A ‘Sesame Street’ puppet wrangler says she bakes real cookies for Cookie Monster, though you probably wouldn’t want to eat them

• It turns out Cookie Monster is chomping down on real cookies when he’s on-screen.
• Lara MacLean, who bakes the cookies, shared her recipe with The New York Times.
• But you probably wouldn’t want to make a batch of those once you find out the ingredients.

Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster really loves his namesake treats, but you’d probably lose your appetite once you find out the recipe for it.

Lara MacLean has been a “puppet wrangler” for The Jim Henson Company for three decades, per The New York Times. The company’s co-founder, Jim Henson, created the furry character in 1966 for a General Foods Canada commercial.

According to MacLean, the cookies are made using pancake mix, puffed rice, Grape Nuts, instant coffee, and water. But she told The Times that she uses glue to make the “chocolate chips” seen on the cookies.

MacLean, who bakes the cookies at her own home, said in the interview that the cookies were “kind of like a dog treat.” She says she makes a fresh batch of around two dozen cookies ahead of each episode’s filming.

Though the cookies aren’t exactly edible, David Rudman, who has been playing Cookie Monster since 2001, is all praise for MacLean’s recipe.

Rudman 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.”

A crumbling cookie, according to Rudman, is just what you need to elicit laughter 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 told The Times.

“But if he eats a cookie and it explodes into a hundred crumbs, that’s where the comedy comes from,” he continued.

Representatives for The Jim Henson Company did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.