Many years ago, before Levain, the thick chocolate chip cookies everyone raved about were Carol's and Selma's. Carol's are still available, but Selma's was acquired by Byrd's and the legendary cookies with a texture like no other are no longer available at Disney. This recipe is one I came up with many years ago to try to replicate Selma's.
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Selma's were made with margarine, and I put a margarine version in the notes. Unfortunately margarine has changed since then and has more water. You most definitely will NOT get the same results with regular grocery store brands. I think the old ones, like most commercial cookies, were made with special margarines available to professional bakers. They are formulated with palm oil and other things that affect flavor and texture. I used Plugra because the cookies made with it were coming out thicker.
Old Post
I'm not sure if they are still available, but back around 2009 Disney Parks sold Minnie's Bakeshop Chocolate Chip Cookies. Prior to that, the Disney cookies were called Selma's, but it seems Disney put their stamp on the cookies so Minnie could get the credit. Whatever the story, I loved those cookies and tried to make similar ones at home. I posted this copycat in 2010, and while I don't think it's really that much like Minnie's Bakeshop, people seem to like the cookies.
The cookies are large. Each ball of dough should weigh a little over 4 ½ oz. I almost always chill the dough, but if you don't have time you don't have to. Using a ton of chocolate chips and nuts will give you thicker cookies. I use almost 2 cups of candy per 6 cookies, so basically these are candy with dough wrapped around.
Update: In 2017 Disney Parks posted a similar cookie recipe, though the cookies are smaller and thinner and not really anything like the old Selma's or Minnie's Bakeshop.
If you are not satisfied with how thick these are, here's another big fat cookie recipe you can play with.
Recipe
Minnie's Bakeshop Cookie Copy Cats
Ingredients
- 1 stick cold butter 114 grams, cut into chunks, try Plugra
- ½ cup light brown sugar 100 grams
- 6 tbsp powdered sugar 40 gram
- 2 tbs lightly beaten egg 25 grams total**
- 1 T. water
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ⅓ cups all purpose flour 6 oz/170 grams
- ½ scant teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup walnuts broken up but practically whole
- 2 cups assorted chips like semisweet, bittersweet, white, butterscotch, M&Ms Seems like a lot, but works.
Instructions
- Cream the butter and both sugars using high speed of an electric mixer. Scrape bowl.
- Crack the egg into a bowl and beat with a fork. Measure out 2 tablespoons of egg.
- Add the 2 tablespoons egg, the water and the vanilla to the sugar mixture and beat just until blended. Scrape sides of bowl again. Thoroughly stir together the salt, baking soda and flour. Add to the dough and stir until it’s almost mixed in. Add the chips and candy and continue stirring until flour mixture disappears.
- Scoop the dough into 6 large scoops. If you want more rounded looking cookies, make the scoops/balls very compact. If you want scraggly cookies, don't shape the balls as tight. Chill the scoops for several hours on a plate.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Bake the cookies in a well-preheated 375 degree oven for about 18 minutes. Pull sheet from oven. Using a spatula, push the cookies inward to make them fatter (taller, less wide). ! Let cool on the baking sheet until they are just slightly warm, then transfer to the freezer and freeze until ready to serve. Thaw and serve.
Kathy says
forgot my email before...
Kathy says
This is it! These are the cookies I've been trying (and failing) to make for years! Thanks so much!
Actually I'm not so sure this was a favor, seeing as now I'll be eating WAY too many cookies.
Jennifer says
I agree with Anna about the pretzel M&M's, they don't have much pretzel flavor. Oddly, the pretzel part just adds crunch and texture, it doesn't really taste "pretzel-y."
Sue says
I made the gigantic cookies as originally posted. They're definitely gigantic! They turned out great! Thank you! I may even come out of blogger hiding and post pictures later!
Anna says
Well, enough people asked for it that I'm going to share it ;). And thanks to all of you for helping me not feel like a "heretic" (Rachel, have you been watching The Tudors???) for using margarine. LOL.
Here’s the margarine version of the recipe. It's very similar to the version above, but doesn't involve creaming the sugar. You mix the dry ingredients, then pour in a mixture of cool margarine, water, egg and vanilla.
This recipe makes 4 to 5 gigantic cookies. You might want to bake just 1 first to get the timing just right. For me, about 18-19 minutes at 350 works. The cookies should be slightly underbaked on the inside. It's important to let them cool completely before serving.
