I have recently fallen in love with Pretzel M&Ms. Not only do they feature a wonderful combination of salty and sweet flavors, but they also have a super crunchy texture that is completely addictive. I recently bought a large bag of Pretzel M&Ms during a moment of grocery store weakness, and realizing that I was in serious jeopardy of inhaling the whole thing, I took the coward's way out... I decided to bake something with them instead!
Conveniently, I found a great-looking recipe for Monster Cookies in Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. As they describe it, their recipe is one part oatmeal cookie, one part peanut butter cookie, and one part chocolate chip cookie. The recipe is slightly unusual for a few reasons. It calls for only a small amount of flour and a whole lot of rolled oats; it is made with cold butter; and it includes a very small amount of corn syrup which serves some critical (and still unknown to me) function. The recipe instructs you to make the dough in advance and chill it for five hours before baking; I chilled my dough for about 24 hours because it happened to be the most convenient timing for my schedule.
The dough was surprisingly easy to scoop, even after being chilled for a day; I used a #20 scoop (about 3 tablespoons) to parcel out the dough and I got 45 large cookies. I had to flatten the scoops of dough down into disks before baking to get the best finished shape.
The cookies came out of the oven golden brown but very soft and definitely undercooked in the middle; they continued to cook out of the oven and had the perfect interior texture after they were fully cooled. They were also beautiful, with a craggy top and brightly colored M&Ms peeking through. I couldn't believe how chewy these cookies were -- one of the best oatmeal cookies I have ever had. The combination of hearty oats, peanut butter, chocolate chips, and Pretzel M&Ms makes this cookie a delightful circus of fun flavors and interesting textures. I think the only thing I might do to improve this cookie is to replace all of the chocolate chips with Pretzel M&Ms. As it was, I used an entire 9.9 oz. bag of Pretzel M&Ms, and I still feel like the cookie could have used more.
The base cookie from this recipe is so good that I'm sure it would taste great with whatever chips or candy you mix into it; however, I'm definitely going to keep making it with Pretzel M&Ms, and not just because it gives me an excuse to keep a supply of them on hand!
Recipe: "Monster Cookies" from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito; recipe available here on Leite's Culinaria.
Conveniently, I found a great-looking recipe for Monster Cookies in Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. As they describe it, their recipe is one part oatmeal cookie, one part peanut butter cookie, and one part chocolate chip cookie. The recipe is slightly unusual for a few reasons. It calls for only a small amount of flour and a whole lot of rolled oats; it is made with cold butter; and it includes a very small amount of corn syrup which serves some critical (and still unknown to me) function. The recipe instructs you to make the dough in advance and chill it for five hours before baking; I chilled my dough for about 24 hours because it happened to be the most convenient timing for my schedule.
The dough was surprisingly easy to scoop, even after being chilled for a day; I used a #20 scoop (about 3 tablespoons) to parcel out the dough and I got 45 large cookies. I had to flatten the scoops of dough down into disks before baking to get the best finished shape.
The cookies came out of the oven golden brown but very soft and definitely undercooked in the middle; they continued to cook out of the oven and had the perfect interior texture after they were fully cooled. They were also beautiful, with a craggy top and brightly colored M&Ms peeking through. I couldn't believe how chewy these cookies were -- one of the best oatmeal cookies I have ever had. The combination of hearty oats, peanut butter, chocolate chips, and Pretzel M&Ms makes this cookie a delightful circus of fun flavors and interesting textures. I think the only thing I might do to improve this cookie is to replace all of the chocolate chips with Pretzel M&Ms. As it was, I used an entire 9.9 oz. bag of Pretzel M&Ms, and I still feel like the cookie could have used more. The base cookie from this recipe is so good that I'm sure it would taste great with whatever chips or candy you mix into it; however, I'm definitely going to keep making it with Pretzel M&Ms, and not just because it gives me an excuse to keep a supply of them on hand!
Recipe: "Monster Cookies" from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito; recipe available here on Leite's Culinaria.
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