Chewy Coconut Cookies

CHEWY COCONUT COOKIES

These are really easy and SUPER yummy!

1 (17.50z) pkg Sugar Cookie Mix
1 (14oz) bag Sweetened, Flaked Coconut
1/4 C Milk
1 (14oz) Can Sweetened Condensed Milk

*In a large bowl, stir together cookie mix and coconut. Add milk and sweetened condensed milk. Stir until well blended. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour. Heat oven to 350 degrees and spray cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray. Using a 1 TSBP scoop, scoop dough onto prepared cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Bake 10-14 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 5 minutes on cookie sheet before moving to cooling rack to cool completely. These cookies have a nice chew to them and are really addicting, especially when they're still a little warm.

As an option you can drizzle them with chocolate. I thought they were sweet enough without the chocolate and was too excited to eat them that I didn't do the chocolate, but it would be great for presentation. Combine 1/2 C semisweet chocolate chips and 1 tsp butter in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds until melted and smooth. Using a fork dip in chocolate and drizzle in lines over cookies.

See how these are just barely golden on the edges? That's what you're looking for. You don't want them to get too dark because the bottom will be darker then the edges and you don't want to over cook them.

Easy Monster Cookies

EASY MONSTER COOKIES

I have been making monster cookies for years, but I found a quick and easy recipe and thought I should try it. This is a great way to make monster cookies fast, but I think I prefer the taste of monster cookies made from scratch.

1 (17oz) pkg peanut butter cookie mix
1 (17oz) pkg oatmeal chocolate chip cookie mix
1/2 C butter, softened
2 eggs
1 C peanut butter m&m's

*Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl combine cookie mixes, butter and eggs until soft dough forms. Stir in m&m's. Drop large spoonfuls of dough on ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake for 11-14 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 1 to 2 minutes on cookie sheet before moving to wire rack to cool completely.

Just before baking

I think I cooked them a little too long. I ended up baking them for about 15 minutes. They were pretty yummy. You can modify these in a lot of different ways. You can use regular m&m's, add nuts, some people like raisins in them too. But I like just the peanut butter and chocolate.

In case you were wondering, I believe the traditional monster cookies get their name because they are so large, the batch is really large and they have just about everything you could want in a cookie in them.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE BARS

Vinnie loves cookie bars and asked that I make him some. I had to improvise a little with these but they turned out pretty good.

1 C butter
1/3 C shortening
1 C granulated sugar
1 C brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 C flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

*Preheat oven to 350. In large mixing bowl, combine butter, shortening and sugars. With an electric mixer cream until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla. mix on low until combined. Add dry ingredients and chips. Mix by hand with rubber spatula. Once combined press into ungreased 9x13 baking dish. Bake 25-30 minutes until golden brown all over.

Fresh out of the oven.

I got all the way to the end of baking this and realized I only had a large handful of chocolate chips. While I was looking in my cupboards trying to figure out what to do Malakai grabbed the chocolate chips and downed half of the remaining chocolate chips. I called Vinnie and asked if he wanted m&m's but he didn't. He suggested peanut butter chips instead. I have to admit I was a little skeptical about the peanut butter chips, but it turned out pretty good. I ended up using half chocolate chips and half peanut butter chips.

This recipe easily could have been cut in half, put in a smaller square baking dish and cooked in a shorter amount of time.