The Giant Cookie

My husband had to leave on a business trip for a couple of days.  So…. I did what any lonely housewife would do.  I invited The Doobie Brothers, Boston and The Eagles over to make cookies.  Actually that’s not completely true.  I invited them to make cookie.  I turned up the sound and mixed, stirred, whipped and rolled to “Listen To The Music”, “Lyin’ Eyes”, and “More Than a Feelin'”.  There’s not much that can beat a great classic rock playlist.  It’s fun.  And since this cookie is fun to make, fun to look at and fun to eat it all worked out.  I just wish they could have gotten better pictures.

This dessert is known simply as The Giant Cookie.  I’ve been making this for over 20 years and it has remained a favorite at our house.   Since I started posting to this blog Keven, my son, has been begging me to post this Giant Cookie recipe.  He has an ulterior motive.  He just wants to eat the spoils of blogging.  Ahh Keven…

This is one of those recipes you can whip up pretty quick and get impressive results.  I have made it often for my kids and their friends on many a weekend night.  It usually supplied the sweet while the bean dip provided the salty.

For this delicious dessert you will need a batch of cookie dough, a small box of instant chocolate pudding, cream cheese at room temperature,  refrigerated whipped topping, whole milk and sugar.  Allow the whipped topping to thaw in the refrigerator to keep it from going runny.

Preheat your oven to 350°.  On a 15″ baking stone or any large sized baking sheet, roll cookie dough to within 1 1/2″ of the sides.  If you go too close to the edge of the pan you will be cleaning up dough that expands and runs off the edge as it bakes. I am working with about 2 cups of cookie dough here.  If you don’t want to make this homemade recipe (which is fabulous for this) pick up a tube of your favorite refrigerated cookie dough.

Put your beautiful Giant Cookie in the oven and set a timer for 14 minutes.  It is usually perfect at 15.  While the cookie is baking combine 1 8oz package of softened cream cheese with 1/3 cup granulated sugar.  Mix until it is perfectly blended and creamy.  Set aside.  By the way… this makes a great fruit dip.  Add a little lemon zest or melted caramel.  This stuff is delicious.  Go ahead and lick the spoon…

Now empty a small package (3.9 ounce) of instant chocolate pudding into a bowl.  I like to have the pudding down in the bowl first since instant pudding can clump a bit.  In fact instant pudding gives me a bit of anxiety–so this is my solution.  Put it in the bowl first.  Measure 1 1/2 cups cold whole milk and with a wire whisk ready slowly pour the milk over the pudding while stirring it with the whisk.  Continue to stir for about 2 minutes or until the pudding is a lovely creamy texture.  Put this in the fridge.  Lick the whisk.   🙂

Well, the cookie is about done.  Grab it out, leave it on the pan, set it on a cooking rack and patiently wait for it to cool.

Here comes some serious fun.  Now that the cookie is cool, spread your delicious cream cheese mixture over the top of the cookie.  Get this right out to the edges.  That way no one dodges the edge pieces.  My son always takes the middle piece.  Always.  Now–here’s a great tip.  Now that the cream cheese base is down–cut the cookie.  Cut it in whatever shapes or sizes you want.  I like using a pizza cutter for this part.  The genius of cutting this dessert now is that when you are all done there is no reason to run a knife through all your hard work.  That just disrupts the appeal of something this enticing and delicious.  Simply loosen a few pieces so that people get the idea.

After pre-cutting your cookies, spread the chocolate pudding on top of the cream cheese mixture.  The pudding is thick by now, so give it a stir and spread it on.  Fill a decorating bag with a small container of whipped topping, like cool whip.  This topping is great to use for projects like this because it holds its form so well.  Decorate to your hearts content.

Sprinkle with chocolate shavings if desired.  Loosen a couple of pieces like we talked about, turn up the music and dig in.   Simple, unique and incredibly delicious.

This makes about 20 large pieces which will serve 10 people nicely or… one 15 year old.