These are my little brother’s favorite cookies. They also work really well for sending in the mail — they are sturdy enough that they don’t get broken in transit, and apparently they keep for a while. When I sent some to Bangladesh (a long time ago), they got stuck in customs for two weeks but reportedly still tasted good on arrival.

My Marine friends will recognize these as the cookies I usually send to Iraq, Afghanistan and various ships around the world*. Of course, you don’t have to make them to send away or for a special occasion.

One thing to note is that this recipe makes about a billion cookies. When my mom used to make them, she made them ginormous. But they don’t fit into Ziploc containers very well when they are huge, so I usually make them normal cookie sized. That generally means I get about 9 dozen cookies.

Make sure you use a really big bowl — the batter is too much for my stand mixer to handle, so I have to mix in the last cup or two of oatmeal by hand. And never use natural or organic peanut butter, unless you want the batter to be like concrete. I seriously broke a wooden spoon once.

Monster cookies
6 eggs
2 1/4 cups brown sugar
2 cups white sugar
1/2 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 tablespoon corn syrup
4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 pound butter at room temperature (do not substitute)
24 ozs. creamy peanut butter (I usually use Jif… of course)
9 cups oatmeal (old fashioned, NOT instant)
1/2 pound chocolate chips (I usually use more like 3/4 pound)
1/2 pound M&Ms (Don’t try to use much more than this, there isn’t enough batter to support it all)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using an electric mixer, slightly beat the eggs in a (very) large bowl. Mix in sugars. Add vanilla, corn syrup and baking soda and mix. Beat in butter and peanut butter until creamy and well blended. Add oatmeal a cupful (or so) at a time, mixing well between each addition. Stir in chocolate chips and M&Ms by hand.

Drop rounded tablespoonfuls onto a greased and/or parchment-lined cookie sheet. Press down slightly. Leave some room for spreading. Bake for about 12 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to sit on the pan for a minute or two, then use a spatula to move cookies to a cooling rack (or a flat plate or tray, if you don’t have a cooling rack).

Store in an air-tight container.

*Deployment note: If you are sending cookies to a really hot place in the summer (i.e. Afghanistan), I would recommend going easy on the chocolate chips, or using a mix of regular M&Ms and peanut M&Ms with no chocolate chips at all.