So You Know: Cookie Monster's Famous Sugar Cookie Dough Recipe

We all know Cookie Monster loves to eat cookies, but it turns out he's quite the baker, too! Cookie Monster's famous cookie dough recipe first appeared in Big Bird's Busy Book, from the 1970's. If you like a bit of nostalgia mixed in with your sugar and eggs, this recipe is for you:

If it's difficult to read the instructions above, here they are verbatim:

Ingredients
3/4 cup unsalted butter or margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking flour
1 teaspoon salt

Equipment

Medium-sized mixing bowl
Measuring cup and spoons
A fork

Instructions

1. Put 3/4 cup of butter or margarine (that's a stick and a half) into your mixing bowl.

2. Measure 1 cup of sugar.

3. Pour sugar over butter.

4. With fork, squash butter and sugar together until they are blended.

5. Crack shells of two eggs and pour eggs over mixture in bowl.

6. Measure 1 teaspoon vanilla and pour over mixture.

7. With fork, blend everything in the bowl together.

8. Measure 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour and pour over mixture in bowl.

9. Measure 1 teaspoon baking powder and sprinkle over flour.

10. Measure 1 teaspoon of salt and sprinkle over flour and baking powder.

11. Mix everything together either with the fork or with your hands.

12. Put dough in icebox to chill (at least one hour)

There are no instructions for baking from this print, but a quick search for others' experiences with the recipe and recommendations say to roll out cookies 1/4 inch thick, sprinkle with sugar, and bake at 400 degrees.

Have you ever made Cookie Monster's cookie dough recipe? Have any favorite variations or additions?

(Images: 1. Via Brainpicker; 2. Annmarie Kostyk)

Comments (42)

Is there anyway to get a link to that image? I would love to make a print for my kitchen!

hells bells... I think I remember that.

That's cute.

@RHOSWEN - can probably just right click and save the image?

I had that book! I loved the drawings in it - almost cuter than the real Cookie Monster! :)
I don't know if my sisters and I ever made this recipe, but I do remember trying the 'stained glass' cookies, using probably this same dough plus hard candies or suckers for the stained glass part. :)

@RHOSWEN, right click and select "Copy Link Address". Or as the other poster said, right click and select "Save Image As".

Big Bird's Banana Bread is my fave to this day. I don' t think I've tried Cookie Monster's Sugar Cookies!

At the bottom of the post is a link to the image source. Once you get to the Flickr site for it, there's the option to download a larger size.

I grew up watching the Cookie Monster on TV, but had no clue there was a cookbook! Love the post!

I had that book! Damn, I miss when Sesame Street was good and not all about a red fuzzball with a speech impediment who speaks in the third person (Yes, I'm an Elmo hater.)

By the way, shame on Cookie Monster for using a Pyrex measuring cup for measuring a dry ingredient. Always use the right tool for the job, I say. ;)

Oh and you can tell if a recipe is from the 70s or 80s when it mentions margarine.

Oh, the nostalgia! I still have this book (although looking rather well loved) and this was the first cookie recipe I ever made. I even remember having a cookie cutter set of card suits (heart, diamond, spade, club) that I used to make them. Seeing this just gave me a huge grin!

I´m a 100% totally in love with this!

Oh my goodness, I had forgotten all about this but now I vividly remember the aesthetics of that book! How great!

We have this in our Sesame Street Library from the early 80s. The above was in volume #1. My mom used to get them for us when we went grocery shopping. Every book in the collection (of which we're missing four or five) has a variation from this basic recipe like letter cookies, surprise cookies, face cookies, etc. I read these to my daughter now and while they say things like idiot and stupid, they're pretty good and harmless today.

EPIC. I had this one, and made the cookies, AND Big Bird's Banana Bread (which my mother now claims as hers), AND the Stained Glass Window Cookies, which turned out miserably with the pretty candies all burned to black.

Good times.

OMG, I've got that Cookie Monster song in my head now,

C is cookie, that's good enough for me.....

Cute! Must try this recipe!

Question: are there any Grover recipes in this book??

