Monster Cookies

5 from 1 vote

Recipe video above. These gnarly looking cookies are a mash up of choc chip, peanut butter and oatmeal cookies They're crispy on the edges and chewy inside, littered with bright M&M's and melty chocolate chips, and are as fun to make as they are to eat!

Feel free to use any add-ins of choice, like toffee chips, nuts, dried fruit, 1 1/2 cups in total.

Prep Time20

Cook Time15

Cooling20

Total Time55

Course: Cookies, Sweet Baking

Cuisine: Western

Keyword: monster cookies

Servings: cookies (7.5cm/3" wide, 2cm/0.8" thick)

Calories: 249cal

Author: Nagi

Ingredients

Dry ingredients:

1 cup plain flour / all-purpose flour (Note 1 for gluten-free)
1 1/2 cups rolled oats (not steel-cut, quick cook or porridge oats)
1 tsp baking soda (bi-carbonate soda), sifted if lumpy (Note 2)
1/4 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt (halve for table salt, +50% for flakes)

Wet ingredients:

125g/ 8 tbsp unsalted butter , cut into chunks (for even melting)
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter (not the runny natural, no added salt or sugar kind)
1 large egg (~50-55g/2oz in shell), fridge cold is fine
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup (tightly packed) brown sugar

Add-ins (1 1/2 cups of "anything you like):

1 cup (200g) M&Ms , plain chocolate ones, not peanut or crispy rice
1/2 cup (90g) dark chocolate chips / semi-sweet chips

For pressing on once baked (optional):

3 tbsp (35g) M&Ms
2 tbsp (20g) dark chocolate chips / semi-sweet chips

Cups - Metric

Instructions

ABBREVIATED RECIPE

Mix Dry ingredients in a bowl (with wooden spoon). Barely melt butter, finish melting by hand. Add remaining Wet, mix. Mix in Dry, adding choc chips and M&M's towards the end. Roll 18 x 3 tbsp balls (size 20 cookie scoop), bake 15 min @ 180°C/350°F (160°C fan), cool 10 min on tray then 10 min on rack before attacking!

FULL RECIPE

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F (160°C fan-forced). Line 3 trays with baking paper (parchment paper).
Dry ingredients - Put the Dry ingredients in a medium bowl and mix with a wooden spoon, just to combine.
Barely melt butter – Put the butter in a microwave proof bowl and microwave in 20 second increments on high until almost melted. Then mix with a wooden spoon to finish melting using residual heat. (Note 3)
Wet ingredients - To the butter bowl, add the rest of the Wet ingredients. Then mix vigorously with the wooden spoon until it's smooth.
Make cookie dough - Add the Dry ingredients in, then mix until most of the flour is mixed in. Then add the chocolate chips and M&M's, then mix until they are dispersed through the batter and you can no longer see flour.
Roll cookie balls - Roll* into 18 balls, 3 tablespoons each (4.5cm / 1.8" diameter). My method - portion all dough using size 20 cookie scoop, then roll. Place balls on three paper lined trays at least 7.5cm / 3" apart.
* If dough is a bit too sticky to roll, pop in fridge for 5 min, firms up quickly.
Bake 2 trays for 15 minutes, switching the tray shelves at the 8 minute mark.
Decorate (optional) - While the cookies are still hot, press chocolate chips onto the surface (the heat will melt them enough to stick) and lightly press M&M’s halfway in, they’ll set firmly in place once the cookies cool. (Note 4).
Cool for 10 minutes on the tray (to finish cooking and set) then transfer to a rack and cool for another 10 minutes before attacking, these cookies are fragile when hot. (Meanwhile, bake the third tray). Fully cool before storing in an airtight container for 5 days, in a cool pantry.

Notes

1. Gluten-free- For gluten free: Use gluten-free flour and uncontaminated/pure rolled oats (sold as “wheat free” oats in Australia). Note that under Australian food standards, oats cannot be labelled gluten free.

2. Baking soda (bi-carbonate soda) - These make the cookies rise as well as spread a bit so they don't end up like chunky rock cakes. You can substituted with 2 teaspoons of baking powder but expect them to be thicker and not spread quite as much.

3. Barely melted butter - I like using this method where you finish melting by mixing and using the residual heat, the butter is cooler and a little thicker so prevents the need to wait until the butter cools before adding other ingredients in, or chilling the dough.

4. M&M decorative topping - Push them halfway into the warm cookies, they will adhere as the cookie cools. You have to do this while the cookie is warm, when the surface is still pliable. If the cookies cool too much, just press them onto a melty choc chip instead - edible glue!

Storage - Fully cool then store in an airtight container in the pantry for up to 4 days. You can also refrigerate the cookie balls (make sure they are in a very airtight container), bake per recipe rom fridge cold, adding a couple of minutes to the bake time. The cookie balls can also be frozen, add 3 minutes to the bake time.

Nutrition per cookie.

Nutrition