookies which are easy and great to throw together when we have unexpected visitors or to serve at club meetings or any other last-minute function.

For me, there will always be room in my recipe collection for a few super easy and fast recipes for busy days.

They're called Monster Cookies, I believe, because it's easier than saying “peanut butter chocolate chip oatmeal M & M super yummy cookies!”

Besides easy, did I mention they're a wonderful tasting soft chewy moist delicious cookie?

Tips and Suggestions:

You can add different ingredients like:

nuts, raisins, coconut, chunks of chocolate, cranberries, etc.

Since it is almost Valentine's Day I used red, pink, and white M & M's.

You can use holiday colors of M & M's like green and red for Christmas,

brown, yellow, and orange for fall and green for St. Patrick's Day.

There's even pastel M & M's for Easter and Red White and Blue for the 4^th of July!

Use different color M & M's depending on the holiday or party theme

Easy Monster Cookies

PRINT RECIPE

Ingredients:

1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker chocolate chip cookie mix

1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker peanut butter cookie mix

1 ½ cups quick-cooking oats

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

3 eggs, slightly beaten

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 to 1½ cups M & M's milk chocolate candies

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Mix the butter, vanilla, and eggs into the cookie mixes

Directions:

Heat oven to 375°F.

In a large bowl, stir together the two pouches of cookie mix and the oats.

Mix in the butter, vanilla, and eggs until soft dough forms.

Gently fold in M & M's and nuts.

Gently fold in the nuts and M & M's

On ungreased cookie sheets, place about 1/4 cup of dough for large (monster) cookies, about 3 inches apart.

For smaller cookies place about 1 ½ to 2 tablespoons 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
If you want you can gently push 2 or 3 more M & M's into the top of the dough right before baking.

Bake 12 to 13 minutes or until light golden brown.

The best tip I could ever pass along about cookie making is this: Do Not Over Bake!

Place on ungreased cookie sheet 2 inches apart

Cool 2 minutes, then remove from cookie sheets onto wax paper.

Cool completely.

Cool on wax or parchment paper

Store in a covered container at room temperature for few days (if they even last a few days) or store in the refrigerator. Cookies can also be flash-frozen then placed in a container with layers separated by wax paper and kept in the freezer. Thaw before serving.