It's funny how small things like this can lay in some corner of your mind for decades. Then you see the picture and remember all the little details - the sugar cookies, the banana bread, the stained glass cookies :)

I totally had this book! The stained glass cookie and the "hidden treasure" cookies were my favorite.

Also, no Elmo hating. I was all about the Elmo hating until my toddler fell hard for him, and then I watched the documentary on Kevin Clash, and now I think Elmo and I have come to terms. He's actually quite a cool cat.

I spent some time on this for you guys... I have 3 of the cookie monster recipe in a larger format, which would work great on an 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper. Find them here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/501zxhs8ttyuqs1/cookie-monster-recipe.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cr21ly5jbl8228c/cookie-monster-recipe-2.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rxfjk6uhv6d1syg/cookie-monster-recipe3.jpg

I hope you get some use out of them.

Much love to TheKitchn <3

BIG THANKS, Delebre!! I looked all over the internet yesterday, and couldn´t find any. Will do the same as Rhoswen, hang it in my kitchen! THANKS AGAIN!!

I still have this book on my cookbook shelf! This recipe is the best and I use it for my Christmas cookies. Always get compliments and people are surprised when I tell them where it came from.

Aha, I had this book too! fond memories.

I've never seen this book before, but now I want to scour local used bookstores for it. I have a toddler who is absolutely in love with all things "Sesame Street," especially Cookie Monster. That print might have to go up in our kitchen, too!

I totally remember this! And as an adult, I can now fully appreciate how awesome the directions are: "With fork, squash butter and sugar together until they are blended." Nice!

Very cool!! I found this huge copy here too:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1Oiz2SgKgI8/TKIdCU5-yZI/AAAAAAAAAgk/7DYI2RMVs7I/s1600/EPSON017.jpg#

OMG I so remember this!!!!! Thanks for such a wonderful memory!

Delicious, as I recall. We had the whole series -purchased 1 book at a time in the early '80s from Jewel!

@ Delebre: Thank you!

If you are making these for nostalgic reasons, I think you should use cannabutter. That is all.

OMG! I have this book!

I had that book! I wonder what ever happened to it? I totally remember the Cookie Monster recipe but hadn't thought about it in years until I saw this post. What a trip!

I saw this articale and thought, I HAVE TO HAVE THIS FOR WHEN I HAVE A CHILD. Googled and saw it on sale used on Amazon. Paid a little under $30 including shipping :o)

Sugar cookies recipes and I just don't mix. I can never make any that come out okay and I now I usually try to avoid them, but I soooo have to try these!

Thanks @Delebre!! :)

What happens if you use salted butter? I don't have unsalted at present and I don't want to go to the grocery store

Erm, "baking flour"? :) I believe that would be some baking powder, lol. Love the recipe and image!

Wouldnt it be too hard to roll out if I put it in the freezer though? I want to do cut out shapes for my toddler :)

'Ok...I made this recipe last night and baked the cookies today. This recipe may come from the 1970's but it is a timeless classic. The cookies turned out buttery and light with amazing flavor. Here are some suggestions that helped me. Even if you freeze it just for an hour or refrigerate it do not think to use the dough immediately out of the fridge or freezer as it will be hard to work with. From the freezer transfer it to the fridge for a a bit to thaw, remove it from the plastic wrap and what worked for me was to cut it into 1 inch thick slices. Use one slice at a time while refrigerating the pieces not in use so the dough becomes to soft to work with. Preheat the over 400 degrees and line baking sheets with PARCHMENT paper. I say this because with some cookies you can use wax paper but the first batch stuck. Parchment paper is needed. You can go the old school route with flour and a rolling pin or something that you will not need flour for is by placing the dough between two pieces of parchment paper. You will need to use the rolling pin but placing your hands in the middle as opposed to the outer edges to roll as this dough is not gentle to roll. With the dough between the two pieces of wax paper roll out to 1/4 inch thick and use whatever cookie cutters you have. Bake for about 6 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Let cool. I hope these tips help but this will be my go to recipe as you can do it with one bowl and a fork.

Thank you! These will be fabulous!