Monster Cookies — The Gluten Free Cookie My Crowd Fights Over
The Only Thing Scary About These Is How Fast They Get Eaten
Monster cookies are the cookie my crowd asks for by name — peanut butter, quick oats, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and a big scoop of M&M’s, all stirred together in one bowl. Some people call them kitchen sink cookies, because you truly just add everything. We have always called them monster cookies, and they are one of Jason’s favorites, which is why they are the first thing I make when we start packing for beach week. Here is the part that surprises people every time: there is no flour in this recipe at all, so they come out naturally gluten free.
🍰 This one’s in my collection of desserts for a crowd — the ones that travel well and feed a lot of people.
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Watch me make these monster cookies from start to finish — or scroll down for the full printable recipe card.
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Monster Cookies
Start CookingIngredients
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- 5 tablespoons salted butter softened
- ¾ teaspoon white Karo syrup light corn syrup
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder or 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 3 cups quick oats certified gluten free if needed
- 1 ½ ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 ½ ounces white chocolate chips
- ¾ cup M&M’s
Don’t Want to Plan? I Got You.Every Saturday I share a full week of dinners, sides, and a dessert — with the grocery list already done. Come grab this week’s Weekly Meal Plans!Equipment
Method Start Cooking
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Add the eggs, brown sugar, granulated sugar, softened butter, Karo syrup, vanilla, peanut butter, and baking powder to one large bowl. There is no creaming and no separate bowls in this recipe — everything goes in together.
- Add the quick oats, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and M&M’s to the same bowl.
- Mix everything together until the batter is well combined. It will look like a big mishmash, and that is exactly right.
- Scoop the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet with a cookie scoop, then press each one down slightly to flatten. They are a thick, gooey cookie, and flattening helps them bake evenly.
- Bake at 350°F for 8 to 10 minutes. They will still look very soft and a little underdone when you pull them out.
- Leave the cookies on the sheet to cool. They set up and firm as they cool.
Nutrition
Video
Notes
Four Weeks of Family-Friendly FoodWhen people gather, I cook. Four weeks of the dinners my crowd asks for — planned, tested, and shopped for. Come see what’s in the cookbook →Why These Monster Cookies Work
What I love about monster cookies is that there is no method to keep track of. No creaming the butter and sugar. No mixing the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and folding them in. You just add it all, and then you mix it all. Every single time I make these I think about how many cookie recipes make you dirty three bowls to get to the same place.
The reason it holds together without any flour is the eggs and a full cup of peanut butter doing the work a flour would normally do. That is also why these are a thick, gooey, substantial cookie instead of a thin crispy one — three cups of quick oats and a cup of peanut butter make a dough that is more like a batter with a lot going on in it. Do not skip either one, and do not be tempted to cut back on the peanut butter.
The other reason these live in my rotation is that beach week is a splurge week around here. Jason is not going to be dieting, at least not on any regular basis, so I make the cookie he loves and I load it with the white chocolate chips that are his favorite. They travel beautifully in a snap-lid container, and they are always the first thing gone.
A Few Things That Make Monster Cookies Even Easier
- Always pack your brown sugar. That is my motto and it matters here. A cup of loosely spooned brown sugar is noticeably less sugar than a cup packed down, and in a cookie with no flour to balance it, you will feel the difference.
- Set the butter somewhere warm while you measure everything else. Five tablespoons of cold butter will fight you in a bowl this full. I set mine near the stove while I work through the rest of the ingredients and by the time I get to it, it stirs right in.
- Use a cookie scoop and then flatten them a little. These are already a thick, gooey cookie, so I press each scoop down slightly with the back of the scoop or my fingers. It helps them bake evenly all the way through instead of staying raw in the middle.
- Do both kinds of chips. The recipe calls for three ounces of chocolate chips, and I split that — a sprinkle of semi-sweet and then some white chocolate chips because those are Jason’s favorite. Nobody in this house has ever complained about getting both.
