These delicious Monster Cookies are the best! So soft, thick and chewy, you won't be able to resist their charm! If you love peanut butter oatmeal cookies loaded up with m&m's and chocolate chips, then these are the cookies for you! We made them special to celebrate the 4th of July! Simple and festive!
We love how easy this recipe is to make and best of all, you do not have to chill your cookie dough beforehand! LOVE when we don't have to chill dough, so we can devour cookies quicker, right? 🙂 We're cookie monsters eating monster cookies without the wait! Ha!
These cookies bake up super thick, plus you have the option to control how thick you want them. We used a cookie scoop
to get evenly sized portions of dough, so when you scoop your dough out you can leave them as actual rounded thick scoops or flatten the tops a little with the back of a spoon or your fingers, depending how you want them to look in the end. The cookies will spread a little but not much. This will also ensure all your cookies bake evenly as well.
They might be called monster cookies because they are the Frankenstein's monster of the cookie world - a mashup of different components or “everything but the kitchen sink” sort of cookies!
However they got their name, they are old-school, traditional cookies that have been around from generation to generation, just like all of your classic chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies and peanut butter cookies you have bookmarked over the years!
There are many variations of Monster cookie recipes that have been developed, some with flour and some without!
Check out Flourless Jumbo Peanut Butter Monster Cookies! {Healthy} and my Monster Nutella and Peanut Butter Cookies, and these Hearty Pumpkin Chai Spiced Oatmeal Cookies (Chocolate Chips & Cranberries included) for some other versions!
With my Reese's Pieces Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies, you could totally add in some m&m's to bring them to monster cookie level deliciousness too!
Cookie Tips!
The cool thing about these cookies is that they are totally adaptable to your tastes and you can go crazy in creating the perfect cookie type for you!
We went light on the oats....so, if you want more oats, add more oats for heartier cookies! We only added in a half cup with a combination of ¼ quick oats and ¼ cup rolled oats! This recipe uses 1 ¼ cup flour + ½ cup oats. So if you want 1 cup of oats, only add ¾ cup of flour, so it totals 1 & ¾ cups of the combination of oats and flour. Old-fashioned rolled oats will have more texture than quick oats, so that's why we did a combination. You can always throw in a tablespoon or 3 more of oats without adjusting the flour measurement as well, without issue.
Peanut butter options! Use creamy, peanut butters, such as Jif, Skippy, Justin's or Peter Pan as others may be too greasy and not play well with the other ingredients!
Same with the m&m's and chocolate chips. Add as much or less to your liking. Other options? Raisins, peanuts, crunch peanut butter, peanut butter chips, mini m&m's, mini chocolate chips, coconut, toffee bits, peanut butter cups, white chocolate chips, dried cherries, seriously, whatever sounds good!
Under bake these slightly. The edges will look just set or a little dry but the middle will still look a little wet. Remove them from the oven and leave them on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes before removing them. They will finish cooking on their own, so there is no risk of overbaking. Trust this!
You can prepare the cookie dough and refrigerate for up to 3 days before baking. When ready, let it sit on the counter for about 30 minutes before scooping and proceeding with baking.
These cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
You can freeze the baked cookies by wrapping them individually in plastic wrap, then place them in a zip lock bag and freeze for up to 3 months. You can also roll the raw cookie dough balls and freeze them for up to 2 months. Bake for an extra minute or two!
More Festive Party Desserts?
Funfetti Party Cookie Bars
Leftover Candy Cookie Pie
Retro Red White and Blue Explosion Cake
Birthday Confetti Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars
Monster and Mummy Chocolate Covered Graham Cracker Cookies
23 Delicious Ways M&M's Will Melt Your Heart {and Not Melt In Your Hands}
Best Monster Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- ½ cup peanut butter we used Jif no sugar added, it's delicious! Can also use crunchy
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 ¼ cups flour
- ½ cup quick oats or old-fashioned rolled oats use gluten-free oats if desired
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup m&m candies we used red white and blue! Add more to the tops before baking!
- ½ cup milk chocolate chips we used ChocZero milk chocolate chips
- Other add-ins: raisins nuts, dried fruits, peanut chocolate chips, etc.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Using a mixer, cream together the butter, peanut butter, and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add to the creamed mixture and beat until well combined.
- Stir in the m&m candies and chocolate chips and any other add-ins you want.
- Using a 2 tablespoon scoop or drop spoonfuls of dough onto baking sheet 2 inches apart and flatten slightly with the back of a spoon or leave as is if you want thicker. Bake for 11-12 minutes. If smaller 1 tablespoon cookies, 8 minutes, if larger cookie scoop (¼ cup), 15-18 minutes.
- Let the cookies set on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes to set up before transferring to a wire cooling rack. Cookies will crumble if moved before setting up time. Enjoy!!!
Catherine says
Oh man are these Monster Cookies ever chock-full of goodness! What an absolute treat!
Laura says
Kim, I love monster cookies, and these look so scrumptious and festive! I love such an easy recipe, too!