the review: monster cookies

I spent a good portion of my formative years in Eugene, Oregon, or as I like to call it, Granolaville. It’s cool, though, because I have some good memories of eating tiger stripe ice cream at Prince Puckler’s (even the President ate here but he definitely could have made better choices in the flavor department), pizza and Mrs. Pacman at Mazzi’s, and of course, cookies at the Cookie Monster Company. So when I saw this post by I Am Baker on Instagram a week or so ago, I was smitten. (P.S. You really should follow Amanda. Good looking photos and a sense of humor. Kind of a girl crush going over here.)

We picked a nice snowy day and got after some monster cookie making. Butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour, soda, powder, oats, peanut butter chips, M&Ms (or as Théa calls them, eni-ems), chocolate chips. All in. I even let the kids squish the cookies down on the pan with their hands. 

Gus and Théa thought these cookies were the best. I thought it might have been a problem that Théa started the mixer on high immediately after putting the flour into the bowl, spreading flour love all over my kitchen.

Perhaps that is why this happened. 

That’s one perfectly lovely cookie and one perfectly ridiculous fail that baked ON THE SAME PAN. Can someone please tell me why this happened? Perhaps this is because I used butter instead of shortening? Or maybe there wasn’t enough flour (see above)? Or my oven is uneven? I’m feeling the need for some sort of answer. Please, do tell me why this happened or I will be forced, forced, I tell you, to make these cookies again just to test them. (P.S. When you make these, heed Amanda's advice and note that they do really spread out. Now get to the kitchen.)