Wait, Were Cookie Monster's Cookies Actually Real?

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The chocolate chip cookie — a tiny morsel so relatable that even Google used it to train AI – is a staple so loved that every permutation and addition is welcome, from chewy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to extra-crispy potato chips on top. And it's the favorite food of one of America's beloved creatures — Cookie Monster.

Cookie — who evolved from a voracious monster called the Wheel Stealer that Jim Henson created for General Mills' Wheels, Crowns, and Flutes snacks – is famous for his ferocious appetite for cookies, smashing them into smithereens as he swallows them. Throughout the ages, many have asked: What exactly is Cookie Monster eating? Are those chocolate chip cookies even edible? It turns out the answer is, mostly, yes ... but you might not want to chow down like Cookie does.

Since the 2000s, Lara Maclean (a puppet wrangler) has been baking about two dozen of her creations for each episode of "Sesame Street." Her recipe? "Pancake mix, puffed rice, Grape-Nuts[,] and instant coffee, with water in the mixture. The chocolate chips are made using hot glue sticks — essentially colored gobs of glue" (per The New York Times). 

Maclean described them as "kind of like a dog treat." They need to be fragile enough to shatter in the monster's mouth, but not so breakable that they'll dismantle before that comedic moment. David Rudman, who has played Cookie Monster for over two decades now, said, "... if he eats a cookie and it explodes into a hundred crumbs, that's where the comedy comes from" (via The New York Times).

Nowadays, Cookie Monster doesn't only eat cookies. In 2005, "Sesame Street" kicked off a Healthy Habits for Life initiative. In each episode, a celebrity and a muppet offer advice. In one episode, Michelle Obama and Elmo plan to get lunch at Mr. Hooper's store, walk, and read a book. In another, Ellen Pompeo eats a crunchy apple with Elmo.

Cookie Monster himself sang a song about expanding his palate called "A Cookie is a Sometime Food." At the end of the song, he declares, "Right now is sometime!" and devours a gigantic cookie. 

In 2017, Cookie Monster and his friend Chef Gonger launched Cookie Monster's Foodie Truck. The two monsters take recipe suggestions from kids, but find they're missing an ingredient. Then they travel to real locations to find it, learning about ingredients like prickly pear, honey, and zucchini. 

If you want to celebrate the beloved blue furry foodie, you could try making Cookie Monster Popcorn, covered in blue melted marshmallows and tossed with mini chocolate chip cookies and candy googly eyes, or Cookie Monster's Famous Cookie Dough, published in "Big Bird's Busy Book" in 1975 (via Reddit). 

Just avoid the mistake Adam Sandler made in 2009 on the set of "Sesame Street" when he dug right into one of Cookie Monster's prop cookies. "I think he just got caught up in the moment," Rudman said about the unfortunate incident (via the New York Times).