Sesame Street Puppeteer Spills The Secret Behind The Recipe For Cookie Monster’s Cookies

When it comes to cookie lovers, no name is as iconic as the Cookie Monster. The furry blue Sesame Street puppet has been chomping down on cookies since 1969, back when the show first aired on television. Despite being a monster, his insatiable appetite for chocolate chip cookies has won the hearts of kids and adults alike. But where do Cookie Monster’s cookies come from?

According to The New York Times, after three decades of working for The Jim Henson Company, resident puppet wrangler Lara MacLean has revealed that she’s the cookie baker, and even shares the recipe. You’d think that the cookies were delicious the way Cookie Monster devours them, but the actual ingredients aren’t so appetizing. MacLean bakes them at home and says that she uses pancake mix, puffed rice, Grape Nuts, instant coffee, and water for the cookies, and for the chocolate chips, she uses glue. 

She bakes around two dozen before each episode and says that they are “kind of like a dog treat.” David Rudman, who has played Cookie Monster since 2001, told The Times that MacLean’s cookies are “thin enough that it’ll explode into a hundred crumbs” but not “too thin that it’ll break in my hand when I’m holding it.” The crumbly texture of the cookie is what gets laughs from the audience. “If he eats the cookie, and it only breaks into two pieces if it’s too hard, it’s just not funny. It looks almost painful,” Rudman continued. “But if he eats a cookie and it explodes into a hundred crumbs, that’s where the comedy comes from.”

Sadly — or maybe for the best — we won’t get to try Cookie Monster’s beloved chocolate chip cookies any time soon. National Cookie Day is on December 4 though, which means that there will be a lot of cookie deals to bite into, like Subway’s Footlong Cookie.