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I had never heard of a monster cookie until a few months ago when my sister-in-law, Amy, told me about how much she liked them. “Interesting,” I thought, but I had never seen nor tried a monster cookie, so I wasn’t quite sold on the concept yet.
Fast forward a few months, I have since seen monster cookie mixes on grocery store shelves, and my sister-in-law made me an official batch to try. The monster cookies were so good that I promptly asked for her recipe and permission to share her recipe on my blog. She agreed.
Today, you’re in luck! I’m going to share Amy’s Gluten-Free Monster Cookie Recipe – one that I think you’re going to make time and time again and one that I know you’ll love eating too!
What Are Monster Cookies?
I honestly have no idea how monster cookies got their name or who was the first to coin the term, “Monster cookies,” but I can tell you that a monster cookie is pretty much an “everything” cookie.
It contains oats, peanut butter, chocolate chips and M&Ms. You throw it all together with a few other ingredients and voila, you’ve got yourself a monster cookie.
If I’m not mistaken, you can add any filling to a monster cookie. If you like nuts, add nuts. If you want to add more M&Ms, add M&Ms. There are no rules when it comes to which fillings you add to your own monster cookie recipe and how much you add (please don’t overstuff the dough with goodies because the cookies won’t hold together – see below).
How to Make Gluten-Free Monster Cookies
Amy’s Gluten-Free Monster Cookies recipe is quite simple and straightforward (and a lot of fun to make).
First you need to assemble all your ingredients. You’ll need butter, eggs, brown and white sugar, smooth peanut butter, baking soda, vanilla, gluten-free oats, chocolate chips and [peanut] M&Ms.
Please note that I used gluten-free rolled oats by Bob’s Red Mill. These oats are gluten-free and safe for someone following a gluten-free diet. Oats are naturally gluten-free, however, they are notoriously cross contaminated with wheat during the growing, harvesting and manufacturing process. You must get gluten-free oats only – see my article, Are Oats Gluten-Free?, to better understand why not all oats are gluten-free.
To make the dough, you’ll first cream together the butter, sugars, peanut butter and eggs, then add the baking soda, vanilla and oats. Once everything is mixed together well, you’ll mix in the chocolate chips and [peanut] M&Ms by hand.
As tempting as the dough looks, remember it has raw egg in it so don’t eat it until the cookie is baked through.
Next, you’ll want to form the dough into small 1-2″ in cookies. I like to make sure each cookie has two M&Ms in each, if possible.
You can leave them in balls or even slightly flatten the dough so they bake evenly. Bake them for 10-11 minutes at 350º F until cooked through. Do not brown or overbake them.
Look how pretty they look!
A good, gluten-free monster cookie will be soft baked, peanut buttery and loaded with all sorts of chocolate goodies.
I will warn, however, that I’ve gotten carried away on adding too many M&Ms. I know, I know, there is NO such thing as too many M&Ms. However, when you’re trying to get the dough balls to stick together, and too many M&Ms are preventing you from doing that, I assure you, there is such a thing as too many M&Ms.
Whip up a batch and let me know what you think. I’d love to know!
Don’t Feel Like Baking?
If you don’t feel like baking your own monster cookies from scratch, try Meli’s Monster Cookies Gluten-Free Cookie Mix. The dry ingredients are already assembled and all you have to add is the egg, peanut butter and butter.
I had the opportunity to try Meli’s Monster Cookies (the company sent me a box) and I can attest that they are darn good! You can get them on Amazon or at Walmart.
Gluten-Free Monster Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup butter softened
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup smooth peanut butter
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups gluten-free rolled oats
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup M&Ms
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350º F and line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In your standing mixer using the paddle attachment, combine butter, brown sugar, white sugar, peanut butter and eggs. Cream together for 45 seconds. Add baking soda, vanilla and oats until well combined. Fold in (by hand) chocolate chips and M&Ms.
- Roll dough into 1.5-2" dough balls and place about 2" apart on baking sheet. Bake for 10-11 minutes until cooked through (working in batches). The cookies are better slightly underdone than overdone, so watch the baking time carefully.
Notes
- The dough freezes well, so feel free to double and save the dough for a rainy day.
- The cookies taste best right out of the oven. We like to bake a few cookies for dessert each night vs. bake up the entire batch.
- To make it dairy-free, use dairy-free chocolate chips and omit M&Ms (sub walnuts or another dairy-free chocolate candy).
- I have not tried making this recipe vegan, but if you do (no eggs or butter), let me know how it goes.
- Store gluten-free monster cookies in a airtight bag until gone.
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