monster cookie

I've been baking the same chocolate chip cookies--Nestle Toll House recipe--since I was 14 years old. Although I've evolved the recipe slightly over the years by using Kosher salt and two teaspoons of vanilla instead of one (there's my secret) I decided it was time to try something else. Last week I came across a recipe from the new book by Momofuku Milk Bar, the cornflake chocolate chip marshmallow cookie, and I thought this could be the cookie to take me through the next twenty years.

My sous chef, Catcher, doesn't like chocolate, so we had to substitute peanut butter for chocolate chips. After two days and two trips to the grocery store for the right ingredients--what is milk powder and how is parchment paper different from wax paper?--we were finally ready to embark on our mission to create our new favorite cookie.

Not to spoil the surprise, but sometimes you should stick with what you know.

The first batch: oops...a little well done. They were immediately wrapped up in the parchment paper on which they were baked and dumped in the trash can.

The second batch: slightly better looking than the first.

Here's a look at the final product, but what what you can't tell from the picture, of course, is that they look better than they taste (which really isn't saying much). When Catcher gave the rest of his cookie to Scout after only two bites, I knew something was up. I tasted the reject and understood his lack of enthusiasm regarding the cookies that took three hours to make. They are too crisp and too sweet. The marshmallow seems over-melted and the butter is a bit overwhelming. Of course I take full ownership of the snafu and do not blame the recipe, but who's going to eat these 11 giant cookies?