Wicked Good Everything Cookies

One day in high school I had a craving for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, my favorite. I also had a craving for peanut-butter. Although I love peanut-butter I have never been a big fan of plain old peanut-butter cookies. That day when I got home, I did a little sleuthing and found a recipe by Ms. Paula Dean for "monster cookies". The cookies had everything I wanted, peanut-butter, oats, chocolate. They also had a lot of things I didn't want like no flour, raisins, and overly saccharine M&Ms candies. So I set out to correct these issues with my own tinkering and boy did I stumble across some magic. Thus Matt's wicked good everything cookie was born. I have never made these without them being a colossal hit. I don't know if its the proportion of ingredients, the peanut-butter, or the oats that do it, but these are by far and away my favorite cookies on earth. I added flower to the mix and forgo the M&Ms and other mix ins for some more mature fare: premium semi-sweet and white chocolate chunks and toffee pieces. Regardless of what you mix in however, the dough is so delicious that you'll be adapting this recipe for all sorts of applications, (like my almond joy variety). Make sure you blend the dough well at each step, especially with the initial sugar mixture, as giving the sugars a chance to dissolve slightly will result in a better cookie. These cookies bake up dense and chewy with crispy edges. For a real treat, slightly undercook and freeze! Wicked Good!

Wicked Good Everything Cookies

3 eggs

1 1/4 cups brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups peanut butter

1 stick of butter, softened

1/2 cup chocolate chunks

1/2 cup white chocolate chunks

1/2 cup heath bar bits (by the candy bar and break them yourself)

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 cups old fashioned outs (not instant)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line sheet pan with foil

In large bowl combine eggs and sugars, mix well. Add salt, vanilla, butter and peanut butter, mix well. (some butter lumps are okay and desired)

Stir in baking soda until well combined.

Add flour and oatmeal, mix until thoroughly mixed and all ingredients are incorporated evenly. Stir in mix ins (chocolate and heath bar) until evenly distributed.

drop desired sized cookies spaced about 2 inches apart on foil lined sheet.

bake 8-10 minutes or until edges start to set and top just starts to turn golden. The center should be craggy and still look wet between cracks. DO NOT OVERBAKE!

let cool and store in plastic bags, preferably in the freezer.

*Wicked Good Almond Joy Variation

Substitute cooked almond butter for peanut butter and add 1/2 teaspoon almond extract to dough. Mix in semi-sweet chocolate chunks, almond pieces, and coconut.