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This simple and customizable recipe for gluten free monster cookies is packed with peanut butter, oats, and chocolate. Plus, they're made without any rice flour or flour blend at all.
my take
Nicole's Recipe Notes
- Perfect texture: Hearty and chewy with a crisp edge, but not fragile at all because of the combination of quick cooking oats and oat flour and an extra egg yolk.
- Tons of flavor: A rich combination of smooth peanut butter with chocolate candy pieces and the sweet, nutty flavor of oats.
- Quick and easy: No need to chill the raw cookie dough before shaping and baking it, so it goes right in the oven.
what's in it
Recipe ingredients
- Gluten free quick oats – Since these are gluten free monster cookies, be sure to use gluten free oats. You can begin with rolled certified gluten free oats and process them briefly in a blender or food processor, or buy gluten free quick oats, which are already more processed.
- Oat flour – Since this recipe also has quick oats which have texture, we don't need a very smooth, sifted oat flour. Rather than buying oat flour like I do for my oat flour brownies, I just grind some of my old fashioned or gluten free quick oats into oat flour in a blender or food processor.
- Butter – Your butter should be at “room temperature,” which means that you can leave a fingerprint in it, but your finger doesn't come away greasy
- Gluten free peanut butter – I love baking with no-stir smooth peanut butter, since it combines so well with other ingredients, much like room temperature butter does. I usually buy Skippy brand.
- Eggs – We use 1 whole egg for lift and as a binder, and 1 egg yolk, which helps soften the cookies' texture (peanut butter tends to make baked goods crunchy)
- Light brown sugar – Light brown sugar has more moisture from the added molasses than granulated sugar; it tenderizes cookies and adds depth of flavor
- Chocolate chips and mini M&Ms – Some people make monster cookies with regular size M&Ms, but I really prefer semi-sweet chocolate chips, and miniature M&Ms for added texture and flavor.
How to make gluten free monster cookies
- First, mix the dry ingredients (oat flour, quick gluten free oats, baking soda and salt) in a separate bowl.
- Mix the butter, gluten free peanut butter, egg and egg yolk, vanilla and brown sugar separately. This makes it easier to get the lumps out of the brown sugar.
- Add the oat and oat flour mixture to the wet ingredients.
- Mix the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined.
- Add the chips and candies, and mix again gently to combine.
- Scoop the dough into mounds with a medium ice cream scoop placed about 2 inches apart from one another. Aim to make the pieces of dough about 2 1/2 tablespoons each.
- With wet fingers, press the cookie dough into disks about 1/2-inch thick
- Bake at 350°F/177°C for about 14 minutes or until the cookies are lightly brown on the edges and the cookies look crackled on top.
- Allow the cookies to set on the baking sheet for a few minutes before moving them, or they'll fall apart. After cooling, the cookies are very stable.
My Pro Tip
Expert Tips
Combine oats and oat flour
Baking with oats (which substitute for oats, if you're unable or unwilling to eat them!) can be tricky. Old fashioned rolled oats, which are one of the least processed forms of oats, are relatively thick.
One way to make a stable cookie that holds together is to add a rice flour blend to it. But like in our oatmeal breakfast cookies, here I simply ground some old fashioned rolled oats into a flour in a food processor and added that to the recipe.
The rest of the oats in this recipe are quick-cooking oats. Rather than buying gluten free quick oats, I usually just pulse old-fashioned oats a few times very quickly in a food processor.
Portion with an ice cream scoop
Right after the dough is assembled, scoop large rounded balls of dough using a spring-loaded ice cream scoop that's packed tight to help create a round shape. If you have trouble getting the cookie dough out of the scooper, rinse it with warm water in between scoops.
Use no-stir peanut butter
Truly all natural peanut butter that requires stirring is usually too oily for baking, and tends to separate in the cookie dough. No-stir peanut butter has emulsifiers that keep the oil mixed in to the nut butter.
