Image: Baking Basics and Beyond by Pat SinclairI'll just say it: Baking Basics and Beyond: Learn These Simple Techniques and Bake Like a Pro wasn't the most immediately engaging book title to this sweet spy. It sounded slightly generic.

But when I received the book, which had a blurb saying "This is a great book" by pastry royalty Gale Gand, I figured I shouldn't judge a book by its title (the cover image, to be sure, was pretty appealing).

And when I got to the recipes, which were easy to follow and understand, and yielded consistently good results, I figured it was time to tell you-all about the book.

And here's one of my favorite recipes I've tried out so far: Chocolate Monster Cookies. As the headnote says, "we call these 'dishpan' cookies at my house because if you make the whole recipe, you need a dishpan to mix all the ingredients (or a very large bowl)." Now that's a batch of deliciousness!

Here's the recipe, which makes 32 jumbo cookies.

Chocolate Monster Cookies

Ingredients

3 1/3 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
2 cups quick-cook oats
2 cups cornflakes, slightly crushed
2 cups semisweeet chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, M&M's, or a combination of the three

Procedure

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease cookie sheets.
Mix flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a very large bowl.
Beat butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar in the bowl of a heavy duty mixer on medium-high speed until creamy, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice. Add vanilla and eggs; mix well.
Reduce speed to Low and add the flour mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat until dough forms.
Scrape dough back into the very large bowl. Add the oatmeal, cornflakes, and chips and stir until well mixed.
Using a 1/4 cup ice cream scoop or cup measure, drop dough onto cookie sheets. 6 cookies will fit per sheet.
Bake 15-20 minutes, or until set in the center and edges are lightly browned. For softer cookies, reduce bake time slightly. The cookies will still look moist in the center when done. Cool cookies for 1-2 minutes on the sheet before placing on wire racks to cool fully.
These cookies should be stored loosely covered at room temperature.