Gluten Free Monster Cookies are the ultimate cookie mash-up of peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate chips and M&Ms. They're soft, chewy and bake up beautifully every single time.
The Best Type of Oats for Monster Cookies
The kind of oats you select for this recipe are important because not all oats are created equal.
Use quick cooking oats if you want a lighter, softer cookie.
Use old fashioned oats if you prefer heartier, chewier cookies.
Different Types of Oats
The most commonly found oats at the grocery store are instant, quick cooking, old fashioned and steel cut. They're all oats, but they are processed differently.
Instant, quick cooking and old fashioned oats are made by steaming whole oat groats (the grains) to soften them, and then they're rolled into flat flakes. That's where you get the term "rolled oats".
Instant oats are rolled super thin so that they absorb moisture quickly and cook up in an instant.
Quick oats are not quite as thin as instant, but are still pretty thin. They take a minute or two more to cook, and have more texture in comparison.
Old fashioned are the thickest of the three and take longer to cook. They also retain a lot more texture and are heartier after they're cooked.
Steel cut oats, on the other hand, are not steamed or rolled like old-fashioned or quick-cooking oats. Whole oat groats are chopped into smaller pieces using steel blades. This minimal processing retains more of the oat's natural texture and nutritional content and they also take longer to cook.
The different types of oats will yield different results in the final cookies because of how quickly they absorb water and the time they take to cook.
Quick cooking and old fashioned both gave great results depending on your preference for a softer cookie versus a chewier cookie. I prefer the softer, lighter quick oats version. My husband Ryan prefers the old fashioned. It's a house divided.
Instant and steel cut, though, are not recommended and will not perform well with this recipe.
What Makes this Recipe Gluten Free?
This monster cookie recipe is flourless. There is no need for any substitutions as long as your oats are certified gluten free. Bob's Red Mill and many of the organic generic store-brand oats are gluten free. Always check your labels, though.
What Kind of Peanut Butter is in Monster Cookies?
Conventional creamy peanut butter like the popular brands Jif or Skippy is best for this recipe.
I did test out a batch using natural peanut butter. The recipe still essentially works, but the final cookies were a little more crumbly.
How to Get Round Monster Cookies
I like to use a 4'' round cookie cutter and run it in a circular motion around the baked cookies when they're fresh out of the oven. You'll see this in the photos below.
The cookies are still pliable when they come out of the oven, so rounding them with the cookie cutter helps to shore up the edges and make them more uniformly round. It also makes them a little thicker since they spread a bit while they bake.
This isn't a required step and more organic shaped cookies are 100% acceptable!
Gluten Free Monster Cookies
- Prep Time: 20 min
- Cook Time: 1.25hr
- Total Time: 0 hours
- Yield: 33 cookies
- Category: cookies
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: Amercian
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
Gluten Free Monster Cookies are the ultimate cookie mash-up of peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate chips and M&Ms. They're soft, chewy and bake up beautifully every single time.
Ingredients
- 4 ½ cups (350 g) uncooked quick-cooking oats or old-fashioned oats *see note below
- 1.5 tsp (7g) baking soda
- 1 tsp (4g) baking powder
- ½ tsp (3g) fine salt
- ½ cup (113g) unsalted butter, softened
- 1.5 cups (12oz or 340g) creamy peanut butter
- 1 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (150g) packed light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- ½ cup (90g) mini chocolate chips
- ½ cup (100g) multi-colored chocolate candies, plus extra for on top
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Line a half sheet baking pan with parchment paper.
- Combine the oatmeal, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Mix it up and then set aside.
- Combine butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or a large bowl and cream together the ingredients for 2 minutes until fully incorporated. This allows the sugar to dissolve a bit.
- Add the vanilla and eggs to your creamed peanut butter mixture and continue to beat until incorporated.
- Add half the dry oatmeal mixture into the wet ingredients and mix until combined, then add the remaining oatmeal mixture to the wet ingredients to form your dough. Mix for 1 minute to fully incorporate everything and allow the oatmeal to absorb some of the moisture from the dough.
- The dough will be rather tacky if you use quick cooking oats. The dough will be rather wet if you use old fashioned oats.
- Add the chocolate chips and chocolate candies to the dough and fold them in until fully incorporated.
- Scoop out dough balls using a 1.5Tbs cookie scoop and place them on your sheet tray with plenty of space between. Approximately 6 dough balls can fit on a half sheet tray.
- Press more M&M's into the top of the cookies.
- Bake in the preheated 350F degree oven for 10 minutes if you're using quick-cooking oats or 12 minutes if you're using old-fashioned oats. You'll know the cookies are done when they no longer appear wet on the top and they have just the smallest bit of browning around the edges.
- Use a 4'' round cookie cutter to run in a circular motion around the edges of the baked cookies right after they come out of the oven and are still pliable. This will help shore up the edges and thicken up the cookie, too.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the sheet tray for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
Notes
- Quick cooking oats (not instant) will yield softer cookies. Old fashioned oats will yield chewier, heartier cookies.
- Conventional creamy peanut butter in the style of Jif or Skippy is recommended for the best result
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 207
- Sugar: 15.3 g
- Sodium: 147.2 mg
- Fat: 9.3 g
- Carbohydrates: 25.7 g
- Fiber: 1.9 g
- Protein: 4.6 g
- Cholesterol: 24.7 mg
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