Don't mix too much
When baking with oat flour especially, the baked goods can become tough if you work the batter or dough too hard. This way, the oats can be handled much less when everything is combined.
substitutions
Ingredient substitutions
Dairy-free
The only dairy in these cookies is from the unsalted butter and the M&Ms chocolate candies. The M&Ms can easily be replaced with more chocolate chips, and you can of course use dairy free chocolate chips.
You should be able to use Melt or Miyoko's Kitchen brand vegan butter. You can also try replacing the butter with virgin coconut oil. It's the type that's solid at cool room temperature.
Egg-free
The single whole egg in this recipe should be able to be replaced with 1 “chia egg” (1 tablespoon ground white chia seeds + 1 tablespoon lukewarm water, mixed and allowed to gel).
The egg yolk is in the recipe for moisture, so you can try replacing it with about a tablespoon or so of smooth applesauce.
Peanut butter-free
If you need to make this recipe without gluten free peanut butter, I'm sure a similar style of almond butter (like Barney Butter) would work great. I also have a recipe for Nutella monster cookies that is peanut-free.
If you need the recipe to be nut-free, you can try replacing the nut butter with Wowbutter, made with toasted soy nuts, which seems nice and creamy. You could also try sunflower seed butter, but your cookies may spread more, and they may even turn a harmless green color when mixed with baking soda.
Oat-free
In baking, oat flour can often be replaced with quinoa flakes, and old-fashioned oats can be replaced with beaten rice or sometimes coconut flakes/chips. For more information, see our post on how to substitute for oats.
Gluten-Free Monster Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup (120 g) oat flour, (certified gluten free if necessary) (See Recipe Notes)
- 1 ½ cups (150 g) quick cooking oats, or rolled oats, processed slightly in a food processor or blender (certified gluten free if necessary) (See Recipe Notes)
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 tablespoons (56 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ½ cup (128 g) smooth, no-stir peanut butter, the kind that doesn't separate in the jar
- 1 (50 g (weighed out of shell)) egg, beaten, at room temperature
- 1 (25 g) egg yolk, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (218 g) packed light brown sugar
- 5 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 5 ounces miniature M&Ms chocolate candies, (gluten free in the U.S.)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper and set it aside.
- In a medium-size bowl, place the oat flour, oats, baking soda, and salt, and whisk to combine. Set the bowl aside.
- In a large bowl, place the butter, peanut butter, egg and egg yolk, vanilla, and brown sugar, and mix well. Add the oat flour mixture to the large bowl, and mix until just combined.
- Add the chocolate chips and M&Ms candies and mix until the pieces are evenly distributed throughout the dough. The dough will be thick but should not be stiff.
- Using a spring-loaded ice cream scoop or two spoons and scoop the dough into mounds about 2 1/2 tablespoons each onto the prepared baking sheet, about 2 inches apart from one another.
- Using wet fingers, press each mound down into a disk about 1/2-inch thick.
- Place the baking sheet in the preheated oven and bake for 12 to 14 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly brown around the edges, set in the center and the top of each cookie has taken on a crackled appearance.
- Allow the cookies to sit on the baking sheet for 10 minutes or until set. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.
- These cookies also freeze amazingly well in a sealed freezer-safe container.
Video
Notes
I don't often buy oat flour or even quick-cooking oats. For gluten free quick oats, I just process old-fashioned rolled oats in a food processor or blender for a few pulses. You can make oat flour by grinding rolled oats quite a bit more, and that's perfect for a recipe like this. I do buy oat flour when I need a very finely ground, sifted product. Nutrition information. Nutrition information is an estimate, per cookie, based on information from an online calculator. It is provided as a courtesy and should not be relied upon.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
make ahead/leftovers
Storage instructions
Monster cookies are really stable and stay fresh for days in a sealed glass container at room temperature.
For longer storage, freeze them in a freezer safe zip-top bag and enjoy them right from the freezer, or warmed up a bit in the microwave or on the counter.
You can make this gluten free monster cookie dough ahead of time, as long as you shape the balls of cookie dough right after you make the mixture. Just shape the cookie dough balls, then cover the portions and you can bake it hours later.