- Pull them when they still look underdone. This is the tip people do not believe until they try it. At eight to ten minutes they will look soft and a little raw in the middle, and that is exactly right. They set up and firm as they cool on the pan. If you bake them until they look done in the oven, you have overbaked them.
Monster Cookies FAQ — The Questions I Get Every Time
What temperature and how long do I bake monster cookies?
Bake at 350°F for 8 to 10 minutes on an ungreased cookie sheet. They will still look very soft and a little underdone when you pull them out, and you should pull them anyway. These cookies finish setting up as they cool on the pan, so leave them there and let them firm up before you move them.
Are monster cookies really gluten free?
There is no flour in this recipe at all, so yes, nothing in it is a gluten-containing ingredient. But I want to be careful here, because oats are only gluten free if they are certified gluten free. Oats themselves do not contain gluten, but they are usually grown, processed, and hauled alongside wheat, so standard quick oats are not safe for someone with celiac disease. The Celiac Disease Foundation explains the oat question well if you want to read more. If you are baking for somebody who truly needs gluten free, buy oats labeled certified gluten free and you are fine. And just so we are clear, gluten free is not sugar free or fat free!
Can I use baking soda instead of baking powder?
You can. The recipe as it was handed to me calls for a teaspoon and a quarter of baking soda, but I use two and a half teaspoons of baking powder instead, and that is what you will see me reach for in the video. Either one works in these cookies. Use whichever one is already in your cabinet.
Can I make the dough ahead of time or freeze it?
Yes to both. The dough keeps covered in the refrigerator for up to three days, though it firms up cold so let it sit out a bit before you try to scoop it. For the freezer, I scoop the dough onto a sheet, freeze the balls solid, then bag them — they will keep about three months and you can bake them straight from frozen with an extra minute or two. Baked cookies also freeze well, which is honestly how a lot of them survive long enough to make it into the beach bag.
Why are my cookies falling apart?
Almost always one of two things. Either the peanut butter got cut back or swapped for something thinner and runnier, or the cookies got moved off the hot pan too early. With no flour in the bowl, the eggs and the peanut butter are the entire structure of this cookie, and they need those few minutes of cooling on the sheet to finish setting.
Can I change up the chips and the candy?
That is the whole spirit of a monster cookie, so absolutely. Three quarters of a cup of M&M's is what makes them fun and colorful, but peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, chopped peanuts, or plain old chocolate chips all work. Keep the total amount of add-ins about the same as the recipe calls for and you will be fine — pile in too much and the dough runs out of anything to hold it together.
How do I make monster cookies for a bigger crowd?
One batch makes about thirty cookies with a standard cookie scoop, which covers most of what I need. When I am feeding a real crowd or sending some home with people, I double it — but I mix it in two separate bowls rather than one giant one, because six cups of oats does not stir well no matter how big your bowl is. Bake one tray at a time in the center of the oven for the most even results.
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Ingredients
Equipment
More Cookie Recipes You’ll Love
- Mama’s Peanut Butter Crisscross Cookies — same one-bowl, peanut butter spirit, with a fork and ten minutes in the oven.
- No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies — oats and chocolate again, except this time the oven never comes on.
- Chewy Oatmeal Cookie Bars — my most requested cookie of all, out of one of my mom’s ancient cookbooks.
- Soft Chewy Molasses Cookies — warm, spiced, and no chilling required, which is why I make them year round.
- Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars — when you want the chocolate chip cookie without scooping a single one.
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Monster Cookies — About Stephanie’s Recipes
Stephanie Longstreth is the home cook, mom, and storyteller behind StephanieCooksForACrowd.com. She cooks for a family of seven in Florida — five kids, two cats, and one husband who appreciates a good meal. Four of her children came home through adoption, and family stories are woven into everything she makes and shares. Find her crowd-friendly recipes, weekly meal plans, and real family life on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest @stephaniecooksforacrowd.