Cookie

The cookie is an edible item that requires Cocoa Beans to craft, which appear in dungeon chests or on Jungle trees from Cocoa Plants.

Cookies restore 2 Hunger points each. A stack of 32 cookies restores a total of 64 Hunger points (the same amount of hunger points as 16 Cooked Porkchops).

Advantages

 * Cookies are made in stacks of 8 from just a single cocoa bean and two wheat.
 * Since cookies can be stacked into large stacks (of 64 after 1.4 Update), they can be used to quickly restore many hunger points.
 * Cookies recover .  Therefore, they can be eaten without any waste, before the player actually loses healing ability.  Thus players can constantly stay at a high enough hunger level to restore health.
 * Cocoa beans are easy to acquire hanging on jungle trees, and can be farmed on jungle-wood logs.

Disadvantages

 * Cookies have a quite low saturation level compared to "meatier" foods, so their effects tend to be short-lived. As in real life, this is worst when you eat cookies instead of regular food, rather than as an occasional snack.
 * While a single cocoa bean's worth of cookies will restore the hunger meter as much as two cooked porkchops or steaks, it's far quicker to eat 2 items than 8. Also, stack for stack other foods provide far more effect for the inventory space, especially when "saturation" is considered.
 * Melons have a similar food restoration and saturation level, but unlike cookies, can be farmed automatically using a BUD switch. Melons can also be directly crafted into seeds, where as cookies require wheat and cocoa beans.

History
Since their introduction, cocoa beans were arguably the scarcest item in the game, making cookies a rare trophy. However, in version 1.3, the beans became farmable, making cookies a cheap small-change food. Especially with their increased food value, they seem likely to replace melon slices in that role.