You can refrigerate the shaped portions for 2 to 3 days. Be sure to cover them first so they don't dry out, and allow the cookie dough to come to room temperature before baking.
FAQs
I specify “no-stir”, regular creamy peanut butter in this recipe, as I do in most recipes that I write that contain peanut butter as an ingredient. All “no-stir” means is that the oil in the jar of peanut butter doesn’t separate significantly from the rest of the nut butter in the jar.
Chunky peanut butter doesn't mix in quite as well as smooth peanut butter in this recipe, so I'd avoid using it in this recipe. Stick with the creamy smooth peanut butter, and replace some of the chips or mini M&Ms with some chopped peanuts for a nutty crunch if you'd like that.
If your butter was melted or oily because it was too warm, your cookies may spread too much and come out flat.
If you live in the U.S., most plain varieties of M&Ms chocolate candies are gluten free. I do understand that if you're in Australia, M&Ms aren't gluten free. Just use miniature chocolate chips or even raisins.
Sometimes, it works to replace oat flour with blanched almond flour, but I haven't tried that in this recipe. And, of course, you'll still need rolled oats or a substitute for oats. Instead, I'd try our recipe for almond flour chocolate chip cookies and replace half of the chocolate chips in that recipe with miniature M&Ms.
Great recipe. I used other mix-ins because I had small bits and wanted to use them up- coconut flakes, candied peel, dried cranberries and of course choc chips. Really liked that it doesn’t take any special GF flour – oatmeal and peanut butter I can find at most peoples houses so it is easy to make these where ever I happen to be.
That sounds delicious, DJ, and these are the perfect cookies to use other dry mix-ins. I agree that the fact that it doesn’t take any special flour makes these so convenient. Thank you for sharing your experience!
Delicious. I cut the sugar in half (which I do with almost everything), & used whole egg, instead of just egg yolk, to help compensate for resulting moisture loss. Will make these again. :-)
My 7 year old granddaughter and her friend have these cookies a two thumbs up! We have people with celiac disease and gluten sensitivities in our family.
Love your recipes. I’ve never had a fail!
Anita – southern vancouver Island fan
I’m so happy to hear that you loved the monster cookies, Anita! And thank you so much for the kind words about your success with my recipes. That means so much to me that you know you can rely on me. :)
I already subscribe to you ~ that is how I arrive on your site. I don’t desire to receive double emails so how will I be able to print from your site. Bettie
Hi, Bettie, I understand your concern. Unfortunately, there’s no way for me to customize that experience to explain this to you, so I hope you read this response. If you sign up through the print function, that is a service called Grow that will allow my ad network to serve you more relevant (but not more) advertisements. You won’t get any more emails since you’re already on my list, and your email address won’t be shared with anyone. If you don’t want to provide your email address, you are still of course able to view all the free content, you just won’t be able to print the recipe. Thanks for understanding.
I made them & I thought they were dry but I think I did something wrong. My husband loved them & ended up eating them all. I am going to make the again & I will see what went wrong. Oh I know I gad ran out of brown sugar. I may not creamed it enough. I Will let you know how they turn out. I love your cookbook too.
These cookies are so good I’m taking the time to leave my very first internet recipe review. My kid suggested monster cookies for holiday baking and fortunately you had a recipe (we have a celiac in the house and use your recipes extensively). Incredible! We have made so many batches in the past few weeks I have the recipe memorized – never in my life have I made one recipe so often in such a short time frame. It’s pretty much expected that there will be some ready to eat at all times. With oatmeal and peanut butter you can squint and it even turns into a breakfast food. We left the m&m’s out and didn’t increase the chocolate chips and they were just perfect sweetness for us.
Hahaha it’s breakfast food if you say it is, K.D.! I’m honored to be your first internet review. I can relate. I don’t leave them myself, even when I know I should! Thank you for sharing your experience. :)
Made these for a large family gathering. I got RAVE reviews from everyone!! Thanks so much for all the tips! Definitely a keeper!