Giant Cookies with Margarine (but I've tested with butter and it works -- European style works best)
4 ounces margarine, melted and cooled
2 tablespoons beaten egg
1 tablespoon water
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 oz all purpose flour (1 1/3 cup fluffed up and scooped)
1/4 scant teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
6 tablespoons powdered sugar
2/3 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips – or whatever candies you want
Don’t preheat oven yet because dough requires chilling.
Melt the margarine in the microwave and let it cool for about 20 minutes. It needs to be close to room temperature. I’ve cheated and put it in the refrigerator for a few minutes to speed the cooling. When margarine is cool, using a fork, beat in the water, egg and vanilla. Set aside.
Mix the flour, salt, baking soda, brown sugar and powdered sugar together in a mixing bowl using the back of the spoon and breaking up the brown sugar as much as you can to remove any lumps. When thoroughly mixed, make a well in the center.
Pour margarine mixture into well and gently mix dry ingredients until almost fully blended. Pour in the chocolate chips. Chill dough for about 20 minutes or until it is firm enough to scoop.
When dough is thick, use an ice cream scooper to scoop up 4-5 big circles. Chill the circles for at least 5 hours.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Bake the cookies. Stack two cookie sheets on top of each other. Set the cookies a few inches apart on the top sheet. Put the cookies in the oven, reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake for 15 minutes. Pull sheet from oven. Using a spatula, push the cookies inward to make them fatter (taller, less wide). Return to oven and bake for another 3 minutes or until cookies appear just set. Don’t overcook! They’ll still look a little underdone, but that’s how they’re supposed to look. Let the cookies cool for several hours.
Also, freezing improves the texture of these cookies. You can skip that step if you want, but I’ve been throwing the cookies in the freezer, thawing them and serving them thawed.
Yvonne says
Hi Anna,
Would you share the margarine recipe with me, please? Do you think a recipe using half butter and half margarine would work?
PS--I am relieved to see that "liver treats" were not part of the ingredients list!!! (-:
Yvonne
-=^..^=-
C L says
These look absolutely sinful...must make these very soon. Chocolate chips and M&Ms...sigh of contentment. 🙂 This will give me a reason to use the Tear-and-Share packet of M&Ms in the freezer that I have been saving for some special reason. Cookie baking is a special reason, right? 😉
Rachel says
Margarine really isn't heretical; I find it does give the best texture to some chewy cookies. I always keep a pound of Land O' Lakes in the fridge. High quality margarine--not a watery spread--is the key.
Katrina says
Kevin's favorite M&M's are the almond ones, too. He always gets a big bag full in his stocking. I bought a 3 lb. bag of the pretzel M&M's (for the birthday a few weeks ago). They are not our favorite, but kind of fun. Kevin collects M&M dispensers, so we have to try all the new ones that come out. Plain are still my favorite.
Sue says
I'm glad you commented about the pretzel m&m's. I haven't seen them yet, and if I get around to trying these cookies I was thinking of subbing some pretzels and regular m&m's. Now I feel even more okay about doing that.
In the recipe you wrote an amount for the chocolate chips. Does that include the amount for all the add ins?
I also love m&m almonds above all the others. I recently purchased some pb m&m's and kept thinking they don't have as much pb flavor as Reese's pieces but maybe that's my imagination?
Carol says
I would also like the margarine recipe. I haven't seen the M & M pretzels. I'll have to watch for them. Thanks!
Barbara says
I've never had the pretzel M & M's. Will keep an eye out for them in the market.
Love your cookie recipe and the inspiration from Minnie Mouse! The bigger the better as far as I'm concerned!
Interesting liver treats in your last photo. 🙂
Stacie @ Imperfectly Healthy says
I can always fit a 1/4 lb cookie in my life! The texture on these sound really good!
And as for m&ms, nothing can top the peanut butter ones, in my opinion! 🙂
Louise says
I used to love M&Ms and ate a handful every day. When they added "blue", I went cold turkey and gave them up. The only ones I sometimes eat are holiday ones and, of course, "Greenies". 🙂
Lisa Ernst says
Anna, the German Chocolate Chip cookie on the Disney blog looked like it was even bigger than a Levain. Maybe that was an optical illusion. It was so high -- not like any cookie I've seen before. That is part of the intrigue along with that coconut topping.
Pam says
Anna,
I totally agree with you -- Almond M & Ms are the best! I can't eat the peanut ones after discovering the Almond flavor because the peanuts always told old, bordering on rancid, to me.
