Monster Cookies

Many of you will be disappointed by this post because I am going to omit the recipe. The reason for this is that I believe the monster cookie may be my secret weapon, or perhaps even my trademark cookie, someday in the future at Beluga Bakery...

For my paternal family members, this is a familiar treat. I remember visiting my grandparents in Montana when I was little, hoping that someone would make these cookies because they were so, so amazing. My father has nine siblings, so when the family gets together we spend a lot of time in the kitchen preparing large meals. The same goes for baking; every time the family got together it was guaranteed that someone would spend a good chunk of time baking up enough cookies to serve the Tranel clan. These cookies were always a go-to not only because they were delicious, but also because they yielded four dozen (!) aka enough to serve a giant family like ours. I have many memories of sitting in the back of the family van while taking a break from ice skating on some remote frozen lake, monster cookie in hand. These cookies defined my childhood experiences in Montana.
As I became more interested in baking I finally asked my grandmother for the recipe. From that moment on I've made these irresistible "garbage can" cookies. When I say "garbage can" I don't mean it in a disgusting sense, but it in the same sense that you'd refer to something like hornblende. For those of you who haven't been spending four hours every Friday in a geology lab, it's a lot of things mixed in together (peanut butter, m&ms, chocolate chips, oatmeal, and more). I'm not entirely sure of the origin of this recipe. All I know is that I copied it down when I was about 14 years old from a recipe card my grandmother had, which looked well-loved and fairly dated. To this day, this is the one of the few recipes I use that has not been modified or copied from a cookbook or the internet. These are undoubtedly my favorite cookies of all time.

I halve the recipe when I make it at home, since there are only two mouths to feed (dog not included) and the full deal is so hefty that it sends my trusty stand mixer into overdrive.

I love being able to reminisce with a plate of cookies...