{Pudding Cookies}

This is definitely going to be a go to cookie recipe in my house! We loved them. These cookies are thick and chewy in the middle with a perfect light crispy crust on the edges. Not to mention they are ridiculously versatile The recipe suggested anything from peanut butter chips to chopped up Snickers bars. I played it safe for my first attempt and went with your basic chocolate chip cookie. Since this recipe makes so many it would be easy to split the dough at the end and make a few different variations with one batch.

Pudding Cookies

Recipe from Sunday Baker 

Ingredients:

4 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
2 t. baking soda
1-1/2 c butter (3 sticks) softened
1-1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
1/2 c. white sugar
2 (3oz boxes) instant vanilla pudding

4 eggs, room temp
2 t. vanilla extract
4 c. of add-ins
( like chocolate/butterscotch/peanut butter/white chocolate chips, candy bars, m&m's, nuts, etc.)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir together flour and baking soda in separate bowl and set aside; in a large bowl, cream butter, brown and white sugar. Beat in pudding mix until well blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. When smooth, slowly add in the flour mixture. This can take a little while, but make sure it's well incorporated into mix.
Finally, add the "fillers".
I use my cookie scoop so the cookies are all uniform in size and bake evenly.
Bake for 8-12 minutes or until lightly golden.

One of my favorite things about this recipe is how many cookies it makes. I got 5 dozen cookies using my 1 1/2 inch scoop. Since I didn't really want 5 dozen chocolate chip cookies sitting in my kitchen I baked a dozen and then froze the rest.

If you have never tried freezing cookie dough let me try to convince you to start! It is so easy and is such a time saver later when you want some homemade goodness without having to go through all the hassle of baking.

Here's what I do:

Scoop the dough that you want to freeze and place on a cookie sheet. Throw the cookie sheet in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes. This allows the individual balls to freeze so that they dont all stick together.

Now toss them into a Ziploc bag marked with the cooking instructions and freeze. It's that easy! The cooking temp stays the same as the original recipe but since you'll be cooking them from frozen I usually add 2 minutes to the cooking time.

Happy Baking!

~Junkie Sheri