Anna says
I love M&Ms. My favorite are the almond. I even wear an M&Ms t-shirt around town. I have to say, though -- the Pretzel M&Ms are not my thing. I didn't think they had much flavor and buying them made me feel like a big sucker because ounce for ounce pretzels are a lot cheaper than chocolate or nuts and I noticed M&Ms didn't make the packages bigger or decrease the price. I'd rather just mix half a bag of plain M&Ms with some mini pretzels and throw them in a bowl.
Katrina says
I like the pretzel M&M's. They are big though. Round but about the same size as peanut M&M's. They are lower in fat than M&M's because most of it is a pretzel and not chocolate! 😉
Anna says
The German Chocolate cookie was about the same size. I think the only difference between it and the chocolate chip was dark brown sugar in the dough and maybe some other extracts or flavorings.
Anna says
I like Smart Balance and I Can't Believe it's Not Butter baking sticks, but I think those are in a different category than inexpensive margarine. I think both products would work, but I wanted to do my initial testing with the type of margarine I believed mass produced cookies are made with.
It would be interesting to see what the Smart Balance and ICBINB cookies are like.
Anna says
Anna, I'm making the margarine version again this morning for a re-test. I'll either email it to you or post it.
Anna says
I would also like the margarine recipe - I'd love to do a comparison test. What did you think of the pretzel M&M's? Are they big like the peanut M&M's?
Ginny Kochis says
I was going to say the same thing as Laura, only that Smart Balance is trans-fat free as well. Is that not considered margarine? I know you can bake with it if you use the full-fat version.
Lisa Ernst says
Anna, I take it you are developing this cookie dough also as a base for the German Chocolate Chip cookie? That one is even bigger isn't it? Like half a pound? Ha! Can't wait to see what you come up with....
stephanie says
I would love the margarine recipe. My son is allergic to dairy, so we use the earth balance spread. It doesn't work the same as butter, so I would love to try it with this recipe. Thanks!
Erin says
Hi Anna,
I love your blog! I've never commented before, but I would love to make two requests for some day(s) if you're at a loss for ideas :).
French Macaroons (maybe pistachio flavored?? those are my favorite but they seem so complicated to make!)
Something like the Mother's Taffy Cookies.
Thanks for making my mouth water on a daily basis!
Erin
Shannon says
Caught me off-guard when I saw the liver treats next to the cookies...ha ha ha
Laura E. says
Earth Balance has no hydrogenated oils - or is it not considered margarine?
http://www.earthbalancenatural.com/#/products/vegan-sticks/
Linda says
Ummm, Anna, you didn't slip any of the Bil-Jac Liver Treats (or "Festines du Foie Pour Chiens" as the package says, which sounds *so* much better than "Liver Treats") into those cookies, did you? I haven't seen the new pretzel M&Ms, but here's my question - when I have added regular M&Ms to cookies, they always seem to dry out quite a bit in the baking process, and get hard and somewhat unpleasant. Since I have a bag of M&Ms left over from Christmas, I was thinking of adding them to cookies, but want to avoid the result I've had in the past. Any suggestions or comments?
Katrina says
While we were in Utah in March, I wanted to make my SIL and her family my favorite ccc's and all she had was margarine. So I made them anyway, and they actually were pretty good. Shh. 😉 But like you, I just can't really bring myself to buy margarine, even though that's also what I grew up on--it's so cheap!
Katrina says
Uh, you baked and posted the new Pretzel M&M's before I did. 😉
I actually made some cookies with them last week, I just hadn't posted them yet.
These cookies look great. Gotta get me (ok, and the kids, too) to Disney! Just saw on the Disney Food Blog today some huge killer rice crispy treats, too--you'll never guess how they were shaped? I liked that they were dipping them in all kinds of things with all kinds of sprinkles and such.
Yep, gotta get me to Disney!
Anna says
Dani, I have to do some more research on the subject, but I think your margarine might be different than ours. Ours has trans-fat which is why I try to avoid using it. However, back when people thought it was a healthful alternative to butter, margarine was all my mom kept in the house and it was all I ever baked with. I think margarine gives certain baked goods interesting textural properties, but I try to avoid using it these days. I wish they'd make it free of trans-fat, but then I supposed it wouldn't be the same.
clumbsycookie says
They're big as Minnie's ears!!!
dani says
i always bake with margerine.... it's the norm here in newfoundland, and my baked goods are pretty pleasing 🙂
Sue says
I love your props with the cookies! 🙂
The cookies look HUGE! That Minnie Mouse is one smart cookie to get such talented people to do her baking for her!!